Everything You Need To Know About Year Round Homeschooling

Our journey into year round homeschooling started out as very traditional. I got little desks, we used texts, and we went from the public school’s first day through the end of the public school’s year.

This is what I was hard wired to do. Beginning our second year, it began feeling more like the time schedule and this rigidness was controlling us. Rather than enjoy our journey of homeschooling, each day became a day that had to be checked off. As a flight by the seat of my pants girl, this was excruciating.

I started being more flexible by taking December off for Christmas. It made sense since we had 3 birthdays in addition to Christmas. By taking off formal academics, everyone could breathe.

WOW! We were much more relaxed. We accomplished many more service projects that month. It was a joy with many fun memories. I discovered also that the kids continued to learn during the break.

The books never went away. The drawing, coloring, making Christmas cards all kept happening. Music filled the air as well as laughter. Play is learning became my mantra.

The second foray into year round homeschooling came again at the end of the year and we were in the middle of a unit. Why stop? We didn’t. Plus it was too hot to do anything outside.

Now we’ve been homeschooling year round for several years. We take large breaks off for holidays, and lots and lots of field trips where no academics happen that day. If we get interested in a concept, we can keep going without fear of getting “behind”.

Our learning never suffers the “summer drain”. Slow and steady is our motto. A couple of our children have slow processing problems. They need all the extra time they can get to comprehend and remember their learning. This style of all year round schooling helps them tremendously!

Myths about Year Round Homeschooling

1. Year round homeschooling sucks the FUN out of childhood. I guess that would be right IF I was sending my child away everyday to a big brick building and making them stay inside all day. Since we homeschool all year round we homeschool in the evening after Dad leaves for work! Plenty of time to play, explore on their own, and have quality time with both parents.

2. My state’s homeschool laws won’t allow me to do this. Read the law carefully. Many laws require you to keep attendance records. Keep the records starting from the official beginning of the school year to the official end, here July 31st is the end, August 1st is the beginning. As long as your set number of days of attendance fall between those days you are fine.

3. I need a break to plan and keep ahead of the kids. I agree. I have one week breaks every 6-8 weeks depending on the material we are working on. I have a large goal and idea of where we are heading for the year. For us planning the whole year our is impractical. Planning our 6-8 weeks seems to be just perfect.

How we accomplish year round homeschooling

I print off an all year calendar. I look at the material like Mystery of History that we are using for the year. MOH has their units broken into 9 weeks increments. That is a bit long for us so I go 6 weeks. This enables everyone to get back into the swing before the end of the unit test. Do this with all subjects.

JULY : We work all month.

AUGUST : Work the first two weeks. Break 1 week then start again. Our schedule also changes to Field Trip Fridays since all the public school kids are back in school and the fun places are empty again.

SEPTEMBER : Work all month with Field Trip Fridays.

OCTOBER 2010: Work 2 weeks then off 2 weeks for Halloween.

NOVEMBER : Work a modified schedule 2 weeks then off from Thanksgiving to New Years. We use these 2 weeks to catch up on projects like art, music, or science experiments.

DECEMBER: Off all month with only fun holiday activities planned. I still keep our portfolio updated with the holiday books, skills, movies.

JANUARY Work all month and return to Field Trip Fridays.

FEBRUARY : Work all month.  This is because we go on lots and lots of field trips since the weather is usually so beautiful. It works out to be approximately 2 weeks of actual lessons.

MARCH : Take the first week off then a week off for Easter either this month or April.

APRIL: Working all month unless we take week off for Easter.

MAY: Lots and lots of field trips the first two weeks before the public school kids get out and clog up all the fun places. Then back to work except for Memorial Day. Also, Field Trip Fridays turn into Pool Day Fridays.

JUNE: We do Camp Cupcake where all the nieces and nephews, age 10 and over, join us for the month to learn life skills, art, music, do read a louds, and just have fun. I use this month to get their portfolios in order.

We start lessons after Dad leaves in the late afternoon all year round off. I use the mornings/early afternoons to sleep in, (we don’t go to bed until midnight), work the kids need to accomplish on their own (such as rewriting a sloppy paper) or didn’t finish (this occurs with Dad), chores, and our big family meal with Dad before he goes to work.

Staying flexible allows us to handle dr. appointments which can really throw off a schedule, therapy appointments, and any kind of ickiness that descends upon us. Since I write my homeschooling plans on a 6-8 week structure, I can take full advantage of weather changes, unexpected field trips, and current events.

Find your own groove. Think about what matches your family learning personality; strong structure, light structure with lots of flexibility or total flex. If you are strong structure, you may be led by units, tests, and learning materials. If you are total flex, you are most likely already schooling year round! I am in between.

Have you ever thought about year round homeschooling?