summer break vs. continuing to school....

[Lynnw]

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences. I do think location/weather has lot to do with when to take breaks! I talked with dh and think I know what we're doing now. We'll keep on plugging through May to finish this school year (counting our "field trip" to the beach at the end!) Then my older two ds will just do the things I most need them to keep working on (i.e. my oldest one - math and a summer reading list and my 2nd ds - phonics and reading - hopefully it will take off soon ). Then we both agreed that I should use my new "spare" time focusing on my dd. I bought LHFHG for her unsure whether to start now or in the fall. I think she could use some special attention from me now rather than continuing to "tread water" and ask for school and get partial attention from me. In addition, dh will do some fun stuff with all three - like help them get ideas ready for presentations in the fall (for Classical Conversations).

Thanks again for all your responses and prayers.

Julie - I love the idea of attacking the house. I have to confess that I'm in the process of going through all baby and children clothing - poor dh - our room is a mess! At some point everyone will have what they need in the right drawers and everything else will be neatly put away in correctly labled boxes

[spidermansmum]

We also have grown to love the idea of having a definite start and finish to our homeschool year. We have an end of the year party, and then we have a beginning of the year kickoff where I wrap the books and new supplies I've bought for the school year and hide them around the house.
Julie

Thanks for these wise words.
I have decided that this will probably work for us.Having a very visual and definate end and start .So we are going to have a big party.Pull out the decorations,hang out the ballons and end the wonderful year on a high note.We will have a party at the start of school too,maybe not so rowdy,but a defiante start date.I will probably start a little earlier ,just to get a few 'boxes' back into our routine so we can build up to full speed.Im really excited now

[my3sons]

Lynnw - I hope you have been able to unearth yourself from the baby clothes! It is such a good feeling to get through things and clean house - I'm not talking dusting, I'm talking getting rid of whatever is not being used. I love to "attack the house" in summer, and then I also love to hibernate and let the house be quite dormant the rest of the year. It's nice to know I'm not the only one with these tendencies!

Sam - I'm so glad that idea works for you and your ds! We've done the end of the year party (very low key) for several years now, and it's been a big hit. This year was the first year I wrapped up the new HOD books and school supplies and hid them around the house. They were just asking yesterday if I plan on doing this at the start of next school year, and were off the charts excited when I said "yes"! I've come to think of our HOD homeschool curriculum (and even any new paper, art supplies, pencils, etc.) as wonderful gifts for our dc, and now they are starting to see them that way too. I hope it works well for you!

In Christ ,
Julie

[Benelli]

I am finding this thread interesting, and a little frustrating too! I would really like to feel "free" from the public school calendar, and take all of May and June off, and part f July. Then, start back in late July through August when it's unbearably hot and humid here in Northern VA. But, we live in a neighborhood full of kids. And when school is out, my doorbell is ringing all day/evening long! Don't get me wrong, I consider it a blessing to have other kids over here so I can get to know my kids' friends, etc. But, when we are schooling and the PS kids are out, my kids seem to think I'm torturing them by finishing up school! I know this by seeing their sadness at 3:00 in the afternoon when the PS kids all bombard our house . I'm imagining having my gang start in summer will be a thought that's awful to them, especially my oldest dd, who would like to go back to PS anyway.

Homeschooling is going beautifully for us with HOD, and the kids like it (even the one who wants to go back to PS). But how can I get the kids to realize what all we get to DO and the extra days we get to take off when their friends are in school all day? This school year alone, we've participated in a "one room schoolhouse" where they kids dressed up and had actual historical parts of children from this particular school house, Williamsburg/Jamestown, 3-4 children's plays/musicals, Audobon society field trips, panning for gold, Bureau of Printing and Engraving, C&O Canal boat ride/discussion of life as a child of a "canal family", Maple syrup making, the White House (East AND West wing), Gunston Hall (George Mason's home place), dog sledding, skiing, Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum, Manassas Battlefield... Wow, a lot of stuff!! That doesn't include all the impromptu play dates, times at the park and playground, etc.

Anyone else out there live in a neighborhood and have this problem?

[holyhart]

I've come to think of our HOD homeschool curriculum (and even any new paper, art supplies, pencils, etc.) as wonderful gifts for our dc, and now they are starting to see them that way too. I hope it works well for you!

I still think it is amazing how excited my kids get about receiving new pencils!!! And if I happen to bring out new erasers....well that just makes their day!

We schooled through summer last year (our first year) because I wasn't sure how much time I would need "off" after the baby came. I'm glad I did or we would be WAY behind now. We are still a bit further behind where I would like to have been at this point, but not too bad. I think we will still school through summer, just on a more laid back scale. And pehaps we won't cover everything, we will keep plugging away at phonics however.

[CortezClan]

I am SO new here and SO new to homeschooling, haven't "officially" started though I KNOW I've been teaching my babies from day 1 out of the womb! but I wanted to jump in and share what our plan is.

We are very blessed in MN that we don't have to have required amount of school days, just checks to see that she is learning so I feel free to set my schedule to fit our family. We have a very unique schedule in that my husband is a fireman and works 24 hours at the fire house and then has A LOT of free time during the day different than most other working dads. For example his schedule is: work: Saturday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, then off for 6 days straight. Work: Friday, Sunday, Tues, Thurs, off for 4 days straight then back on to another "segment" of 4 every other days then 6 days off and repeating the schedule until the end of time! It’s actually really nice because we know his schedule until Dec 2010 so we can plan and plan, which makes mama oh so happy!!!

But now that you are COMPLETELY confused I felt really led to set it up that we would do school while he is at work, and be off when he is off. My daughter is SO excited actually and keeps on saying "Daddy when you work, we work. And when you’re off, we are off!" She really can't wait and for her this will be a GREAT motivation to get her to do school. Of course she loves her daddy, like EVERY little girl , and with our crazy schedule that we've been running for 5 years all of us need some daddy time!

I plan on doing daily devotions everyday and we are blessed that he is fluent in Spanish so he will give Spanish lessons when he has time, especially on his 6 or 4 day breaks. And of course I'm expecting school to be so much fun for her she will want to show daddy and bring him in on our lessons but we won't have "formal" school days when he is off. I was SO blessed when I counted the days and realized this would work so well for us, with plenty of time off in the spring, part of the summer and fall (the ONLY truly nice times to be outside in MN ) to go camping and feel free to be free!! Our desire to home school is to bring schooling into our daily lives, integrate it so it doesn't feel like learning as much as living life and being a family.

SO I guess after all this we will be schooling year-round, just took awhile on the bunny-trails but we are excited to have our own schedule to have optimum family time

Thanks for taking the time to read! Have a blessed weekend and enjoy MAY!!!
Heather

P.S. I should also mention with his schedule we had to find a church that had both Saturday and Sunday services because as you can see he often works on Sundays, and works almost EVERY weekend which is why I have to be a stay-at-home mommy, for all of our sanity!!!

[Lynnw]

Hi Heather,
Thanks for sharing your situation. That sounds like a great schedule and what a sweet attitude you have about dh's schedule - it has obviously rubbed off on your dd! I understand about strange schedules, my dh is in law enforcement. He is a detective now - which is really nice except for when he gets called out on a call. Back when he was a patrolman, he either worked nights or at one time he changed shifts every month - that made a regular routine kind of a challenge .

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for sharing a great example of doing what works best within your family!

Lynn

[my3sons]

Heather and Lynn - You ladies have figured out how to make the most of one of the benefits of homeschooling - doing what fits your family best! Sometimes it takes awhile to think outside the box. For example, I remember running errands on Saturday when I first quit my job to stay home and homeschool. It wasn't until I'd been home several months before it occurred to me I could run errands during the weekdays, during the day, when no one else was running them. Having only 1 child at the time who was at the preschool age, this worked perfectly for a season. Anyway, whatever we can do to make our homeschooling schedule work for us and still get school done - that is what we should do! For each family that looks different, and that's the beauty of schooling on our own time. I'm so glad you've made your schedule work well for your families.

In Christ,
Julie

[momofone]

Kathleen,
That is too funny!
We have a farm also. I have to cart my husband around among hay patches! So, I know exactly where you're coming from.
We usually take a short break for summer. Usually we stop in June and resume back around July. We're in Mississippi, so it's really hot in July and we might as well be schooling some. However, when we start back it's usually not full speed.
I'm undecided about this year. We will take June, but still have a little math fact practice during those weeks so we don't forget.

Tina
Jacob-8 starting BLHFHG

[MamaBear23Cubs]

We go year round with breaks here and there due to family visits (out of state) and moving (military also).

[Mommamo]

What we do is do school year round, taking more breaks when the weather is nice-fall and spring especially, and working through the summer when it is hot and I hate being outside. I can understand the need for a definite beginning and ending to the school year. That makes perfect sense. We're finding though that with our family and our kids' personalities that it makes sense to us to just count all time as school time, if that makes sense. We're just always learning, and I really don't want the kids to ever think that one time of the year is for learning, and other times aren't. Not that they might think that if we had a definite start an end, but I hope you know what I'm saying. Anyway, it just works for us to do it this way. When they're older, and understand better what the "big school" kids do, then we might do things differently. But we have never really addressed the subject of a summer break, and I like it this way.