Do you go year-round or when do you start your year?

[amylynn_101]

We're brand new to homeschooling, and I'm noticing that homeschoolers have a variety of schedules. I know many people follow the public school schedule, but I'm wondering if some people would be interested in sharing when you start your academic year, or if you go year-round, and why?

I'm trying to decide on a start date, and I'm sure there might be some pros and cons that I hadn't thought of for various start dates. We're planning to do LHFHG, Beyond and Bigger spread over at least four years, and we're wondering if that would also factor into our start date decision.

Thanks,
Amanda

[Kteni]

We usually start mid August. I like to have some warm weather school for nature study etc. I also like taking off most of December so this early star helps. Out year consists of 3 terms of 12 weeks each. I plan for 1 week off in between each term for a refreshing break and so I can get their portfolios for the school we are hooked up with done. We do 3 portfolios a year for them. So, with holidays, sick days, mama's pro d days, field trips, home schoolers get togethers etc.... we end in the end of May or beginning of June.

[Glad2Bsaved]

We start our year the beginning of June and finish the middle or end of March. This schedule works for us although it can conflict with summer things like Vacation Bible School. I prefer this because I love spring. It would be too hard to stay inside. The summer in NC can be very humid and hot. The summer has more daylight hours and thus we can be out in the evenings or spread our school out over the day. The flexibility is a wonderful thing about homeschooling. Another benefit for us is we don't have to start everything "new" in September: new classes at church, AWANA, etc. We are already established in a new school year routine when other events begin. For us, it's easier to add a couple of things to our day than to start everything at once. We take a lot of time off for Christmas, usually from Thanksgiving through December. We don't follow our public school schedule at all. Also, financially, it's cheaper to vacation in the spring than the summer, and my husband doesn't have to compete for time off in the spring.

Call us strange, but then again, we DO homeschool

[younglove03]

I am interested in replies to this as well. We will be doing LHFHG also, and are considering either a year round schedule, or a different start date. Our reason is, my husband is a public school teacher, but he also wants to be involved in our kids homeschooling (especially as they get older - he will be in charge of math ). So we are thinking that we can do some sort of schedule where we will school through the summer. I'm not sure what we will end up doing. Just toying with different ideas as well.

[TrueGRIT]

We start our official year mid-July. Our actual time of school work varies from year to year. We like to work when it is very hot or cold, and take time off when the weather is nice. I like to have an official fall break, Thanksgiving break, Christmas break, winter break, spring break and a short summer break. My children do better if they don't have more than 3 weeks off at a time. We do have a lighter schedule over May - Labor Day. Then we hit school harder from Labor Day to late April. This year due to winter hanging on (it's snowing here today) we have yet to take a real spring break.
Every family is different, and we only have 1 hsing friend that also does year round. The rest start in August or September and finish in sometime in May.

[joyfulhomeschooler]

We're doing year round. We start in September then take December, April, and August off. Starting up our new curriculum/year in September again. This has worked very well for us because I have found that after three months of school we are all ready for a break. Plus it seems to be better than having three months in a row off because the information doesn't leave our brains for as long.

[amylynn_101]

Thank you for the replies. They have been helpful.

So has anyone had problems taking a summer break (say 2-3 months) while in the middle of a guide?

[TrueGRIT]

Thank you for the replies. They have been helpful.

So has anyone had problems taking a summer break (say 2-3 months) while in the middle of a guide?

We did that one year, and it only took my son about a week to get back in the swing of things. He actually remembered a good bit of what he had learned. We only took a two month break though - and he has a great memory!

I believe that Julie (my3sons) mentioned doing this. I can't remember what thread. Hth.

[StillJulie]

We like a late August through late May schedule here.

[blessedmama]

We start third week of August and end the second/third week of May. It is cold in MN so we like to take advantage of our summers

[homefire]

My oldest is only in 2nd grade so we are still seeing what works best for us. Something else to consider is how do YOU work? I have found that I do not do well with long breaks so this past year we have smelted into a 4 weeks on 1 week off. We take a long vacation in the fall, some extra time around the holidays and when the weather is nice we might only do 3 days of our curriculum and the other days filled with hiking, gardening, ect. Many of these days I will count as "school"days and it all works out in the end.

[MomtoJGJE]

We started in July of 2007 I believe. We'll end in about 18 years unless we have another baby.

I'm halfway kidding...

We school year round. Our official calendar starts July 1 and goes through June 30, but that has no bearing on where we are in guides.

We just got home from a week long trip that I considered our "spring break". Jayden had a few things to do over the trip because she was supposed to have finished Preparing before we left. It was just a few pages of reading. She'll begin CTC/DITHOR next week. Grace is in unit 7 I believe of Bigger... she finished her unit so had the entire week off She'll return to Bigger and start DITHOR with Jayden next week. Julianna is in unit 23? or so of LHFHG. Evie is in unit 12 of LHTH and will start 3 days a week next week. I just use the attendance record calendar that the state provides so that's why I count our year from July to June. Each child advances a grade at that point, but I've also placed a grade equivalent on the guides in my mind. So that means like Jayden is in 4th grade until July 1, but she'll begin 5th grade work (CTC) next week. Grace is 2nd grade until July 1, but has been doing 3rd grade for a while. Julianna won't be 1st grade until July 1, but has been doing 1st grade work since January.

I'm also starting a new type of schedule for my older two. We will be alternating DITHOR (along with math, English, AWANA and dictation) and their guides. Three weeks with DITHOR and however many weeks of their guide that seems to work well. I"m thinking either 4 or 6 weeks. We have a hard time using so much of the day that DITHOR adds to Jayden's school, and Grace will have a hard time with that much more too, even though it's only about 30-45 minutes. So this way we will actually get DITHOR done and it won't fall by the wayside. It'll also help me be able to concentrate better on Julianna who becomes compulsory this year and Evie who really really wants to do school like her sisters.

We also find this "schedule" very easy because we don't have to feel like we HAVE to get work in. We easily get our required days and can take trips whenever we want to.

[Gwenny]

[quote="MomtoJGJE"]We started in July of 2007 I believe. We'll end in about 18 years unless we have another baby.

I'm halfway kidding... /quote]

I just saw this post. Cracks me up. I can relate to this. I have been home schooling now for about 21 years and I have a daughter who just turned 3 in Nov. I still have a lot of years to go. We try to school year round also, because I like to take time off at random times, usually during normal school weeks so we don't have crowds if we vacation somewhere.

[MelInKansas]

I do almost exactly like TrueGRIT. I do "school year round" but I take breaks like this year we took the month of June off and weeks off here and there for Thanksgiving, a couple of weeks at Christmas, a week off in the Fall when things get really busy, etc. I love this schedule for so many reasons. First of all, it is so easy to get school done when there are not a lot of other weekly activities going on. August and January are our best months of schooling usually because there aren't a lot of other things scheduled (VBS tends to be in July, we do swimming lessons in June, etc). I feel like we just have so much more focus on the school work. Then the year-round schedule gives me the freedom to feel I can take days off when I need them for other things. Depending on when they are scheduled, doctor's/dentist's appointments can really mess up a day and if I feel too much pressure from that we take the day off. Sometimes in the winter when everyone's stir crazy it will be P.E. or Field Trip day rather than HOD day. P.E. being go to the bounce house place or something. As someone else mentioned, those first nice days of Spring are like a treasure that begs us to go out and take advantage of it (as well as the wonderful days of Fall). If we were really into gardening it would be great to take a week or two in the Spring for that - we have a tiny garden and I can get the work done in the afternoons. I feel like we still keep a good pace with HOD and I have the freedom to do things like that. My friends who do September-May or August-May have to keep their noses to the grindstone and not have as many free days or days of other things as I do.

One thing to learn and enjoy about homeschooling is the freedom to do what works best for you and your family. To school at the time of day that makes sense for you and the time of year. My state has pretty loose requirements of homeschoolers and we do not have to turn in any records, though if I ever needed proof of what my children have done, my guides and their notebooks that they put their work in would be ample I would guess. So obviously you have the freedom to do what you like within the confines of what your state requires.

[Nealewill]

I always love looking at old posts

We school year round but we do HOD between August and June. We do take off about 8 weeks through out our year. I don't mind going later than June if need be to finish up but I don't like feeling like we have to accomplish something over the summer. That way if anything comes up, then we aren't tied to school. For us, because my kids NEED a schedule, I will usually schedule some school over the summer for them to do but it isn't HOD stuff. I make my kids read for 1.5 hours per day. They do some type of math review - it could be games, it could be a worksheet, but it is something and usually only 10-15 minutes or so long. And then we will go through and do something as a family just to learn about something we want to learn about. And finally, I do have a read aloud that read every day to them. My kids LOVE when I read to them out loud so we make sure to include that in our day For us, this seems like a great fit. My kids have a "schedule," which they need desperately. And we get to have fun as a family learning about something fun together. My kids love it.