Dawn - I'm coming late to this thread, but I had a tough time with this at first too. I went to school, went to college, became a ps teacher for 7 years, and then at that point began homeschooling. So, that added up to a LOT of years of being on the ps school schedule, and I had that mentality of finishing a guide in a year, from Sept. to May. This worked fine with 1 child. But, by the time child #2 and #3 came along, I had to step back and look at each child and decide the best pacing for each of them. That meant sometimes going half-speed for awhile, sometimes going full-speed, and sometimes doing a combination of the two.
For us, the younger HOD guides were a super time to alter pacing. I kind of had to just follow my middle ds's lead, before I could map out the years to come. Now that he's finished Beyond (he'll be done in 1 day
), I can map it out so we start Bigger Hearts half-speed, have the summer break, and then finish Bigger Hearts next year doing it 4 days a week for pacing. Then, he will be on the same schedule of finishing 1 HOD guide every year, starting in late August and finishing by the end of May. This was a goal of mine - to first be flexible with the pacing with the younger HOD guides, but then by the end of Bigger Hearts, be on track to finish a guide each year, as my oldest ds has always done. I plan on being very flexible with the pacing for my youngest next, and hopefully working it out when we get to Bigger Hearts so he can be doing a guide a year from Aug.-May too.
I tell you all of this because you can use flexible pacing for awhile, and then when ready, perhaps by the older guides, go to having a more standard year. For us, it's important we take the summers off. So, we've always done that. What I do is print off the ps school calendar (mainly because it shows the whole year on one sheet of paper, and has the holidays marked). Here is this year's calendar I printed off:
I then count out the days we need to do school for my oldest to finish his guide. I cross off any known holiday time we're taking off - usually Thanksgiving, Easter, and 2 weeks off at Christmas. I figure 1 week off sometime in the month of Sept. or Oct. for our family vacation, and any other dates I know of they'll be unable to do school. We want to finish by Memorial Day in May always, so I start from that date, and count 3 weeks back from there. 1 of the weeks is for testing, and 2 of the weeks are extra days for us take throughout the year. From that spot in the calendar, I count back days until I get to the number of days needed for my oldest ds to finish his HOD guide. That date is our start date then. This has worked so well! We can take the 10 extra free days (2 school weeks worth) whenever we need to throughout the year, and we have a week already set aside for testing, as well as time set aside for holidays and a vacation. We also have the summer set aside. It gives me a logical start date and makes me stick to finishing on time too.
Sorry this got long, but what I'm trying to say in a nutshell is maybe give yourself some flexibility with pacing, especially in the younger years. For your situation now, you could have a goal to by the end of PHFHG, be on track to finish a guide a year, or something like that. Or, you may just want to finish out Bigger Hearts and have that goal already for next year, depending on what overall plan you like best. As far as the school calendar, you could mark off the days you already know for sure you want off, give yourself a number of free days you want to be able to take throughout the year, and then pick an end date and count back from there to find a good start date, counting back the number of days of your oldest child's guide. Of course, this is completely just an idea you can take or leave, but it's been super effective in our home.
HTH!
In Christ,
Julie
.I'd like to get your input. I have something that I'm trying to process just about homeschooling in general, I think. I'd just like your thoughts- I think maybe I am trying to push beyond "traditional school" ideas and learning how to be ok with it. I noticed that some of you end the "year" w/o completing a guide and then pick back up and in the middle of the year beginning a new guide. Do you only do this for the younger guides or if your child is on the younger side of the ages set for the guide? My 4th grader is doing bigger 4 days a week and I'm trying to decide whether to blaze through the summer to finish- which may wear us both out or RELAX and finish up in the fall and then begin Preparing.I struggle with this some because I am a box checker and I like the idea of beginning fresh for a new school year. So, I'm not sure what I'm asking other than maybe how you processed this - am I too stuck on what our culture says that school must look like? Any advice on how to break free? 
We currently go 4 days. 
I thought bringing all dc home at once would make everything more difficult but now I'm thinking that it just might make things a little easier-- no pick-up line (or to toddlers to wake up for that), no forgotten lunches, calls from the nurse, conferences, school plays/assemblies- you know the stuff!! 
