Jamie Martin, editor of Simple Homeschool, also blogs about motherhood at Steady Mom
Since the majority of homeschooling parents weren’t actually homeschooled ourselves, we tend to have a conventional schooling outlook–often without realizing it. Our mind thinks of education in chunks–8am to 3 pm, six week sessions, summers off.
Yet as we progress on our homeschooling journey we slowly become more comfortable with our new freedom as a family. It feels empowering to realize we set the schedule. We start to question all those “norms” and educational stereotypes we grew up with.
I’m big on freedom at home (My latest ebook attests to that fact) because I’ve seen that the more freedom we have, the more we enjoy our lives. And the more we enjoy them, the more we’re able to focus on something beyond ourselves.
Our family decided to school year-round because:
- I wanted our children to see learning as life–not something segregated to certain hours
- it gives us the ability to take off and change up our routine anytime we need to throughout the year (without worrying about meeting minimum requirements of hours/days of school.)
- it lends flexibility for traveling throughout the year–the ability to say yes to any opportunity that comes along
- it lends a helpful structure to summer days that might otherwise veer toward chaos
- it gives us plenty of free time all year-round
I don’t think year-round schooling is the only way to homeschool effectively. Each family should create their own schedule that meets the unique needs of their children. Which brings me to our question for today:
Do you homeschool year-round? Why or why not?
Further reading:
- Why we school year-round
- Creating a homeschool schedule
- Simple summer school @ The Dynamo Rhino
- Why year-round homeschooling is good for my sanity @ Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
Ideas for a homeschool mystery day
we have done different things different years. my husband is a middle school teacher at a public school so we basically keep to his schedule. however, we will still do some “work” during the summer so that we can take breaks whenever we like without too much of a problem.
My eldest is ready for schooling and I have contemplated home schooling for some time now, so these replies have are fantastic to take into consideration. Through this I have jotted down what could be pros or cons for us and we will sit down together as a family this weekend to discuss. But amazing to get so many different ideas on one page
When I started Homeschooling all those years ago, I never really thought about when I would take breaks, etc. I have always, with out even thinking about it, schooled year- round. We do take breaks, just not really planned. The only time of the year we actually have planned breaks is from Thanksgiving till New Years. I mean I still do Fun learning activity’s during that time, but nothing too demanding.
~Keri
http://homeschoolmom82.blogspot.com/
My husband is in grad school, so we try to do school when he is in school. Pretty hard to do school when he is home, even though he’s still working on papers and dissertation, etc.
This summer we are doing a small amount of school, which makes it easy to fit in before or after fun summertime activities. I do like the flexibility it gives me the rest of the year – if we take off a day here or there, no worries!
We are just doing 30 min of math, 30 min of reading a “learning book,” and then each kid reads their chapter books or picture books for a child-specific amount of time. We’re enjoying it and having plenty of time for other things.
Karen’s latest post: Reason # 465 why it’s nice to have a big sister in the family
My kids(11,8,7,5,and 3) and I kind of homeschool year round. Meaning that we use 36 week curriculum from August to May and unit studies in June and July. We started this back when my oldest was 8 because he did not do well with so much unstructured time.
My kids(11,6and 4) and I homeschool year round. We take all of December and 1st week of January for Christmas, Holy Week and the month of July off. We start new “grades” in August but learning never stops.
We are a military family stationed in Hawaii. We homeschool year round so we can break randomly when friends & family visit us. It works out great.
We take a very interest-led, unschooling approach – so yeah, all year rounders here! 🙂 Spring and summer are full of nature walks and nature study, summer reading programs, friends and get-togethers, camps, trips, vacation, family and personal projects, summer sports leagues – and of course, continuing to passionately pursue individual topics of interest.
As the seasons shift, so does the nature of our interests, activities and projects. 🙂
I’ve wanted to structure a year-round homeschool as well, but my husband is a teacher and he has summers off. I love having him home, but it REALLY changes the dynamic around the house and makes it hard to focus on schoolwork. I’m wondering if maybe you have any advice for our household doing school in the summer even if daddy’s home? It’s something I would LOVE to do, but our summer looks so different from every other part of the year…perhaps there’s a way to work around it though. Any suggestions welcome!
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We don’t yet… but I am mighty tempted… Since school was “done” at the end of May there is no way we will break until September… plus my husband works 7 days on 7 days off year round so I want to take advantage of off season travel and such… and I think schooling year round with more shorter breaks would be a good way to avoid burnout…
Sarah’s latest post: Grade 1 Portfolio 3
We’ve always homeschooled year round (kids currently aged 11, 13, 24) , and I’ve always homeschooled. Keeping to a schedule that had nothing to do with our lives (i.e. the public school calendar) doesn’t really make sense for our family. We appreciate having the freedom to simply live and learn in a more natural environment. We take time off from formal lessons when we need to for illness, retreats, holidays etc. learning is always happening! 🙂
Ellie’s latest post: june booklog
I fully intended to keep charging ahead with my curriculum this summer. Instead, I’m finding that I may continue to embrace a more “unschooling” attitude, even as fall comes! My post on this is here: http://homeschool.rebeccareid.com/2013/07/09/summer-school-and-embracing-unschooling/ Sorry my response is so late. I’ve been pondering it for weeks!
Fuck year round schooling shits Gay