It seems that how we do our school calendar is a popular topic at The Homeschool Classroom this week, with both Lorri and Kris writing on it, so I thought I would chime in with some thoughts on school calendars as well.
When I was a public school teacher, I taught at a school that had what it called a “balanced calendar.” This was because it was part of a larger corporation and they just modified their breaks based on the breaks of the rest of the corporation.
At our school, we got six weeks off for the summer, two weeks off at the end of October (for fall break), three weeks off at Christmas time, and three weeks off at Spring Break. Plus, of course, there were the occassional long weekends. I enjoyed this calendar, and so did the students. It always seemed like there was a long break on the horizon exactly when we needed it.
This is just one example of a “year round” calendar. Here is a graphic that actually compares a calendar similar to where I worked with a more traditional school calendar.
What do other year round calendars look like?
The most common examples of year round are:
- 45 days on/15 days off
- 60 days on/20 days off
- 45 days on/10 days off (This one just is able to include a larger summer break than the first 45 day option)
Obviously, these all also include the occassional long weekend.
The beauty of homeschooling, of course, is that you can go with a traditional school calendar (but you get the choice of if it starts in August or September, or some other month, for that matter!), or you can choose a balanced calendar or a year round calendar. Or, you know what? You can also choose some calendar that is unique to your family.
Do you use one of the more traditional calendars (whether balanced, traditional, or year round) listed above, or do you just do whatever works for your family? Are there calendar set ups that you have tried before and never want to do again?
Angie can be found writing at Many Little Blessings when she isn’t counting up how many days we have done and how many days we have left, since she never officially set a calendar this year.
photo by Pinkpollyanna
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Our local school district does three weeks on, one week “tracked out.” There are four different groups that the students are in, so one group is always on track out, and three are always in school. The teachers stay with the group and track out with the kids.
There are also some holidays that all groups get off at the same time, like Christmas. We haven’t tried this, so I don’t know how it would work for us!
We tend to follow the traditional school year with breaks for Christmas and Easter but with provision for modifications (say a baby arriving in Febuary :-) )
This is for two reasons. One is that where we live has quite definite seasons. Summer is too short to spend more time indoors then absolutely necessary. During winter it’s often too cold to spend large chunks of time outside.
The other reason is that we live in a neighbourhood where the children still get in groups and play outside (a number of little one block Avenues where it’s safe to play street hockey). Our children naturally want to share their holidays with their friends.
I homeschooled for 6 years and never made a calendar. Every day our plans would adjust according to what the kids learned the day before, what they needed to work on especially, etc. If something “came up” we would just pick up the next day and do extra. I did use the public school calendar to mark my kids “present” every day. They were never absent.
Like Elizabeth, we don’t have a specific calendar setup. I keep track of attendance, both for the state since it’s a requirement and for us so we know when we’ve hit 180 days!
After next week she will be done with everything she needed to finish before Christmas break. So we’re going to work on handing writing and Christmas crafts and reading so we can keep counting days for school (and so she doesn’t end up whining to watch TV all the time!)
Last year, we went straight through – only taking off time for family vacations and one day a week for field trips. It was exhausting for both my wife and my son.
This year is different. We’re working with six (four-day) weeks on, one week off. Family birthdays are officially holidays for us, as well.
Both years, we started earlier than the schools around here. August is too hot to really enjoy the time off, and trading off working then for being off in the late spring is well worth it.
Playing with other kids hasn’t been a problem, as all of his friends (including all the scouts in his group that are his age) are home-schooled, too.
We use a traditional one.