It is now the middle of May, and before you know it, Memorial Day will be here. Within the next few weeks, most traditional schools will be closing their doors for summer break.
So, Readers, we were curious…
Do you officially have school year round or will you be taking a summer vacation as well?
As for my house, this is the end of our first year of homeschooling, and we are anxiously awaiting finishing up our last seven days of school to have a break to regroup and reorganize. We do plan to keep working on some of the subjects (like math, reading, and probably grammar) over the summer, and, of course, all the learning we do by just the nature of living. But, our formal schooling will be taking a break.
I can’t wait to hear what others have planned. (Also, if you could share if your state has rules about tracking days/hours, I think it would be interesting to hear if you continue to track it during the summer, if you plan to do schooling.)
photo by oh that rachel!
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We’re taking the summer off. I’m just finished my first year of homeschooling, too. My son just finished up Kindergarten last week. We’re so busy in the summer with taking our youth group on missions trips and camp that we need the summer off.
We’ve always taken a summer break, but this year Padawan Learner requested that we a bit through summer as well.
We are chomping at the bit for summer break! Today is our last Friday…only three more days after today!
We have schooled year ’round before, but I’ve come to discover that we ALL need the break.
We’re going to take a break, though we haven’t decided how long yet. I think we’ll probably just start up around whenever dd2 starts back to preK. Bailey will still be doing lots of independent reading during the summer, and we’ll keep up with math flashcards to get her basic facts down (she still has to count on her fingers a lot for simple things).
Here in Alaska we are not required to track our days. Alaska is one of the states that has almost no oversight of homeschooling families. We are planning on taking a break this summer but learning happens all the time. We plan on “studying” camping, hiking, animals, oceans, boating, subsistance fishing and berry picking.
We school year round! Summer is our focus months for a few areas instead of the whole enchilada. So for my going into 3rd grader her summer focus is math and writing. For my turning 5yo boy the focus is writing lowercase letters and his name. For my turning 4yo girl the focus is also writing lowercase letters and name. For my 18 month old and almost 3 month old boys the focus is sign language. All the bigger kids get in on the sign language of course, as do mommy and daddy!
Everyone works in the garden together and reads and memorizes scripture together.
Beyond that we just do whatever academically calls to us on a particular day. My son loves math and legos, so those will happen a lot. My younger daughter loves pretend and drawing. My oldest daughter wants to learn to sew and do an art show.
One reason I love homeschooling year round is we can take breaks when I need it. And I usually need it due to morning sickness in pregnancy or birth of a baby in the school year(the last 5 years running I’ve had 5 pregnancies and 4 babies, plus another baby and miscarriage in the three years before that! 7 pregnancies in 8 years…)
Here in Mississippi, we do not have to track our days.
My first 4 years of homeschooling, we did school year round taking breaks throughout the year. But the last 5 years we have taken the summer completely off. I need that time to regroup, plan and organize things for the next school year, and focus on some things that we never seem to have time for during the school year.
I just blogged about our last day of school this year.
http://joyfuljohnsons.blogspot.com/2009/05/let-summer-games-begin.html
Happy Summer!
WE SCHOOL YEAR ROUND. ALWAYS HAVE….PROBABLY ALWAYS WILL. SO MUCH FLEXIBILITY! IT’S WONDERFUL!
Year round here.
We just started up today again after having a four week break.
The best part of homeschooling though is, if something comes up, you can put the books away. So while we do actually school core subjects through summer, if the phone rings and friends want to play we put it aside for another day!
According to our homeschool association our homeschool year is from August to the end of May.
According to my records, we homeschool year round taking breaks here and there for things that come up. A week when my Grandpa died. The week before the gymnastics competition. A day because mom is tired. A day to watch a movie and eat popcorn.
Of course during those breaks the learning never stops. I love homeschooling!
We are done with our official 180 days of 1st grade but we will take a relaxed pace through the second half of our math book over the summer. We took the whole summer off last year but lost a lot of math momentum.
We have finished our “180 days” but will slowly go through the second half of our math book over the summer.
We take a a couple weeks off in September after PS goes back and the whole month of December… it evens out.
We moved from MS last summer where we had to school a minimum number of days to AR where we have no day requirements. We do school year-round, keep track of how many schedule off days we will be taking and how many “free” days we can take. We’ve taken extended breaks several times, and it’s driven the kids nuts! They have begged to get back to school! I’d even planned two weeks off over Christmas, and we only made it one week!
We will take it a little easier to give me a chance to reorganize and figure some things out…but we plan to school over the summer. There will be learning happening…but lots and lots of play and fun activities, too!!
We did the charter school last year and through the summer and we all felt like we lost out on our summer. This year my son is anxious about what we are doing. I know we all need the break so I think we will be participating in the various book club programs, library activities, some math and science refreshers and finally nail down our states and call it a fun summer the rest of the time! :)
We school three weeks on, one week off for most of the year. This gives me (and them) short breaks throughout the year. We will “officially finish” the school year at the beginning of August this year and will take off 3 or 4 weeks to regroup (and plan) before starting the next grade.
I also do 3 weeks on 1 week off year round. Our weeks are 4 days of instruction and 1 day of exploration (scouts or an outing). This works out to about 180 days a year which our state’s recommendation. As for when they officially change grades, it will be as soon as this year’s math is done–30 lessons and counting:)
I am planning to start homeschooling my oldest son very soon (he is 4 1/2). I was a public school teacher prior to staying home, and I always hated having the SUMMER off…we live in Houston!!! It is hot here!! It is hot from May all the way until October. One of the things I look forward to is schooling right through the summer, and taking the cooler months (March, April, November) off. For us, it is a temperature thing. I always felt bad for the kiddos playing outside in the 100 degree temps during their time off and having to sit in the classroom during the pleasant months.
Bethany
I am so glad I found this blog!
We have homeschooled for – I cant believe it! – 5 years now. We have always schooled year round mainly because my son had to repeat a grade in math so we had to catch up. We found it gives us much more flexibility. We can focus on some subjects more at different times of the year without feeling like we will miss something else. Its helped with the math and we dont have to do so much review at the beginning of curriculum because we just run it right into the next – more continuity and in his learning. He is starting high school now – yikes! – and we plan to do it the year round as well.
We do take summer off, but we go by the Japanese school year, which is shorter than in the US. We will take off from the last week of July to the last week of August. The kids do have special Japanese lessons with Dad over the vacation, and we will continue our nature studies and reading as well. It works for us!
This year was our first year of homeschooling. We’ve decided to have a Summer break. However, learning is always happening!
I’m in MO and there are no rules for homeschooling until the child is 7, so I have 2 years left to do as I please :)