How We Homeschool Year-Round
When we started our homeschooling journey 4 years ago, one of the hardest hurdles for me to get over was the typical school schedule mindset. Having grown in the public school setting my whole life, I had a hard time breaking the mold of school being a set amount of weeks, days, and hours. The beauty and one of my favorite things about home education, is the freedom. Freedom not only for me to teach and my children to learn in the way that best suits them, but also the freedom we have with our time and schedule. Once I was able to break free from the conditioning of public school, I found a rhythm that best works for our family, and that is homeschooling year round.
Why We Homeschool Year-Round
First, if you are new to home education, one thing you have to remember is it takes less time to teach and do things with 2 kids vs a classroom of 20+. Therefore, our school day (at this age) is considerably less than the typical public school hours. Secondly, when we have a year-round schedule like I am about to lay out for you, the nice thing is, we don’t have to do all the subjects everyday. This makes it less overwhelming and less pressure for both mom and kids. I found with my oldest (my youngest at this time is still an infant), he thrives on a good balance of structure and freedom. If you give him too much structure where every minute is planned out, he will revolt (any Enneagram 8’s who can relate when they feel forced to do things?). But if there is little to know structure, it makes him anxious that there’s no plan and he doesn’t know what is coming next. So for our family, I found this year round structure works best with built in breaks that all of us need.
How We Homeschool Year-Round
Homeschooling can look a thousand different ways (again, yay freedom to do what’s best for your family!). I remember in the beginning of my home education journey, I was literally just trying to recreate a preschool setting, and it does not work. The point is not to take a public school structure and drop it into your home. Likewise, another mistake I made in the beginning was trying to model what other homeschooling moms were doing. As I cursed under my breath doing an apple craft because I am not that kind of crafty mom, a wise and seasoned homeschooling mom of 5 gently reminded me to get off pinterest, and be who God gifted me to be. He gave me the children I am raising, therefore He has equipped me specifically to raise, teach, and disciple them well. Once I took her advice, started using my gifts and embracing my son for his uniqueness, I started to find our rhythm. I say all of this because if you are new to or considering home education, I don’t want you to read this schedule and think: Got it, that’s what I need to do. Homeschooling year-round may work great for you! I know other families who do it, and do it differently than what I’m about to show you here. I also know families who follow a more typical school year schedule, because that’s what works for them. To give you an example, this is how we homeschool year-round.
Late July-Late September: Start our more formal schooling and main subjects. Right now as my oldest is beginning 3rd grade, those main subjects are daily reading, language arts, and math. We start in the second to last week of July, as we gradually like to ease our way back in to our longer structured school time. About mid-August, we begin Classical Conversations, a curriculum we follow that also has a weekly community day. When our CC cycle starts, our daily work includes the memory work for CC with new grammar (science, math, english, timeline, history and latin). All in all, we work hard for 10 weeks total, then we take 1 week off for fall break.
October-Mid-November: After our fall break, we jump back in to the above practices for another 6 weeks. As our CC curriculum and community day are only 24 weeks, we start as early as we do in July with our other subjects so that by the time our first 12 weeks of CC come to a close, we are halfway through all of our curriculum. At this point, we are entering the holiday season, and this is a time our family truly loves to soak up, enjoy, and use as a season of rest and rejuvenation vs. hustle and bustle. We typically take a vacation the week before Thanksgiving, then when we return we slow down, enjoy family time, do fun traditions, and steep in Advent, our favorite time of year. After 16 weeks of schooling with a 1 week break, at this point, we take 6 weeks off.
January-End of February: After a nice long break, we jump back in right after we ring in the new year. We start back with our main subjects the first 2 weeks of January, then CC starts again and we add that in. Similar to how we start our year, after a break, it’s good to ease in to the more structured times. January -April is also our family’s busiest time of the year because our oldest is a competitive gymnast, and this is the thick of competition season (yes, don’t forget homeschooling families are not hermits, we do activities too). We work hard for 7 weeks, then take 1 week off for spring break.
March-Early April: These weeks are by far the hardest. We are in our last 6 weeks of school, and in the last few weeks of competition season. Our weeks are full and weekends are almost always filled with traveling to meets, so we are tired, but nearing the finish line. Depending on where Good Friday falls, we finish both our main subjects and CC by the first or second week of April. Competition season is usually ending right around that time, so it is great to finish all at the same time, and take a big exhale. We work hard for another 7 weeks, then we are DONE with our main subjects and CC! For some perspective, that’s 38 weeks total. 30 of those weeks we are homeschooling, 8 weeks worth of breaks worked in to that time (6 of which are during the holidays).
Mid-April-Late May: After an incredibly busy season, we need some R&R. We usually try to go on another vacation during this time, and just rest. This the month I plan as little as possible and give a lot more freedom, because as both mom and teacher, I need this break! We just enjoy family time and do as little as possible. And after about a month, we all see and feel the need for some structure again. You could say since we incorporate some schooling in the summer, this is another 4 weeks off.
Late May-Early July: While we don’t work on our main subjects during this time, I’m telling you my oldest is begging for something to do, while it not feeling too much like our main subject schooling. I like to use this opportunity to ask him what he wants to learn about, give him some resources, but use this time to cultivate learning independently. It changes year to year, but this year what he wanted to learn most was Japanese and typing. Reading is a non-negotiable skill that must be continued, so reading aloud 30 minutes each day was part of the structure, as well as handwriting practice. (started cursive this year). Other than that, he would open up and do his Hiragana worksheets and daily typing lessons, and I was simply there to help if he needed it and praise him when he excitedly showed me his progress. I like to consider this 5-6 weeks of electives, things he wants to learn and pursue or needs to work on, but are not the top priority during the weeks we work on main subjects.
So there you have it, how we homeschool year-round! I hope this was helpful to give you a framework or idea if it is something you are considering. As he gets older and more subjects are added, plus when my infant gets to school age, I know all of this is going to change and look different. Part of home education is being willing to be flexible, and with scheduling it can trial and error until you find what works. For now, this works beautifully for our family!
If you are a homeschooling family, I’d love to hear just out of curiosity what your school year looks like!