This is a post from Jacqueline Forrer of My Blessings Homeschool
It’s June already! Are you done with your school year or still wrapping up? Do you feel burnt out and dread the idea of starting another year? This is the way I felt a few years ago. We struggled through May and into June to attempt to wrap up our school work. I felt burnt out, my daughter didn’t want to do anymore work and it just wasn’t a fun, happy end to our school year. After two years of doing things this way I began to think about and look into the benefits of year round schooling.
I had heard of people schooling year round and wondered how it worked. I found quite quickly that there are a LOT of different ways to set up a year round schedule for your homeschool. A friend of mine does school three days a week with a week or two off here and there. Some school for three months and take one off. We do three weeks of school, one off and June and December off. Sarah Avila shares how she schools year round and why here. These are just a few of the ways it’s done but now to the point of this post.
Benefits of Year Round Schooling
1. No More Burnt Out Mom
As I mentioned above, by the end of nine months many, homeschool moms end up feeling very burnt out. Spreading the school year out resolves this problem because mom and kiddos both get more frequent breaks from the school routine.
2. No More Summer Learning Loss
Studies have shown, and I’m sure you’ve seen it in your own children, that when three months are spent off of school at one time, kids forget a LOT of stuff. I’ve heard it said that teachers spend the first three months reteaching skills taught from the previous year. Even if you have your children reading and doing occasional practice worksheets they are going to forget things you’d taught them. It’s frustrating for both kids and mom alike.
3. Increased Flexibility
When your school year is spread out more you have a lot more freedom to maneuver around things that crop up on you. If you need a day or two off
due to illnesses or if a special field trip comes up, you can move days around to suit your schedule. When you have more flexibility it makes you more relaxed because you aren’t worrying about missing a day for whatever reason.
Distance scale from Sun to Eath
4. More Opportunities for Variety
If you are schooling in the summer there are things you can do that you can’t do during cooler months (at least here in Ohio anyway!). You can learn about plants and let the kids plant a garden. You can take tehm outside to learn about the size of the sun or follow a map of the yard or whatever may tickle your fancy at the moment. Kids love getting outside for whatever reason and you can even take your school work outside when it’s warmer!
What year round schooling means is that you won’t feel drained each May; you have more flexibility for your schedule and your kiddos won’t forget near as much as they do with the entire summer off. It doesn’t mean that kids don’t get a summer. We still have plenty of fun days, activities, sleep overs, catching fireflies and playing outside. If something comes up and they want to spend the night at a friends, we do that! One day we may decide to take a trip to the zoo or a child wants to go to a camp, we can do that too! That’s the beauty and benefit of year round schooling!
My parent’s homeschooled us year round. We got 6 weeks off but we still had to read at least one book a week, plus we spent a lot of time at the library. Our breaks also required one huge learning project, a mega art project or a big report to be completed during it. I think it worked out well, usually we became bored so we started school again around the fourth week of break anyway. Looking back I realized we never completely took off . This was also during the 90’s, co-op , media those things didn’t exist. We enjoyed schoolwork if you can believe it.
As a kid, I enjoyed school work for the most part too but I wasn’t homeschooled. Mine are always ready by August if we take the summer off. Thanks for sharing!
This is the first year of five that I’ve noticed we are year around homeschoolers. I love taking the holidays off, rainy days watching a movie, and making time for family. Summer fun can always happen in the afternoon after school, and having structure means less sibling rivalry.
Oh yes, we had several lounge around and watch Netflix kind of days this year! And I’m all for less sibling rivalry! Thanks for responding Rebecca!
Great post Jacquie! Thank you!
I agree that some form of year round homeschooling is a good idea. There are so many options, and the beauty of homeschooling is you can choose what works for you! I found that when we let the kids have 3 months off without much structure, they get bored quickly which often leads to squabbles and bad attitudes. Even if only minimal academics are done, I think it’s very important to have a daily routine, and include Bible and character in the day.
We homeschooled year round for years. Because we moved often, we took long breaks while preparing for and adjusting to making those moves. Once we settled in one place we slowly came to a point of following a more typical school year. We are once again getting back to year round schooling and I am really excited! It makes sense to us to take breaks and enjoy our favorite times of the year like spring and autumn, and spend time indoors with our school books during the hottest and coldest times of the year. Thank you for your terrific summary – happy summer schooling!
(stopping by from Hearts for Home Blog Hop)
Thanks Linda! I love having the ability to take time off when we want it and even doing school on the front porch some days!
Yes, we schooled year round for many years and it worked out best for us.
We homeschool year round and all of things you mentioned are so true. Mostly I love the flexibility. If something “comes up,” we just take off for the day and don’t worry about school. School will always be there, but “life” will sometimes pass you by!
We school year round. We have taken the last few weeks off just because we’ve been busy and needed a break. We have VBS this week and then we are starting back up. My daughter and I are both excited to get back to it. Thank you for sharing at Anything Goes, I am featuring your post this week. 🙂
We decided to homeschool year round this year. My kids are still pretty young 6 and under so we decided the structure would be nice for them. As mentioned above we were also afraid there would be some learning loss if we took so much time off. When we decided around December that we’d continue you through the summer it did seem to take some pressure off. I no longer felt the need to finish a book in 5 months which meant that I felt more at ease letting my oldest work at his own pace.
Yes, we are new homeschoolers but already I’ve seen the merits of year round schooling. The routine, the flexibility, the ability to stop and help family and friends as needed–it’s working for us 🙂 Now that it’s summer, we are taking days off each week to play with friends who are out of school and enjoy the warmer weather, but it’s okay because we have 365 days to play with.
Great points! We have attempted the year round schedule, but honestly didn’t like it. Were traditional in our schedule 🙂 I call us “unschoolers” during the summer. We stay busy doing other things, but are still learning. Came over from the Hearts for Home Hop 🙂
I have seriously been thinking about year round schooling (ish). Taking a week off every six weeks, or at least a few days, having time to relax in the summer but not completely foregoing our schedule. It is very hard to get off the schedule, and then get back on it, but we do need breaks or we all end up frazzled! Thanks for a great post 🙂