When I first started homeschooling, I didn’t even think about following any other homeschool schedule like homeschooling year round.
Now, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
When deciding if homeschooling year round is for you, look at these 3 questions to help you figure out if it will work for your family or not.
How much control do you have over your schedule?
Though I would love to follow my own schedule, the reality is my husband’s work schedule dictated our school schedule for many years.
Like our family, a lot of homeschoolers are self-employed and so that means we make our own schedules, but it also means that it usually doesn’t jive with a public school schedule.
For the most part, can you dictate your own schedule?
Assuming you can, the next thing to ask is:
How do your children learn best?
Is it by completely taking off months or just having a few weeks spread throughout the year?
You can’t really decide this if this is your first year of homeschooling because you and your kids are getting off the public school treadmill.
If you have been in public school for years, there may be a pull for your children to play with kids from public school and that means you think you may want the summer off.
But the longer you homeschool the more that desire to form an attachment with friends from public school wanes because you have made so many friends otherwise in field trips, co-ops and classes with other like-minded parents and children.
A lot of homeschoolers school lightly during summer because it allows them to catch up on things they have been wanting to do but didn’t get time to do during the regular school year.
Does the weather affect you getting out doors?
If you live in a place like Texas, where the summer is a scorcher, then choosing to school during hotter months and having off during cooler weather is a huge benefit to enjoying being outdoors more.
These 3 easy questions helped me to see that my homeschool schedule did not have to follow the public school schedule.
I did better as a teacher when I could take mini-breaks throughout the year.
My children stayed in a relaxed routine too when we kept the same schedule year round.
This doesn’t mean you have to keep the same pace each month and you really wouldn’t want to.
Staying productive year round has been a good fit for us.
Do you like schooling year round?
What homeschool schedule do you follow?
Hugs and love ya
Check out these other tips on homeschooling year round.
What Is Year Round Homeschooling Part 1.
What is Year Round Homeschooling Part 2.
Linking up @ these awesome places:
Mom’s Library|The Mommy Club|A Little Bird Told Me|A Little R&R|
We are homeschooling year round and I can’t imagine doing it any other way. My kids don’t handle long breaks well, and like you said about Texas, most of Georgia’s summer is too hot and sticky to want to go out unless it is to the pool. It is also not as stressful to just let it go when everyone is having a bad day because I am not worried about fitting everything into a set time-frame. If we need an extra week or two in this or that subject, it just doesn’t matter.
I agree, my kids get restless too….we love year around