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Becky Parker
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| Posted: May 28 2010 at 10:04am | IP Logged
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I've been reading the comments in the poll about schooling year round and I really see the benefit in that, even though we are a family that has always looked forward to a summer break. But, with a new baby coming in December, I'm thinking that maybe we should get some school going this summer so that we don't get too far behind during that last trimester when I'm not up to much.
I just don't know how to approach this with my kids. I think they might be a little less than enthused about starting school up again (we really just finished).
Any pointers?
We are going camping the week of the 13th so I'd probably wait until after that anyway.
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Becky
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JodieLyn
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I'd probably rely heavily on the "we'll be taking longer breaks throughout the year but a shorter one in the summer".
You can still take a good 2-4 week break in the summer without having to take 2-3 months.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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Kathryn
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I didn't answer the poll since not really sure how ours would be defined. As of now, we'll be doing at least most basic subjects thru June to catch up from my 1st trimester fatigue and my step-father's illness and passing at the same time betw. Jan-Mar. I've explained to them that we need to get caught up from all those weeks they did really...not much!  Then I plan on "breaking" thru July although still doing math and reading (again we just have to keep at those). Then I plan on starting back at the 1st of August b/c my baby is due October 1 and will prob. plan on trying to take a break then (again which I've explained to them). They SEEM ok w/ it right now so we'll see. In a way, we're in TX and once it's 100 degrees in the afternoon, there's not much else to do anyway so I'm HOPING they won't grouch about this very basic schooling. Soo, that's my plans...thru the Summer but def. down to the basics.
Sooo...did you also notice how many times I used the words "I plan"?!  I guess we'll see how that really goes.
I guess that's my pointers...let them know and why and what the expectations will be (if it'll be reduced school or not). I guess you could ease back into it with Math and Reading and then just add a subject a week may be. ?
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Mackfam
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We took a traditional summer break up until a few years ago. We were motivated to move toward more year-round lessons for a few reasons:
** Here in the south, the summer months are miserably hot and humid. We can go outside in the early mornings, but it's pretty normal for it to be dangerously hot (near 100 with very high humidity) during July and August. The kids were bored inside, and behavior issues were starting to surface.
** One of my children has needs that benefit from more consistent and gentle approaches to studies. A long break resulted in frustration for this child when studies resumed. It would take a significant amount of time to remediate and get back on track. The older this child got, the more obvious and embarrassing this became for my child. However, I've seen the benefit of more consistent lessons across the board in all my students, so I'm hooked!
** We are able to be much more flexible during the year. If something comes up and we want to break - we can without worrying that we'll be pushing our year.
** We take long breaks during the year. I take:
:: 2 weeks off for a fall break
:: 3 weeks during Advent/Christmas
:: 2 weeks for Holy Week and Easter week (sometimes 3 so that it can be a Spring break - it seems right to break and have fun during Easter.)
:: 1 week off after each quarter (I divide my year into 4 quarters or terms).
:: 3-4 weeks off after the close of a year.
This leaves 37 weeks in the year, which still gives me some room for being flexible since our school year is 32 weeks long (ish).
** We have more time to take advantage of the most temperate times of the seasonal year for where we live.
** We don't get burned out because we break often.
** This gives me lots of time to be attentive to spaces and plans during the year, making adjustments as needed.
** If a crisis/emergency/season of life came up that required a big block of time off, I can take it and know that I can just juggle our days more because I've already built in so much flexibility in the year.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It was a bit of a scramble for us to start that first year. Year-round school does require that you begin contemplating your choices and plans seriously in late winter/very early spring.
We absolutely LOVE it, and it's interesting to note that it was my children that asked for this. So, they're totally on board!
Good luck deciding, Becky, and hope this helps some!
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Angie Mc
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I look at our home education as having 2 main parts, formal skills and informal knowledge. If our life is very full and/or we're taking a break, we do *basic formal work (daily math, handwriting, learning to reading) and/or we depend upon gaining informal knowledge through reading books, watching movies, discussing topics, outings, etc.
When outside demands are less and/or I'm feeling great and/or the children are hot on a topic, then we add to this *extra formal/planned/organized unit studies, experiments, projects, presentations, etc.
Educating year round fluctuates (sometimes day-to-day, week-to-week) between these two, basic and extra. Since our summer is less busy (less baseball, higher outdoor temperatures, fewer outside commitments) we have more time indoors to do our both.
We do "end our year" in May. We "start" our new year in June, which gives us June, July, and August to "get ahead." Feels good  .
I have a sinking feeling that I haven't been clear  . Ask away to help me clarify!
ETA: We do take vacation and sick days. Sometimes these are planned (ex: going out of town for a week) and sometimes we call them because we need one. It really helps us to name these days as special. If not, we are on our regular schedule.
Love,
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Angie Mc
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Angie Mc
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| Posted: May 28 2010 at 10:52am | IP Logged
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Kathryn wrote:
| I didn't answer the poll since not really sure how ours would be defined. |
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When in doubt, choose "other"...or "all of the above"...or "C"...at least that's what I do .
Love,
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dakotamidnight
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We're thinking about going to all-year too. It's our first official year homeschooling this fall, so DD doesn't know you don't go all year, lol. I'm toying with the idea of just starting the 1st lesson plans around 2 weeks after we finish the K ones.
How do you deal with lesson plans being geared towards certain times of year? We're using CHC pretty much as written for K, and it seems in K-2nd a lot of theirs is geared toward seasons, holy days, etc - I don't want to be studying Christmas and winter in August!
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Mackfam
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dakotamidnight wrote:
| How do you deal with lesson plans being geared towards certain times of year? We're using CHC pretty much as written for K, and it seems in K-2nd a lot of theirs is geared toward seasons, holy days, etc - I don't want to be studying Christmas and winter in August! |
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That is a lovely aspect of the CHC lesson plans, the seasonal integration, but it would be challenging for year-rounders, or anyone who doesn't start in Sept (which I believe I remember is when the CHC plans start their year.) Perhaps you can highlight the seasonal ideas and just refer back to them when you get to that part of the year?
I write my own lesson plans, so I integrate on my own. To me this is one of the biggest advantages to writing my own plans - I can write and plan and integrate based on the season (liturgical and natural) for which I am writing.
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Jen Mackintosh
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JodieLyn
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Angie Mc wrote:
Kathryn wrote:
| I didn't answer the poll since not really sure how ours would be defined. |
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When in doubt, choose "other"...or "all of the above"...or "C"...at least that's what I do .
Love, |
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Or pick whichever is most like what you do.. and then qualify that in a post..
like.. you might vote that you break for the summer but then add that "we mostly break for the summer but we still do math most days"
It's not a test you have to have right
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G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Erin
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Here in Australia the school system is set up year round. (which is why I couldn't take the poll) Most states school years are broken up into 4 terms. (A couple are still 3 terms)
In NSW and most other states, school starts the last week of January (summer here) and goes for 10 weeks, then breaks for 2 weeks at Easter. Term 2, is 10 weeks and breaks for 2 weeks etc. This means that over the Christmas holidays (summer here) we break for 4 weeks beginning just before Christmas and continuing through January, which is too hot to do anything anyway.
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Becky Parker
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I think it would work if I talked to the kids about why we're considering year round school. We didn't finish this year until a short time ago (like yesterday!) and the kids are all for starting this next school year early in August so we have all of May free. Maybe I can just take that concept a little farther.
We haven't told them about the baby yet but when we do we can explain the nice long break we'll have in December. I also know my "ducks in a row daughter" would appreciate it if I mapped out the year with some breaks, showing here that we aren't doing "more school" just spreading it out a bit.
Jen, I can so relate to behavior issues that stem from boredom. About mid-July it seems kids aren't so thrilled about summer anymore and playing outside all day doesn't sound as glorious as it does now.
I'm thinking that maybe I could take all of June off, then start back after the 4th of July.
Of course, that means I better get my books ordered!
I know this sounds scattered. I just got back from our last Catholic Mosaic group and I'm thinking out loud as I read your replies.
Thanks everyone!
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Angel
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We've always been "year round" because we started in a school district that also did year round school (9 weeks on, 3 weeks off, with a longer 6 week break in June-early July) and the "official" reporting year began in July. So it was easier for me to just see the school year as beginning July 1 every year, which is when I shake everyone's hand and inform them that they've moved up a grade and they either roll their eyes or giggle.
Anyway, we *do* take a longer break in the summer, but it's sort of a floating break. This year it's June because of the baby, but last year it was July into early August because of soccer and summer camps.
We have two levels of "school", too. A lot of our summer school isn't as intense as in other parts of the year because we live in a northern climate and need to be outside all summer. But I found out early on that my kids do not benefit from letting math go for 3 months. They forget and it's very frustrating having to review. Plus, they all get bored with nothing to feed their brains. So we have a basic level of school we add back in *first*: books for reading and read aloud, catechism, math, and sometimes Latin. That's it. Then some time in August we start adding in more subjects and projects until we're sort of more officially "doing school". This way we can keep up with the basics and do other enjoyable summer stuff, like take field trips, do summer classes and camps, garden, stay up late, etc.
We have also been taking a long (3-4 week) spring break, too, plus a week at Thanksgiving and 2 weeks at Christmas. I don't know what that works out to in terms of weeks, but since I count some of those break days as half days if the kids are involved in interesting projects or books of their own, we usually manage the required (by NY) 180 days/900-ish hours without me freaking out or having to cheat.
I wonder if your kids would be more open to taking a shorter summer break if you broke them in gently, doing only the basics till fall. Or adding in only a couple subjects a week until you had a fuller schedule.
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tissuebox
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I came up with this idea a few years ago and it has worked for us . Our family does four quarters of the year using the natural break of seasons. for example we are in spring session right now with school ending on June 18th. We will take our summer break starting on June 21 (when summer begins) and break until July 30th. Then summer session will start on August 2 and go until Sept 17th. We will break for a week and start our fall session on Sept 27th (when fall starts) and go until Dec 17th. We do informal lessons in month of December but with advent and Christmas our main focus.
For the summer session I too found that my children got bored easily after July and getting "couch potatoey" so I figured that after July fourth and all the summer camping with Boy Scouts and family vacations are done we just start back in August. We have done it this way for the last three years I think and it seemed to flow nicely for us we still get to enjoy all the seasons etc.
Hope this helps.
Char
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LucyP
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Our usual aim is to carry on more or less all year. We aim to have no more than 2 weeks off at a time - Holy week/easter, summer, autumn and then longer at advent/Christmas, with a "starting school" feel in January after epiphany.
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CatholicMommy
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We go year-round, and we "start" our new year with Advent.
We take generous breaks as needed/wanted and look at life as education too - so a long weekend spent with good friends at a mutual friends' ordination to the priesthood has its learning capacities too, even if it's not reading from the textbook and answering questions in a book - it's reading the program and learning the parts of the Mass at an ordination Mass, and so much more!
We actually plan on a school block of time 6 days a week for the sake of consistency, but again, with the whole-life approach, it's really about hitting the basics every day and then choose what our focus will be for the day.
Little does my son know that our method of gardening is school I expect him to recognize which seeds turn into what, we pull up some plants by their roots to observe them, do experiments with light and water and warmth, look up what we can do with the things we grow (and hopefully do it)... etc.
He read "Onions in My Boots" when it arrived and I expect him to be in the in-house expert. But he doesn't think it's school ;)
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rose gardens
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I like reading all the replies. This is helpful to see how other people school year round. This summer we're making the switch to year round schooling. Since we started homeschooling eight years ago, we took traditional summer breaks. Last year, I was expecting a baby in fall so we started school one month earlier than usual. We didn't start all subjects at once. I staggered them in slowly.
As I make plans for the summer and the switch to year round, I intend to limit how many subjects we cover at one time. I plan to stagger the subjects throughout the year. I'll also stagger some breaks and times with lighter and/or fewer academics throughout the year too.
I intend to start our year-round school with less of a workload for the summer. We'll continue working on reading and spelling. One of the programs we use doesn't have "grade levels" as it was designed for individualized tutoring rather than a traditional school and school year. I also want to go through another reading comprehension tutoring program with them. That program seemed fun and does not come across as particularly "academic" although it does take time. I also plan to review all the basic math facts on a semi-regular basis, but I don't plan on resuming the math textbooks until fall.
We're going on vacation in July, and I might add some science and nature studies when we return. Our vacation itself will be a nature study and it offers numerous educational opportunities. Maybe we should call it a long homeschooling field trip instead of vacation. 
I really don't have this school-year-round all figured out. (Right now we're still finishing the last few pages of the math and grammar workbooks.) My hope is that the lighter schedule during the summer will provide a little break for all of us, while getting some work done during the summer that (I hope) will lighten the academic load during the traditional school year.
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time4tea
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I spent some time studying and working in Southern Germany in my late teens and early twenties, and the school calendar used there (in Bavaria) always seemed to make sense to me. Basically, the kids have a roughly 6 week Summer break, and other breaks throughout the year that coincide with Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and some other shorter breaks. Basically that is what I follow here. We do have a Summer break, just not a 10 week one. Our lasts about 5 weeks or so. Then we start school after Labor Day again. We take at least a week at Thanksgiving, and then a little longer at Christmas and Easter. I try to leave time open for sick days or other days when time off is needed.
For next year I will be modifying this a bit. We will do a couple of classes over the Summer or at least begin them - Teaching Textbooks Math for the elementary kids and Story of the World Vol. 1 audiobook for Ancient History. We have 2 kids who are heavily involved with pre-professional ballet training, so we spend a lot of time driving to and from the studio and over the Summer to summer intensive programs, etc., so portable coursework is a plus for us and allows us to have a lighter course load during the regular school year. We will still begin our regular year after Labor Day, but will have made a significant dent in Math and completed Ancient History. I am considering also doing Science this way, since it is easier to get outside when the weather is good. History and Science are always the two courses that seem to fall off the plate so to speak for us, so getting them done over the Summer makes sure they actually get done!
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SallyT
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We're year-rounding in a more formal way for the first time this year -- in years past, I've considered that we've done a lot of learning in the summer, but it was mostly an unschooled season. This year I'm having my rising senior get in an intensive daily grammar-and-composition mini-course, finish one math course and begin the next, because she will need that long to get through a year of math (like, a whole year, not nine months), and do a lot of independent reading. This week she's gone to the beach with friends, so that's a break from the grind, though she took her summer reading with her. And then she goes to the UDallas summer Arete program in July, so that's two weeks off from our schooling, but it's still school.
For the other three, we're using CHC materials largely, and what I'm doing is to use the summer to get ahead/stay abreast in core subjects like English and math. I'm having my rising 7th-grader continue to do a lesson daily in pre-algebra, plus a lesson in his level of Language of God, plus independent reading. If he can get ahead in these basics, that will free up more time in the fall, winter, and spring to concentrate on history (he'll do one of the timeline projects in their middle school plans) and science. So I'm kind of splitting our schedule, I guess, or staggering it.
I'm having the rising 1st and 2nd graders do math daily, plus reading and handwriting, to give us more time and readiness for our own timeline project starting in the fall. We'll still follow the CHC plans for the liturgical year and keep with the seasons, but summer just seems an ideal time to spend 45 minutes to an hour a day on basic skills. Maybe I'll juggle some of the assignments around to save Advent/Christmas reading and handwriting for the season, but otherwise, we're just trucking ahead with it. Again, I guess it's a kind of staggered approach to the CHC schedule, which I like
We're in the South, too, and already the days are hot and humid, so it only makes sense to use our indoor time for school. I also like being able to take time off during the school year without getting behind. All the kid will have weeks off at various times during the summer -- in addition to the senior's travels, the 7th grader will be taking some Scout trips and doing a week of Scout camp, the 2nd grader has a week of Cub Scout day camp, and all four kids will be doing the Totus Tuus program at our parish week after next. So we'll have plenty of variety and breaks from our routine to keep us fresh -- I hope, anyway!
Sally
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vmalott
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The idea of year-round schooling with lots of breaks is appealing to me and I think, for the most part, would be accepted by the kids if they knew about the opportunity for breaks every several weeks.
There are a few foreseeable stumbling blocks for us, though...at least for the summertime. Most of my kids have school-going friends in the neighborhood. Also, my oldest son (almost 14) will be attending public jr. high full-time next school year.
How do you, who school year-round, manage the inevitable interruptions from neighborhood friends? How about your own child balking when s/he sees their friends playing outside? Do any of you have a child who attends brick-and-mortar school with the traditional long summer break? Do you request that they do something "educational" while your other children are "doing school" or let them be?
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Becky Parker
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Good questions Valerie. My dd has a friend that goes to brick and mortar school, as well as a homeschool friend that takes summers off. (Not to mention my oldest son who goes to brick and mortar highschool.) I've been wondering how to deal with that.
My only idea so far is to limit summer school time to mornings only and let her know she can play in the afternoons.
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: How would you approach year round school
