Is Year-Round Homeschooling Right for You?
In
my early years of homeschooling, we used to begin every August and end at the
end of May, taking off the summer months like the public schools did. But a few
years into our journey, we realized that we were so busy in December with
preparations for church Christmas events, and in June taking off for family
reunions, that we often missed several weeks of schooling. I felt as though I
was failing to educate my children in those months and watched as we got
further and further behind and struggled to catch up. Our solution was so
obvious and simple: school year-round.
At
first, it didn’t seem any different when we took that first full month of June
off. But when we started back to school the Monday following Fourth of July, my
husband and I discovered that the children were eager to begin learning
again. They also retained more of what we had learned, so we were able to move
on to new concepts and topics without lengthy reviews. With this schedule of
five months of school and one month off, we have been able to also use our
family vacation time for our favorite theme park destination during times when
there are fewer crowds and cooler temperatures.
Right
now you may be thinking, “How do I know if year-round schooling is right for me and
my family?” My answer is simply this: you won’t really know until you try it.
Much like when you made the decision to educate your children at home and no
one could tell you if it were the right option for your family, no one can tell
you for sure if schooling on this sort of rotation will work well for your
family.
Think
about the busiest times of the year for your family. Are there a couple of
months that seem to be more busy and hectic than the rest of the year? Is one
of those months coming up soon? Why not try taking that month off of school and
start back to school the following month? I mean, really…why are we trying to
follow the schooling schedule of traditional schools? We want to give our
children the best possible education. So maybe, just maybe, that looks different than doing school from August or September until May or June.
Another
thing to know is what your state’s requirements are for days of schooling your
children under its homeschooling laws. In my state, we must educate our
children for 176 days, 4 hours a day within a 365 day year. No one spells out which days are school
days nor what specific 4 hours we must teach.
So
don’t be afraid to investigate your options and to change your schooling around
to fit your family and your needs. This is your year of great things in
homeschooling!
Lyn~
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