Homeschool scheduling question?

Question

I hope someone can find this homeschooling question in the midst of all these random questions that have been appearing on here lately.
Seem YA should rename this category to the "Whatever you want to ask" category.
Ok, my question is about scheduling.
Do any of you take a fall break?
Do you follow a traditional school year?
I know some states have strict requirements on this issue, but I was curious. Today is Columbus day and the PS kids are out, and our co-op does not meet this week, but I'm going to go ahead and work this week.
I'd love to hear what the homeschool moms are doing this week.
thanks!

ps: I'm native american (yes, a blonde haired, green eyed, freckle faced native american lol), so my kids are already well aware of the effects columbus had on the tribes.

Thanks to all for wading through all the homework questios to find this question!
It's always interesting to me to hear what people across the country (and the continent) are doing.
I can't choose, I think all were great answers so I'm putting it to a vote!
Thanks!

Answer 1

We school year-round but take tons of breaks. Florida requires 180 days of learning which is easy, my children learn everyday whether its a scheduled "school day" or not. Today my DH has the day off so we are not doing lessons although we have already read about discussed (last week) with our children about the reality of Columbus rather than read only books that glorify him as a hero. (And I mention that because it has only been through homeschooling that I've learned what to me, was a shocking reality about Columbus)

Other than that, it is pretty much a regular week of 3-3 1/2 hours of lessons and the rest of the day for play and whatever. Thursday my children have their once a week blended school but it is a Field Day, so they'll have an extra great time. I use Thursdays to schedule the following week.

I agree with you on relabeling this section, seems like people can't resist the opportunity to ask non-homeschooling questions and/or simply come to bash.

Answer 2

We kind of follow the PS schedule, but not too much. Since we school year-round, we take every fifth week off (we're off next week). So our summer break is taken throughout the year. We usually have some type of field trip during the week off (generally only a day trip - maybe the museum or a historical site). I try to schedule our Christmas and Spring break for the same weeks as PS is off. I also throw in a day off every now and then if the PS is off and those kids are outside playing (and distracting my kids). Here in TX (as you know), we aren't required to keep track of days or hours, so we take off days here and there when we're tired or bored (or it's a beautiful day, or whatever).

I have found that trying to study a particular person/holiday around the holiday is nearly impossible, because the public school teachers have checked out all of the best library books. So we just study them during the course of our chronological history studies and maybe have a brief refresher when the holiday comes around.

Answer 3

Whew... it was difficult to sort through all of the questions and come to this one!!! But, HEY, I found it!!!!

We take a break whenever we need it. The usual holidays for us are Thanksgiving and Christmas. Most other days are silly days off for groupschool teachers to take an "inservice" to grade papers etc.... We don't need those.

My children have parent-teacher conferences every day. They are their own best teacher and that makes me the parent to both the student and the teacher.

Fall Break? For.....????? well, we took one when the new grandbaby was born. And my son just returned from another week long field trip. We semi-sorta-kinda-maybe sometimes follow the traditional school calendar only because Dad works at the public schools in town.

Most states have rules about how many days the child must study but they don't dictate which days.... so, we study when we want to. All in all we have more academic days than the normal classroom. Our curriculum is set up with the recommendation of year-round, 6 day per week studies. The average is 10 months of academic work -- math, writing, and reading including science, history, language arts, music, etc.... The rest of the time is spent learning life-skills and fulfilling social requirements. It is mandatory in our home school to make friends and have regular get-togethers. Knowing others and learning how to relate to them in all necessary real life situations is a MUST!!!!

Our goal in home school is to achieve the best possible results. Our circumstances will vary from every other home school around and our outcome will also be different. But, we strive for accuracy, honesty and integrity -- with fun mixed into our days.

Every student's results will be equal to their willingness to accomplish the work that is set before them.

Barb

Answer 4

My state's rules say that the homeschooling year starts on July 1, and ends on June 30 of the following year. My state's rules also say that we must teach a total of 1000 hours, 600 of which have to be in Reading, Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. We take each day as it comes..in my state my son does not HAVE to be in school until he's 7..which he won't be until next September. So this year we're really relaxed..we take an "unschooling" approach. I do not follow the "holidays" of the PS system. We take vacations, or breaks whenever we choose.

Answer 5

We do not always follow the same days off as PS. We set up our own days off. Today we are working on school. My husband works grave and has Sunday Night and Monday Night off. So our sometimes differs than PS. If we want to do something with Dad we take off Sun-Mon and do school Tues.-Sat. So to answer your question "no" we do not really follow the PS sechedule. Some summers we work and there are weeks I feel the kids need a 'brain break'. Hope this helps

Answer 6

We have to have school 189 days a year as a requirement. I don't take off holidays that the PS does. We are going to work today. We work M-F (the occasional Saturday if they are bored), our holidays are each of their birthdays, Halloween, Valentine's Day, the entire week of Thanksgiving, and the two weeks surrounding Christmas and New Year's.

Answer 7

We more or less follow the traditional school year, but there is still learning going on during the summer time and some breaks, too. I just don't usually insist on it as much.

I'm in Canada and today is Thanksgiving. We are taking the day off today. We have 4 days left this week to do work and we'll be doing our work as usual.

Answer 8

In my district it is required to have180 instructional days.My son has breaks but not necessarily around the schools breaks. No, we won't be taking a whole week for fall break but a day or two.We strarted before public school did and with less breaks we will finish sooner.

Answer 9

My son is enrolled in a on line school charter school, which is considered a public school but done on line..His school fallows the public school schedule. He still has teacher confrence days(no school). He still has thanksgiving break and christmas break and spring break and all the other holidays with no school. The public schools are still inservice today here. so was my child.

Answer 10

I say spend the week learning about Coulumbus.