4 Reasons We Homeschool Year Round

Quick myth buster on “Year Round Homeschooling”

• No, homeschooling year round does NOT mean we homeschool 365 days a year, 7 days a week.
• No, we do NOT school during weekends, holidays, fall/spring breaks.
• No, we do NOT get burned-out from schooling “all the time.”
• No, we do NOT school the entire summer while everyone else vacations.

Homeschooling year round is actually quite the opposite, and if you’re interested in learning how WE school throughout the year, you just might be inspired to at least consider it for your family.

Before I reveal our recommended “4 Reasons We Homeschool Year Round,” let me first share HOW we conduct our schedule. It works like this.

1. Starting in August, we work 3 weeks ON, one week OFF, and repeat that pattern, or as we call it, our "wave"
2. We take off the week of Thanksgiving, and three weeks off for Christmas Season
3. In January, we return to 3 weeks ON, one week off until Spring Break in March/April
4. Around May we take 2 weeks off, then it’s one week on, one week off until August returns

This year round schedule allows us to take a few days off for holidays and birthdays, if only to sleep in the day before and after… just because. It also allows more time for focusing on holiday arts and crafts since we LOVE Christmas season! (Xander's making gift bags for our librarians - pictured)

This schedule also provides ample time throughout the year to “get it all in,” over the course of a whole year vs the standard 180-day time frame of traditional schools. We can comfortably add in field trips, unexpected doctors appointments, road trips, vacations, and all the things that life inevitably and unpredictably presents.

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Now I must share with you WHY this particular schedule works wonders for us (at least for now).

I THOROUGHLY ENJOY creating customized curriculum and lesson plans for my student/son! Something about the hunt for the right books, the smell of the bookstores and libraries (maybe not all libraries), and the studying and reading involved in writing daily lesson plans is one of those things I really look forward to. (Read about "10 FREE Educational Treasures You're Missing at Your Library" here) It is, however, a time-consuming, month-to-month, never ending, inevitable, required task. It requires hours of preparation and studying. Writing 4 to 6 weeks ahead, for 6 to 8 different subjects simultaneously can easily get overwhelming, especially if your planned schedule gets uprooted and relocated while life happens.

My aha moment occurred when I realized that on our week “off,” I have a WHOLE WEEK to pace myself in writing lessons, and for only three weeks in advance instead of 4 to 6! Three weeks on and one week off allows me to write into our lesson plans anything that we may not have completed in the previous weeks, thus preventing us from “falling behind” on the written outlines. PERFECT!

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Here are the 4 reasons WE choose to homeschool year round.
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1. RELAXABILITY
   We take monthly breaks which alleviates monotony, the rush to complete a curriculum, tiredness, or getting burned out from long stretches of studying.
2. FLEXIBILITY
   It allows for more field trips and learning experiences away from typical desk-learning throughout the year. (Here's an educational & fun field trip to the Memphis Fire Museum - pictured)
3. PLANNABILITY
   I can write lesson plans in a more reasonable, sensible, customizable time frame and at a better pace, and can fill in any "make-up" work from the previous 3 "on" weeks
4. RETAINABILITY
   Three consecutive summer months off seems to lose some of its fervor for studying and retaining info when it’s time to return in August, so a little here and there works wonders for us

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This is only our second school year using this schedule of schooling. And, during our “off” weeks, we still may end up doing art projects, organizing, and definitely reading (though reading is never a “job.”)

I must re-emphasize that this method may NOT work well for everyone, thus each family should find their reason or need to schedule school accordingly, i.e. the marvelous beauty of being able to home school - “customizability!”  This article is mainly to give insight on how WE choose to use a more realistic “year round” schooling approach, not the mythical “January straight through December” misconception. There are many other schedules you can implement into your school, like 4-day school weeks with either Fridays or Mondays off. It won't hurt to give it a shot. If it doesn't work, try something else, or go back to how you used to do it. Flexibility! :)

Do you have any questions about other year round schooling ideas or schedules? Feel free to post in the comments sections below. I hope you enjoyed reading this, and I hope you'll  be inspired! ​Let us know what works best for your homeschool’s schedule.

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​"I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions."
Stephen Covey

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Read more on educationally fun (and mostly FREE) field trips we've "created" that you, too, will thoroughly enjoy!