Moving on....?

Question

Ok guys. It's been a while since I've been on here.... I have a question. I'm moving my children up in grades. We did testing already and I have their stuff to get started on Monday. I am thinking that I'm going to do year round school.

So, my question is.....

Does anyone do year round school and if so, how is it working for you? I have done some research but I always would rather hear from someone actually doing it.

I have a 5th grader and an 8th grader.

Answer 1

We do pretty much year round with my girls (ages 4 and 6 - K and 2 - or what they think . . . I don't really keep track as much as they do, to be frank).  I keep my records required and we take breaks when we need to, and it works well for us.  We've made the New Year be the moving up time for our girls, and they "move up" on New Years Day.  

I like doing things year round for a few reasons . . . keeps them always learning . . . we don't have the long days, they learn as they go . . . we basically just do mornings right now, and it establishes a lifestyle of learning that doesn't get turned off for three months per year.  

JMHO

Answer 2

We do year round homeschooling with an unschooling twist...our child's education always follows her interests.  This summer she is taking six weeks of art courses as part of her regular curriculum.  If she had wanted to go to overnight camp, that would have been considered part of her curriculum as well.

The big advantage of year round schooling is that the student does not have to contend with so-called "summer slide."  Over the summer, when a child is not doing any learning, he/she can forget as much as three months learning from the year before.  

Since the weather is nicer in the summer, much more of our schooling is outside activities.

Answer 3

i did it for a wile the kids got tired and it didn't go  varry well but they got all the work done so that was good

Answer 4

We've always schooled year-round.  It works much better for us, even having one in HS'ing and one in PS.

It allows us to take breaks during the typical school year when we need them.  For instance, I always block off the time between Thanksgiving and New Years from the formal schedule.  We still do learning stuff, but it's usually not the formal curriculum work.  It makes the holidays so much less stressful.  We may also need to take time off for illness or big volunteer projects I have.  I have fibromyalgia and some days just can't function.

We do plan the bulk of the academic work from August 1-May 31st.  During the summer my DS does music rather than through the year.  We also work on one strand of Language Arts - usually spelling or composition.  My PS'ed DD goes to summer school, so we continue to hit the "books" hard while she's at school.  Then when she's done, we have a much lighter schedule and try to do fun things we've tried to fit in during the rest of the year.  My HS'ed DS has a lot of weeks of camp and other activities.

We also block schedule (actually modified block) so the combination of the two really work for us.

My DS knows that, during the school year if he wants to play with the PS kids, he'd better be done w/ his work when they get off the bus!  In the summer it's a bit trickier keeping them away - but it's a great motivator for DS to get his work done! ;-).  We just hang a sign on our door that says "Stop - we're doing school".

Answer 5

We did year round homeschooling in the very beginning. It just didn't work out for the most part for us. My daughter would hear neighborhood kids outside playing and would have too much trouble concentrating. Now we use the summer as extra reading time - we spend lots of time getting library books and she reads as much as possible.

My children are 9 & 2.

Answer 6

I have done year round, it was really good. We just jumped from one to the next, and there wasn't all this artificial division by age or grade, it was just what they were capable of to something new.

We would take breaks, a week or two, regardless of where we were in the curriculum.