Our Rhythm - Year Round Schooling

One of the things that home educating families struggle with is knowing that they do NOT need to follow school terms. For some reason most families I meet feel they need to follow school terms in order to know they are doing enough school. You have the freedom to schedule your year to best suit your individual families needs. Successfully homeschooling starts with a plan.

I've been on the home education journey now for 15 years and one of the best decisions we made as a family was to switch to a five week schedule (4 weeks of school followed by 1 week of rest) about eight years ago.  We had switched to doing ATI which follows this rotation and after the first five weeks as the saying goes we never looked back.

One word of caution when making a schedule.  Take a calendar and mark it down.  Plan it. Mark it. Then, Follow it.  I once tried winging it without scheduling it and that led to no rhythm and us falling a little behind in our school work and then we ended up on the other extreme with schooling too long and becoming burnt out.

School terms were not a problem.  We let the neighbour hood children know they could only come over to play after lunch.  During school holidays we made sure we were done by then.  It was a great incentive for the children.

Benefits

• 7 weeks of holidays at the end of the year
• A 36 week school year breaks down in to 9 five week rotations totaling 45 weeks of the year.
• Homeschool burnout became a thing of the past providing I practice Mother Culture
• The week off provides time to unwind/rest.  It's long enough to rest but short enough that the kids do not 'forget' what they've been learning. I found it easy to get going again with our weekly rhythm.
• I find that children are not left with super long holiday breaks that provide ample opportunity for boredom
• Four weeks of school is long enough for the children and I to put 100% into our school work without running out of energy.  I do confess though I am well and truly ready for a rest after those 20 days of school. Our energy levels are never stretched to it's limit because we take the opportunity to rest regularly.
• The 7 extra weeks gives us enough time to have two, two week breaks after each 12 weeks of school (three 5 week rotations) followed by a full 5 week Christmas break. 
• The Flexibility to choose our schedule.  One that suits our needs, I am able to look at the big picture. Paul works as a public servant and therefore has to work most public holidays depending on his schedule.  (6 days at work 3 days at home) We also like taking our holidays when school is in session and make use of term discounts.
• Here in Australia schools run from February to December so my schedule works well.

Consider

• What are the legal requirements in your country (Australia)?
• What are the ages of your children ?
• Health concerns ? Dr appointments ? 
• New Baby coming ?
• Planned holidays ?

Else Where on the Net

• Pinterest Homeschool Planning Know How
• Pinterest Homeschool Planners & Record Keeping
• How to Schedule Your Homeschool Year over at The Pistachi.  This is an excellent post with a great summary of different rythems.
• A Year-Round Homeschool Schedule over at Simply Convivial
• Creating a Homeschool Schedule over at Simple Homeschool

Blessings

Chareen

This post is part of the Homeschool Help series brought to you by a group of homeschool Mom's from around the globe.  Do not forget to visit and read their inspirational insight.

This week

• Bernadette   School year round or not on your Life
• Julie  School Year Round?
• Savannah shares 
• Lucinda  How We Learn More By Taking Breaks- Why Year-Round Homeschooling is Not for Us 
• Nicole  Summer: Repair and Prepare

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