Readers Respond: When do you begin your homeschool year?

Responses: 23

By Beverly Hernandez, About.com Guide

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My child has some learning disabilities so we have to do some during the summer, such as math so he doesn't loose. We just started back on math from where we left off in May and redid the same lesson. We use Math U See and just love it. Story of the World also has been great. Along with the other Bible Studies/Devotions. We always start off with Bible and then where God's guidance has given us we continue with the other subjects or other extra activities. If we miss we make it up, not too much stress. He is starting High School this year so we are going to be a little more on schedule, if possible... Mornings sometimes work ok, but night time, since he is a teenager works better at times. Our local homeschooling group meets one day a week for PE so that day school is normally done in the morning. I try and leave one day open for outside activities such as field trips or whatever. Thanks and I enjoy reading what others do also.
—Guest Cathy

I know there's a lot of people out there with issues about the public school system, but one of the things I've learned is that when I don't follow the set holidays and Staff Development days, I burn out quickly...so whatever you choose to do, be realistic and pencil in those days for "staff development" so you can stay fresh and grounded. Good Luck!
—Guest J

We don't hold to a strict schedule. Our school never ends. At one time we homeschooled year round, taking off a few weeks here and there throughout the year. But now that my daughter Abby is a highschooler, I allow her more freedom to choose her own schedule, which works well because she's an eager learner and self-motivated. Since she's an avid reader she chooses her own books. She also loves research and writing, which she has carte blanche to pursue. I occasionally edit her work, but otherwise allow her the freedom to move along at leisure. All this may sound like a nonchalant stance on schooling but it works well for us and keeps her interest in learning at a maximum level. After having homeschooled for the past 25 years I've finally reached the conclusion that inflexible scheduling diminishes innate desire to explore and grow naturally and cramps our style. As my mentor John Holt once put it,"learning goes on all the time." And so we've learned to think outside the box.
—Guest debra elramey

We start early... in the beginning of August, but keep to a pretty traditional year of holidays and breaks. Starting early gives us the flexibility of spending more time on a tough subject or choosing to learn even more about an area of interest!
—Guest Guest Jones

We begin schooling when my kids say they are ready to start. You would be amazed that they are actually ready before their friends go to public school. WE started this year around the first of August. That plan puts us finishing school around the end of April. That includes 2 weeks off for Christmas, one week for Easter and one week for Thanksgiving. My goal is to get as close to 100 school days before our Christmas break. We do many field trips and we pray every morning and ask God to help us get done in school what He NEEDS us to get done not what I think needs to be done.
—Guest Rachel

I have an eclectic approach to homeschooling that is fairly laid back. As in, I don't keep strict hours and if life has something more interesting to offer than schoolwork, we do that first and THEN do schoolwork. So sometimes we work in the morning, sometimes the afternoon, some days we do more than others. I try to plan schooling around life, not life around schooling. :) In the summer, we do LESS schoolwork than we do the rest of the year- I don't give out math worksheets or spelling activities, for example. But we do keep up with some things, such as Story of the World, reading every day (a pleasure!), some of the Enchanted Learning activities and things like that. As for the rest of the year, we just go about doing our thing each day (usually the math and spelling and things like that are done four days a week) and if interesting opportunities come up, we take full advantage of them. There's some structure, but in my opinion, my kids are learning something every single day :)
—sahmiam3

We start the first of August. I like the extra flexibility throughout the year. It is refreshing to take off more time in December to focus on the holidays, plus ending our school year by Memorial day is great!
—Guest Silvermaple

A good schedule for us was 9 weeks on, 4 weeks off. This worked great for unit studies and for planning purposes. I would take 3 of the 4 weeks off, then spend a week planning the next nine weeks. We had some of our best times with that schedule. As the kids got older, they preferred to keep the schedules of their friends.
—abhomeschooling

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