While I sit here writing this article, my husband has made a change into a new career that we’ve planned for and are excited about. Starting out, it means working 7 days a week from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Grueling schedule to say the least for him, and I’m right there cooking/packing every meal for him because his workplace doesn’t have a restaurant. And a lot of times, he can’t leave the building for lunch or his lunch is shortened back from one hour.
Back to my point, what does this have to do with homeschooling year-round? Everything, for me.
That is just the point, my schedule has nothing to do with your family’s schedule and the schedules of other families have nothing to do with mine.
I too have shared many times over about the the advantages of homeschooling year-round, but it’s more important to know how to tell if you can instead of telling you why you should.
Look at Homeschooling Year Round Chaos or Calm, What is Year Around Homeschooling Part 1 and Part 2 if you want some more tips.
Homeschooling too is about not being sorry or feeling guilty for things you can’t control.
3 Quick Tips to Adapt to Homeschooling Year-Round
Instead of sharing pros and cons of homeschooling year-round because they won’t help one bit if you can’t, I want to share how to tell if you should even consider it.
Family schedule matters.
There is just no getting around it, your child’s learning ability can’t be the only weighing factor as to whether or not you homeschool year-round.
For example, my husband’s schedule is pretty predictable right now.
Homeschooling year-round gives me to time to plod along when I am getting up every morning at 4:30 to 5:00 a.m.
I wake my kids right up alongside us because I need my whole household to be on the same schedule.
By the way, this is a tried and trued tip, which has worked for me as we have experienced many different schedules. It is just too hard, not to mention stressful when half of your family gets up when they want to or some other hour and the other half doesn’t.
Guess what? The do-whatever-you -want-to- schedule for the kids comes back to bite you when you need your household quiet for the Mr. or even for a younger child.
This summer, instead of starting school at 9:00 or 9:30 a.m. like we use to, we start school closer to 8:00 a.m. or even before because we have been up for a while, finished chores and are ready for our day.
I remember back to our very first co-op I attended where the leader canceled school for the summer. I was puzzled because my kids were little and I was ready to keep on going.
Finding out later that day that her husband was the head coach at the local public school, I learned right away how a family schedule affects year round-homeschooling.
Who wants to have such a rigid day of homeschooling when dad is off for the summer? Not me.
Seasons matter.
I would like to say that seasons don’t matter here in Texas, but when you have 3 days of winter (okay, we had a bit more this year) and a lot of summer heat, days are long and hot.
Having the top of my kids’ heads baked just never appealed to me. Our time outdoors during the summer months is limited to a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening.
Guess what? That is a lot of in between time, which needs to be filled with meaningful activities.
For a majority of our homeschool years we have homeschooled during the summer than not because it filled our days with meaning and it also meant we could skip school on days when the weather changed to glorious.
When it is spring or fall, we don’t feel guilty spending a lot of time outdoors because we’re normally well ahead in our curriculum.
High School matters.
The few times we have followed a traditional public school schedule is when my oldest two sons graduated.
Whether your child is interested in going to college right away, starting a career or doing some Bible based work, you need to be sure he starts off right by finishing school close to the time he suppose to graduate.
There is nothing that stresses a responsible homeschooled teen more than having the feeling of being behind because he has a life after homeschooling.
Whether you read the pros and cons of homeschooling year-round, it shouldn’t matter to you because many years, homeschooling year-round has little to do with whether you want to or not and a lot to do with your family’s present groove.
Mercifully, homeschooling fits your circumstances and circumstances can change quickly.
By the way, I love this new schedule as we have all settled into it and knowing my husband’s deployment will be a few short months, like 3 or 4 at a time, I find the good in it.
Did I mention how much I get done each day by being up early every day? Here and there he may have off Sundays and that is a plus too.
Hugs and love ya,
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