I'm thinking of switching from a 5-day week to a 4-day week. Does anyone do 4 day weeks here?

It has been 8 years since I finished homeschooling my last child but we did that and it was great!  The kids were more motivated knowing a extra day off was coming.  They loved and so did I.  It is like the school work and week moved toward that reward.  I tried to make sure we did a field trip or some special activity on that day. 

We are planning a four day week, this is my first year and we are saving friday's for our homeschool group and field trips.

We do traditional schoolwork Mon-Thurs and Fridays are saved for field trips, group classes and the "fun schoolwork" like science experiments.  It works well for us and DS doesn't get burned out so easily.

But you still count Friday on your attendance forms don't you?  If you're using it for field trips and homeschool group things, that's still technically school related right?

We don't have attendance forms here in Nevada, but yes, when we lived in Georgia I did count those as schooling days.  It's not like he was off playing PlayStation or anything.  He was definitely involved in educational activities and those counted.

See we're in Georgia where we have to turn the attendance forms in and I always count field trip days as school days. That's why I wondered.  We're moving to either Missouri or Iowa next summer and I'm not sure if they have attendance forms or not.  I'll have to check into that before we go.

We don't have attendance in VA either. I was rather supprised how little we have to do. My aunt has lived in KY and MO and she always had plenty of forms to fill out.

June

We've always done year-round schooling with a four-day week.  I used to take Wednesdays off from schooling, because if I didn't, the house was a disaster by Friday and I had soooo many errands to run.  Having Wed off broke up the week more.

Now we're involved in a three-hour HS co-op on Fridays, so we make Friday our "off" day.  Of course the co-op hours are learning.  We finish up any "hanging" work from the week (if necessary) in the morning, then head to co-op after lunch.

We also do modified block scheduling, where we do Math and LA Mon-Thur, and then Mon we do history, Tues we do art, Wed we do science, etc.  We only do music (it's only 72 lessons) in the summer now.

Sometimes we do schoolwork only on 4 days during the week, but we complete 5 days' worth of work.  So I still mark 5 days of attendance.  For example, our math curriculum is organized for 5 lessons per week.  If we complete 5 lessons in 4 days, we have still completed 5 days' worth of work, and I mark it as such.

If you're planning to do 5 days' worth of work in 4 days' time, you could still mark 5 days of attendance, I would think.

~Jori

We do four days, too.  The kids do do five days of work in four days most weeks -- just to have that extra day off and a long weekend every weekend.  We've do it for the past five years and the kids don't want to go to five days, even though I offer the 5 day week thing every year.

Linda in Georgia

We do "school" 4 days a week with a co-op science class for 1 hr on Fridays. After the co-op class we usually have play dates or other fun activities. This has worked great for us for the last 2 yrs.

We do about 2 hrs of "school" a day consisting of sit down work of math, LA, handwriting/copywork, and sometimes history. We have read aloud time throughout the day here and there but the kids still need to sit down on their own for at least 20min or so and read silently.

We don't have attendance requirements either so 4 day weeks are perfect for us.

We have lessons four days a week because Friday is our co-op day. My son takes art, vocals, and piano and then we go to the library to stock up on books for the week. Usually when we get home everyone reads all their new books and the little ones sleep. So far it works out well for us.

I talked it over with my daughter, and we decided four day weeks would benefit us all. We'll still be doing the same amount of work, just in one less day's time. It'll be about 45 extra minutes a day, but we agreed that we'd rather have Fridays to devote to personal pursuits such as nature hikes, crafting, "field trips" and "physical education" (read: lots of play time).

Every home schooling parent will agree that learning never stops, so no day is ever a day withouth learning. We will just choose not to do any formal assignments on Fridays.

An extra benefit is being able to flaunt our school choice by constantly being out and about on Fridays. I do like to flaunt what I do. <grin> There is nothing better than an empty zoo (zoo keepers spend a lot of time with you if you ask questions about their charges..no 'competition' for attention from other zoo guests), an empty dentist's office, an empty kids' shoe store, etc.

Home school is a wonderful thing. :D

Anyway, thanks for all your input.

Our family has been homeschooling for 8 years and we have always had a four day week!  It started originally to match Dad's work schedule, but we liked it so well we've kept.  We usually try to plan something special for that day also.  However, I rotate our day off each semester so it consistently seems like it is a treat.

Stacey

I'm sort of planning my time that way. We've just started so we are still feeling our way around things. I actually think my son and I will get more "sit down work" done on the weekends when my husband can entertain my two year old.  I'll pick two week day nap times to sit down one on one with my kindergartener, and the rest of the time will be less formal, reading books to both kids, coloring, story hour at the library, etc.  when  My husband usually has Friday's off, so we are planning fun things for the kids to do with Dad and give Mom a break!  I may go along some days, but other days I really hope to sit down and enjoy some of my not so kid friendly hobbies (like seed beads LOL!)  I think it will work well for us.

Edie