What are your scheules and how do you count it on your attandance record?

I know some of you homeschool all year long. Do you home school five days a week, three days a week?

Last year I went by the public school boad calandar, but I was not happy with that. This year I want to do it different but not sure how.

Can some of you give some input ? Here we have to teach 180 days 4.5 hours a day. I have to turn in attandance record every month.

How do you all do it?

I surpass the required 180 day school year. I see no reason to stop in the summer for such a long break, only to have to spend weeks making up for lost knowledge.

I don't have to turn anything in, but I keep track on calander sheets of how much time we spend each day. I also keep a documented class schedule.

We run our school years from January to December. We take time off in March - April (2 weeks), July (1 week), August (1 week), November (1 week), and December to Januaru (2 weeks). We also take off the odd day here and there. It adds up to about 43 to 44 weeks of study per year. Most weeks is Monday through Friday.

I must tell you, though, that if I were required 4 1/2 hours a day, 5 days a week, I would have to fudge many days. Most kids don't last that long.

We follow our local PS as far as holidays but we are not starting or ending when they do.  We start on Sept 10 and will end in June while the PS starts and end earlier than we do.  I just don't like the starting before Labor day and then  and then have a day off.  I want to start with a full week of school.

Elaine --

I'm in Georgia too.  I school 4 days a week, 45 weeks a year formally, but actually learning happens year-round.  We school 8 weeks on, 2 weeks off and take off about 4 to 5 weeks in the summer for individual delight-directed learning.

Linda in metro Atlanta

I'm in Louisiana and have 180 days required.  Our regular days follow the school year, but we do summer activities as well.  Have you looked at homeschooltracker.com?  it is a wonderful program that will allow you to keep track of days and hours as well.  Their basic program is free and this will be our 2nd year using it. 

We looked at doing year round and I've heard suggestions all over.  The most appealing to us was 3 weeks on/1 week off, then take 2 off in July.   Other were take off a month in December (too much downtown IMO), and 6 weeks on/2 weeks off. 

Instead of year round we are going to do 3 weeks on and on the fourth week take one day off, one day for field trip, one day for goofy classes. Our goofy classes include my son being teacher, he's dying to do that.  Also we'll have a "lite" day where my son will pick 3 classes out of a hat and we do only those 3. 

HTH

Paula

Thanks, I know everyone does it different. We had school two days a week over the summer. I didn't turn that in. what I did was 180 days by following the PS days of attandance, I only turned those days in. I wanted to keep him learning but I wanted to give him a break also.

Is there any book or any where on the internet that shows different peoples scheules?

I like what I have read her, the three weeks on one off sounds great, I also like your ideas on their off days.

We do Monday-Friday for 36 weeks.  We don't take much off for holidays.  I figure the kids can school while I am doing the thanksgiving cooking, etc.  They do crafts and what have you on learning about that particular holiday.  I always found it somewhat stupid to take so many days off when I was in school.

On their summer vacations, etc., my eldest is always reading.  I have them do the tests on Bookadventure.com.  They also get a mark on the board for reading a book.  We do some holiday oriented lapbooks also.

We have to do 180 days at 4 hours.  I have to turn in a calendar marked at the end of the year.  For my eldest, I only turn it in twice a year.  He goes to Homelife Academy.

We have to have 175 days.  I can count church and Sunday School on Sundays.  We try not to do too much in the summer, since good weather is at a premium here, and winter is looong.  I try not to follow the school schedule exactly, since museums and other places can be madhouses during school breaks.  Instead of the February and April vacations the schools here take we take one in March (my older ds' birthdays are slightly over a week apart).

I think a lot of this depends on your state regulations.

Frankly, I've never heard of the "schedules" that you all have! I seriously doubt I even know anyone who does 3 weeks on/1 off! Sounds interesting though.

Here in MO, we have to count HOURS. So for me, it dosen't matter if we are on a "holiday" or not. If we do something educational, I count it. For instance, on the 4th of July I took my girls to hear a little talk on the Star Spangled Banner, speeches by and recognition of war veterans, and a parade on a military base. I counted this as 2 hours of school on July 4th.

We are permitted to start on the 1st of July, and I generally have enough hours by the end of April.

So I guess my answer is . . . .we don't really have a schedule . . . .we learn all the time, as any homeschooler knows :+)