Year Round Homeschooling

We were first introduced to year round schooling when we were living overseas in Papua New Guinea as missionaries. At first I found this year-round school schedule awkward and hard to get used to. But after a few years I grew to really like it. The more balanced rhythm to the year made sense to me and I noticed that my kids did well with it too. Shorter school breaks meant less time for them to forget what they had learned. And, starting back to school was easier because there was less time spent re-learning things that would have been forgotten over a longer school break.

So, when we settled into life in the USA I realized that with homeschooling I had the flexibility to plan our school year in whatever way worked best for our family. By the way, that flexibility and control over our schedule is one thing I really appreciate about homeschooling! Okay, now for the details of how this works for us.

No, homeschooling year round does not mean that all we do is school, school, and more school. I choose this method of scheduling partly because it allows us to feel like we have more breaks, not less. I look ahead at the calendar and map out our school weeks and our breaks so that I have a clear picture of our school year. I like to have 6 “terms” that are approximately 6-7 weeks long. In between each term we take a short break (anywhere from a few days to a week or two). I use this time to evaluate how things are going, plan for the next term, and rest and prioritize doing fun things with the kids (of course I try to incorporate fun things throughout the school terms too, but you know what I mean).

Okay, so here’s how this works practically. In Washington state we have 180 school days in a year. That equals 36 full weeks of school days. Which breaks down to six 6-week terms. Of course there are holidays in there and we have to leave room for sick days, etc. But, with 52 weeks in a year, dedicating 36 weeks to school means there are still 16 weeks leftover for break time. I take 2 of those 16 weeks to cover holidays and sick days and plan for 14 weeks of break time. I plan for 3 weeks off at Christmas time and 6 weeks off in the summer. That leaves me with 5 weeks of break to spread throughout the rest of the school year.

Here’s how it looks for us for the 2022-2023 school year:

Aug 1 - Sept 2 = Term 1 (25 days)

Sept 5 - Sept 23 = Break (Camping and vacation to Yosemite!)

Sept 26 - Nov 18 = Term 2 (40 days)

Nov 21 - Nov 25 = Break (Thanksgiving)

Nov 28 - Dec 16 = Term 3 (15 days)

Dec 19 - Jan 6 = Break (Christmas)

Jan 9 - Feb 17 = Term 4 (30 days)

Feb 20-24 = Break

Feb 27 - Mar 31 = Term 5 (25 days)

April 3 - April 7 = Break (Easter)

April 11 - June 16 = 48 days (a few extra days planned here to allow for anything unforeseen…we may finish a bit early)

June 16 - July 28 = Break (Summer)

July 31, 2023 = First day of next school year!