Why Year Round Homeschool is So Easy

There is a beautiful ebb and flow that homeschooling follows when done right. It is difficult to tell where school begins and everyday life ends. The two mesh into one moment of learning. This process happens over and over each day which, in the end, makes up our way of life. The lack of separation between school and other activities enables us a unique opportunity.

Because of this lifestyle, year-round homeschooling is one of the easiest things in the world for us. It just comes naturally. Our lives are not separated into segments, but rather moments; moments of learning.

Many homeschoolers chose this lifestyle for its freedom; freedom to learn what and how you want and freedom to choose when you learn it. It’s so nice to be able to have such a flexible schedule that if you need or even want today off, then that is totally an option.

I truly believe that your homeschool schedule should fit your life and not that your life should revolve around your homeschool schedule. Everyone is different and you should find what works for you.

What Is Year-Round Homeschooling?

So, what is year-round homeschooling anyway? Well, although I will share with you many ways of applying year-round homeschooling in your life, by definition it is the absence of the traditional three-month summer break.

Now, before you start thinking, ‘School every day? I can barely do school for nine months. I need that break,’ let me show you how year-round school may be even easier than the traditional school year.

A Little School Every Day Approach

With some states requiring a set amount of hours each year, homeschooling year-round makes even more sense. Before we moved, our state required 1000 hours each year with 600 being core hours of social studies, science, language arts, and math and 400 of everything else. The traditional homeschool year is 180 days and year-round homeschooling can include 250 weekdays. Year-round homeschooling would mean that those core hours would only take 2 ½ hours a day, legally! This number is even lower if you choose to do school on weekends as well.

Be sure to check your state laws before beginning any new homeschool schedule as each state is a little different.

Where to Begin

To begin, you might want to figure how many hours you want to accomplish each day. You might prefer to keep things laid back and simple and just, as we say, ‘do some school’ each day. Fitting just 2 ½ hours into your day is very easy. Then, the rest of the day can be spent pursuing those ‘other’ fun subjects.

One of the many benefits of year-round homeschooling is that there is no disconnect made between learning and life. There is no summer “break”. I don’t believe there should ever be a break from learning. With the traditional school schedule, kids tend to get the idea that learning only happens at certain times and this is not true.

The parents, on the other hand, may need a break; a break from planning and record keeping and getting up every morning to prepare. There is an easy compromise for this.

The Easy Summer Learning Approach

There is a way to do year-round homeschooling that gives parents the break they might need. Let me share with you what we have always done. You see, although I love the idea of year-round homeschooling, doing bookwork every weekday would greatly interfere with our time spent with extended family throughout the summer. I DO, however, educate my children year-round. Let me show you the difference.

We follow a fairly traditional school year taking a break from May-July. Although the planning and bookwork end in May, the learning does not. Many times each week, I will spot teaching/learning moments and just jump in. Now, my kids never now that they are learning but at the end of the summer they have learned to swim, they know all the constellations and can name several birds in our backyard.

I keep a simple summer homeschool journal that I write these activities in when they come up. Sometimes this journal will read: nature walk, observe crawfish, learn to make smoothies. There are many activities and learning experiences that can be incorporated into your year-round summer season.

I have shown you two options: planning a traditional school year and enjoying learning activities through the summer, or doing a smaller amount of traditional schoolwork each weekday and spending lots of afternoon hours doing learning activities. There is a third option, too.

The Flexible Schedule Approach

As I mentioned earlier, it is so nice to have a flexible homeschool schedule; to be able to plan days that you work and take off days that you want. You might find that being able to take a break when you or your children are just feeling overwhelmed is life-changing. When you no longer feel pressured to follow a certain schedule, you begin to embrace every day just knowing that if things get too much, you can let it all go for a day and just catch up.

The third approach to year-round homeschooling is to plan a regular school year, typically about 180 days, and do those 180 days all throughout the year. You can take off a whole month at Christmas time and work all through June if you want. This is probably the most common approach. It is a great way to embrace every learning opportunity that comes along.

All-in-all, the idea is making your life, and your summer, exactly what you want it to be. You can enjoy a leisurely learning summer or a slightly structured summer or you can do school some days and hit the beach and leave it all behind on the other days. It’s up to you.

Whatever you decide, year-round homeschooling is not only possible but because it is easy and flexible, it just might be one of the best homeschooling decisions that you could ever make.