Tips & Tricks: School Schedule

Some people might think that homeschoolers just lounge around most of the time, some might think we follow the same schedule as public school. Well, the beauty of homeschooling is that you can choose your schedule. We do not follow the same schedule as public school. Instead, I have chosen that we do school year round. Our school year starts the first Monday in January and we end the Friday before Christmas (so a 47 week school year). I take a week off for the birthdays of both our girls and my husband. I also take Thanksgiving week off. If you have read some of our post before you know that we do school Monday through Friday. Some choose to do school 3 or 4 days a week. It really just depends on what works best for your family.

Now, if you live in a state that has schedule laws for homeschool then you need to follow those but for Texas there are no such laws. The reason why I choose to do year round with very little time off from school is that way she does not have a long summer break to forget things. I noticed when I was in school that a lot of students would forget stuff during their 3 months off; especially with math. With having a longer school year than the normal (which is a 36 week year) we are able to go over less information each day. If our daughter needs more explanation or more work on a certain topic we have the whole day to do so. Unlike public school they have to stick to a strict schedule and even if a student does not understand they do not have the option of staying on a topic until the whole class has a proper grasp of the topic. With homeschooling you have that flexibility.

Our days are much shorter than public school but that does not mean that we are learning any less. I have balanced out each day so that we do not have subjects that are to hard or to easy. Some of our items I have start at the beginning of the year and then when we are done with them a new item starts. This would be like if we had multiple things for a particular subject; often happens with art, STEM and thinking skills class. We do all of our subjects all year long though even if they are not a core subject.

With homeschooling you also have the ability to choose when you do school. I do school in the morning. The number 1 reason I do this is because our daughter does better in the morning. If we were to do school later in the day she would have an attitude about it and I believe if a child has an attitude or is frustrated then they are not learning as well since they are not enjoying it. Below in the comments let me know how you homeschool. Do you school year round like us or have a shorter year? What does your school day look like?

Comments

Review: Sensory Tissue Box

We have been trying out a lot of new baby items this year and here is another one we did not have for our first daughter. It is called Sensory Tissue Box . What makes this toy so much fun? Let's be honest babies love to get into things. We have tried before to let her play with a regular box of tissues. Big mess. The tissues were everywhere and they have like 250 tissues in a box, she torn them up to so an even bigger mess. Our daughter even went as far as to rip the box itself up. This sensory tissue box though is made of very soft fabric so she can not tear it up, it has 15 tissues so less to keep track of and the tissue can not be easily torn up either. This is the biggest positive of this sensory box in my opinion. Another positive to having this sensory tissue box instead of a regular one is that the tissues are different colors and sizes as well as having different textures to them. There are 6 see-through ones, 6 see-through ones that have dots on them and 3 crinkly ones. T

Review: 180 Days of Social Studies 1st

When I noticed that our history class did not have a lot for social studies I decided to look for something to add into our homeschool. I came across 180 Days of Social Studies and decided to try it. So, we started with the kindergarten version and I thought it was quite well done so we have kept it for 1st grade as well. Just like with the kinder one the booklet is done in black and white and I wish it was done in color. It goes over so much but in an easy to understand way for the age group that would be using it. 180 Days goes over American things so if you are homeschooling in another country and not learning about American history then I would look for another curriculum to use. The 1st grade version goes over the systems of government, civics, economics, geography and history. The thing I like best about 180 Days is that you only do a page a day. If your school year is a 36 weeks then you are perfectly set up to do 1 page a day. Since we do a 47 week school year we only do a few

Review: All About Reading Level 4

We have finished All About Reading Level 4 ! I am so glad that we started using this program from All About Learning Press. It is hands-down the best if you want to teach anyone to read. This last level goes over the rare teams, unexpected phonic sounds, and words that are borrowed from other languages. The break down of each lesson is amazing not only for the teacher but the student as well. The games incorporated make it really intriguing for the student. I absolutely love the little readers that come with each level. The lessons are perfectly spaced out so that it isn't too much at one time. I love the way the teacher's manual is done. As a dyslexic teaching another dyslexic I couldn't be happier with the teaching method. A lot of the things taught in all 4 levels of All About Reading I learned for the first time. I had never learned them in public school but am so glad I am able to teach them to my own kids. While most American adults read at a 7-8 grade level my seven

OneLuckeyWife

Search This Blog