What is a School Year?
Homeschool musings
As spring flowers burst with color and birds fill the air with song, my inbox begins filling with scheduling requests. Evaluation season is about to begin.
“Do you remember my family? I hope we will be done with school by May. We need to schedule a meeting.”
“We’ve had a complicated year. Our evaluations are due in June. How much of our curriculum do we need to finish before you meet with us?”
Sometimes, when we’re used to traditional school structure, it is hard to comprehend the homeschool difference. We have freedom! We have time! Some of our learning happens outside of our “schoolrooms,” and that’s good. We are nurturing lifelong learners.
When I meet with a student, I am not checking off boxes or comparing them with others. My official form simply asks if they are progressing at a level commensurate with their abilities. This provides the homeschool parent with wonderful freedom to meet the needs of each student in the family.
Would you like to follow the public school calendar? Print it out and use it in your planning. Your students will have the freedom to play with their neighborhood friends during vacations, holidays, and teacher workdays.
Do you prefer to work through the hot and muggy summer (this is Florida!) and save your breaks for pleasant fall and spring weather? You may find this option is a perfect fit for your family.
Would you like to spread your vacation time out over all four seasons? This year-round option, used by some school districts, can create a perfect rhythm in your year.
My own family chose to do a mashup of these options. We always headed to the beach on the first day of public school. It felt glorious! We mostly followed the public school calendar but let some subjects, especially math, overflow into the summer. If we didn’t finish our curriculum, that was fine. I knew my young students were learning and growing. Do you realize that many public school classrooms don’t get through the last units in their textbooks either? I could keep that material to continue in the next school year or call it “good enough,” selling it cheaply to another family. The choice was mine!
How do you structure your school year? Give me an answer in the comments. Maybe your idea will be a refreshing change to another homeschool parent! Most of all, enjoy the freedom! We are blessed with the choice to homeschool our families.
