2015 Homeschool Changes: Schedule Changes (Big Blocks of Time)
We’ve always run a year-round schedule and said we’d take breaks when needed.
We start our Academic Year in January, sometime after N-boy’s birthday. We end the Friday before Thanksgiving Week.
In 2015 we’re going to adopt the idea I first read about in Angelina Stafford’s article, “And on the Seventh Day God Rested: Using the Principle of the Sabbath to Organize Your School Year.”
We need some breaks built in so we can reset things like a clean house, laundry, brains, etc. We need to see a stopping point and a starting point.
Mystie is great at pushing people to plan and look forward to big events in the year with interval planning and because of her I have already looked to 2015 and started to block off those intervals for schooling *and* the off weeks. I hope that having those times set in stone will help us with habit formation and general sanity keeping.
Here are some other resources I’m learning from:
Simply Convivial: A Year-Round Homeschool Schedule
Teaching From Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakeable Peace (particularly Brandy’s interview)
CiRCE: Teaching From a State of Rest
Classical Christian Homeschooling: Beating Homeschool Burnout
Do you have any links or resources for a six week on, one week off schedule?
We've always done the "year-around schedule & take breaks when needed" thing too but last year & this year I sat down and made committed breaks on the calendar. It was wonderful- gave us something to look forward too & helped mama actually stop at break time. I've learned we need a true BREAK from all lessons!
Of course, trials made me have to adapt my schedule but that's okay!
Having a plan can help with flexibility. I'm glad to hear your good experience.
This year we're schooling six and then breaking for a week–sort of a jubilee/sabbath week. We tried this once before the year our youngest was born, but because of his April due date I scrapped the plan and went back to full-on school so we could finish earlier. This year it's going okay, though because of our out of the house commitments they aren't true breaks.
Yes music lessons and sports definitely continue without being on my schedule. But that's OK.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
I love the idea of resting on the 7th week of school. I tried to click on your link to Angelina Stafford's article, but it said that this blog was open to invited readers only. Do you know how I could ask to be an invited reader? Thank you!
I'm sorry; I'm not an invited reader to that blog – she must have taken it entirely private.
I can recommend resources about 6on/1off on simplyconvivial.com