We are relatively new to homeschooling and I am already planning for the fall. I initially thought we would work on a “regular” school year, but keep hearing more and more people talk about year round schooling. So, I’m wondering…
Do you? What are the advantages/disadvantages? Do you do a full, part curriculum? Do you do more “fun” things, life skills, or do you utilize “real” school materials? Thanks in advance!
We do year round and love it. It allows us to take time off when we need to without getting concerned about being behind. We tend to take longer breaks in the spring and fall when the weather is nice. Then we buckle down and do more school work in the winter and summer when the weather is yuck and we are stuck inside anyways. We also tend to take our vacations in the fall when it is cheaper and less crowded everywhere. Plus having a consistent schedule is really helpful for our family. Everyone knows what to expect and there are no major changes.
This is my first year homeschooling and we will be doing it all year round. We take off almost the whole month of December and vacation thought the year. Over the summer will be light homeschooling with lots of science projects, crafts, baking, and other fun stuff. Summer will be fun learning!!
We will be homeschooling part of the summer, taking about 5-6 weeks off. We’ll keep it light, lots of read alouds, science and messy art.
I have been considering year round as well and I have another question to add to the list, how do you deal with the issue of public school friends being out of school when you are not? My son has no problem taking a day off when they have school but hates the thought of having school when they don’t!
We school all year around. We go from March to March. It works for us because it allows us to take breaks whenever we are getting burnt out or we have holidays, vacations, etc. I haven’t found a disadvantage yet.
Because of my daughter’s learning challenges, we do math and reading year round. During the summer months, when her older siblings (who are in high school at a public school) have summer break, we do math/reading 3x/week. It feels like a break for her, but we remain fairly consistent. It’s how we compromise. 
We love year round school. It has had only pros for us. This schedule gives us the ability to enjoy our holidays. When the kids are sick we do not do school no pressure. There is no summer memory loss. It was horrible trying to get the kids and myself back on schedule when we used to take the summer off.
We school year round, but take days off liberally when we need to. During the summer we sometimes miss a week here and there for VBS (we sometimes still try to get some school done in the afternoons) or visits to grandparents.
We try to start reasonably early on summer days and get as much done as we can before the neighbor kids are out. We try to be flexible in how much we get done and when we do it to give them as much playtime as possible.
I would love to do a 4 day week yet year round school starting this fall. Not sure how I’m going to work that out yet though.
We also initially thought of sticking with a regular schedule, but the freedom to take breaks to ensure no burn out has become wonderful, which turns our year into a more year round schedule. You dont have that long break to allow any rusty minds develop. But remember do what works best for your family, thats the joy of homeschooling 
You could do light study in the summer, or unit studies just to keep learning actuve. Thats what we plan this summer. Do more hands on, 4th july activites, etc.
We do the same thing. Love it.
For us, doing school year round frees up time to do fun things when everyone else is in school. We can take vacations when places are less crowded, or take all of December off just for crafts. During the summer (June - Aug) we do school, but cut back on some of our subjects and replace them with more nature activities and garden tending.
I agree with you! We stick with a schedule that is very similar to the public school schedule because my kids like to have sleepovers and do things with their friends that go to public school. However, we use summers to really explore the special interests that the kids have or use the summer to do things that are easier to study in the summer like Apologia Zoology 1 and Botany. Its just easier for us to study bugs and flowers in the summer!
Yes exactly! Make learning fun and most importantly relatable. Bugs, flowers and plants, much better to study when you can actually see it!
We are year round schoolers. Part of the reason is we live in the south, where it is too hot to do much else in the summer 
We take a month off for Christmas and spend December getting ready for Christmas - from reading a Christmas book every day, to doing crafts, and eating foods from various countries as we learn about the traditions in the specific country… still school - yes, but fun 
We do something similar for Easter, though we only take off about two weeks. This allows for days that just go awry, with health problems, hubby’s deployments or TDYs (he is military), and just life in general - which for us includes a new baby every other year… literally! This also keeps math fresh in their minds, and the kids find more time to learn the extra things… to do unit studies about things they love and are interested in. For example, my oldest (11 yo) is currently doing a unit study on horses and herbs. She doesn’t have a strict time frame, but rather fits it around her other schooling. My 9 yo is doing one on the Civil War - he LOVES studying history, especially the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. My 7 yo wants to do one on birds, but we haven’t gotten there yet For us it allows a schedule - a normality. There are not usually many days where the kids are looking at me saying “I’m bored” because there is always something to do. We also LOVE adding in Keepers at Home and Contenders of the Faith activities in, giving them something fun to look forward to, but in reality is still school. As far as schooling when the public school kids are out… it hasn’t been too much of an issue for our family, because if there is a “play day” at the park, we either shorten our school for that day or take the day off. I don’t schedule really far out, as far as day to day, but rather what I want to accomplish for the “year”. Which usually means finishing the book.
We do school year round here! I love it because we can take extra time off through the year if needed and we don’t have to worry about playing “catch up”. It also allows for any unforeseen illnesses. When we get to summertime I try to just keep things light…but by then were usually pretty much through all of the subjects so there really is only a few that we need to focus on. Math and Reading are just ongoing. I like how she doesn’t forget what she has learned, so I don’t have to worry about reviewing everything. It doesn’t bother her because she doesn’t play with any of the neighborhood kids anyway. There is a lot of older people in the neighborhood and any kids are usually with a babysitter so they aren’t home through the summer anyway. We do have a family that homeschools a few doors down, they are older boys so she really only plays with them on a rare occasion. Play dates just have to be scheduled for us…but that’s another issue, lol.
We’re are going to try year round schooling this next school year. I really think it’s going to be a good thing for us! I’m excited.
This is our third year of homeschooling and I’m planning on going through the summer this year… even though everything is a “learning” experience… I was struck with how much our 7 yr lost over the summer and we had to “catch up”… and even harder to get back into a routine. So this summer, I’m thinking of switching to Moving Beyond the Page curriculum and then doing lots of science experiments - something he will love… and maybe get to those things like artists and composures that we don’t get to during the year. I also want to beef up his latin from classical conversations.