Year Round Homeschoool? Here’s how we do Spring Break

Now, I won’t say we stick to a year round homeschool schedule by any means. But, in our homeschool, I like to keep things flexible. Sometimes that means we get to have a “summer break” – other times, that means we work a little more throughout the summer. The beauty in homeschool is that you can create it how you want – because it’s yours.

If you do not want to follow the traditional school schedule of 9-week semesters with things like spring and fall break scattered throughout – Then don’t.

For us, we find joy in the holiday season. That’s our biggest break of the year.

Typically, we will stop our regular curriculum after Thanksgiving and start a Christmas-focused curriculum or study. Then we will take the week of Christmas and a week or two after Christmas as well. One year, we took FOUR weeks off for Christmas break — and I wasn’t even mad about it.

The thing I’ve learned about taking “breaks” in homeschool though, is that there’s always going to be a “first day back”. And if you know anything about first days… You know they aren’t always fun and games.

Listen, over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing spring-specific blog posts with you to help get you through the spring slump. I’ll be sharing spring projects, nature study ideas, read-aloud, bucket lists, freebies, and more!

Click here to read the previous spring post: 3 things to teach in your homeschool this spring

This year, I’m toying around with the idea of a year round homeschool — Except, my way.

Let me tell you a little bit about it.

Free Editable Homeschool Schedule Template

Before I jump into the way I set up our year round homeschool, I wanted to share this free editable homeschool schedule template with you!

Now, I created this template to help you create a homeschool you love. My goal is to provide as many resources like this that I can so that you can do just that! This schedule can be edited in two different formats – Canva, an online graphic design space or Google Docs.

Canva will allow you to customize the look and feel of the homeschool schedule template, while Google Docs will simply give you the basics.

I have also included a blank PDF in case you happen to have our digital homeschool planner and want to track your schedule there!

Just let me know where to send the files – Sign up here:

 

Download the FREE Homeschool Schedule Template!

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Our Year Round Homeschool Schedule

We begin our new homeschool year on Labor Day. Our first year, we were so excited to begin that we started as soon as our curriculum arrived — August 5th. You wouldn’t think that a month would make that much of a difference – but when it still feels like summer outside, the last thing you want to be doing is school.

So, the last couple of years, we’ve waited until Labor Day – and it’s extra special! It feels like we’re being little rebels 😅 because the public school kids are already back in school! It’s truly a breath of fresh air for us and by waiting a week or two longer than everyone else, the kids are actually excited for the first day back. #winwinwin

Now, in our state, we are required to homeschool at least 180 days out of the year. So, with the “usual” breaks, this would put us somewhere around the end of June first of July finishing up the year. And no one wants that either.

We’ve found that our kids somewhat “turn-off” around Memorial Day – So I will plan our curriculum choices on a Labor to Memorial Day schedule.

But if you ask our kids, it feels like we still get a lot of breaks – even though we’re technically homeschooling year-round. Here’s why:

We take curriculum breaks.

For example, when we take our three or four week “Christmas Break” – We’re actually only take one or two on the “homeschool record”. Because instead of dropping all school for those weeks, we simply switch to another type of learning style – typically unit studies that are more hands-on.

This feels like fun for the kids, but they’re still learning something new as we work through experiments and recipes. And we will do this all throughout the year! Even last summer, we had science days and I added those days to our homeschool record, because we were learning!

I’ve found that this method not only helps us keep a shorter “school year” – but it also keeps us from feeling burnt out. It keeps things fresh and exciting! And we’re not repeating the same book work over and over again.

If you’re feeling burnt out, restless, or possibly ready to give up – STOP. I would encourage you to try this method of switching things up and see what happens to your homeschool.

I have this free 5-day challenge where I teach you how to create your own unit study – Use this as an opportunity to switch things up for Spring Break and count those “days off” as school days in your homeschool records!

Ideas to help you keep homeschooling through spring break

• Choose a different curriculum or let the kids pick something they want to learn about for the week
• Have “elective” days – Pick something new to study each day: life skills, cooking, creative writing, etc.
• Find another group of homeschool friends who want to homeschool through spring break and form a mini-spring-break co-op!
• Introduce Science Week and new experiments all week long!
• Let the kids sleep in – Forget the homeschool schedule for one week and look at following a rhythm instead! Here are some ideas.
• No writing / Bookwork – Look for learning opportunities without having to research or sit at a desk. Educational TV shows + documentaries, nature walks + scavenger hunts, board games + trivia, etc. etc. etc.

I’d love to hear more about your spring plans in the comments below! And if you loved this post and found it helpful for you, I’d love for you to share it with a friend! 

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