Well, here we go again… Another summer has come and gone; it is time to once again hit the books. (Not that we ever really stop, mind you. It just lightens up a little bit.) Starting this morning, our learning year is now in session!
Everything is ready to go, materials are all in place, and the kiddos are ready to tackle this year’s projects. It’s time to put all that planning, organizing, and prep to good use. We are very excited to see what this coming year brings. Each year holds something special for us and tons of memories to look back on.
Our prayers and thoughts go out to all of you who will be starting your year soon. May the Lord guide you in your planning and show you His path for your family’s learning. May you be filled with His peace, wisdom, and joy. We look forward to reading about all of your exciting homeschooling adventures, projects, and outings.
May the Lord use all of us mightily in this coming year!
Time to Chime In: When does your learning year begin?
“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” – Proverbs 16:9
A Homeschool Mom 
We begin the week after Labor Day. I follow the “old time” school schedule which works well for our family. Summertime means lots of garden work, preserving and canning around our house. I say we never really stop though. It’s just not book work May-August. It’s life skills! (:
LikeLike
We never really stop, but we do slow down in the summer. We get back to full time school in mid to late August…at the same time public school starts around here. I hope you’re having a fantastic first day of the school year!
LikeLike
This is our last week of rest! We just finished up a show, so we are taking the week to recoup before our structured learning begins. Have a great week!
LikeLike
We were scheduled to begin today – but that was before my summer filled so much that I have yet to finish my planning! That has never happened before in the 11 years we have been schooling at home! So we will be piece-mealing it. Math begins today, Science for Kindergarten and 6th grade starts tomorrow, history begins for every one after I get to the library some time this week. Nothing like beginning already out of sequence! The bonus is – I build in a week off every six weeks just in case of situations such as this – built in make up days! Woohoo! I love the freedom of home schooling. 🙂
LikeLike
Absolutely! One of the many joys of homeschooling, is being able to do things differently each year. (Even if you never intended it to be that way. 🙂 ) Good luck with the planning and have fun!
LikeLike
We begin three weeks after the previous year ends. We finish up in June, take three weeks off, and then start at the beginning of July. We just started week 5 today, which means we are getting close to our first break. We go year round with a one week break every six weeks and three weeks off for Christmas and “summer break”.
The year round thing works for us. I want learning to be a thing we do all of the time, I want it to feel like a natural part of life, so we do it in every season instead of limiting it to certain parts of the year. And the extra time we have means we can stretch things out, take some things slower if we want, really dive in and follow things that interest us, or even get ahead. We school for 40 weeks and most curriculum seem to be based on 32 weeks (some cover 36), so we have plenty of time to play with.
LikeLike
I know you’ve mentioned in the past that you school six on, one off. I didn’t realize you did this year round though. That is wonderful.
Technically, we don’t take a ‘summer break’; we just change up our routine for summer time. We take a three week break at Christmas; one for Thanksgiving; one for Easter; one at the end of our ‘school year’; and another at the beginning. Other than those few weeks, we school all year round.
This is the first year I have thought about adjusting this routine and working in a few more breaks; so we are! Similar to your own pattern, we will be learning for nine weeks and then taking a week break. I think it will work nicely.
Thank you for the inspiration to take a few more, well deserved, rests. I think it will be a lovely change. 🙂
LikeLike
When we were starting our first year one of the first things I knew was that I wanted to do a year-round schedule, but I wasn’t sure what it would look like. We first tried a six-on-two-off schedule. We realized during our first break that two weeks was too long for us for normal breaks. And we aren’t so rigid with it that we can’t make adjustments when we need them. We do three of the six week segments, then we finish up with a two week wrap-up period before Christmas and year end, and we can adjust so that we get our break on Thanksgiving or Easter as needed. That gets us to forty weeks without having to go for too long. We’ve found that frequent short breaks refresh us without getting us out of rhythm.
LikeLike
It definitely sounds like you have a plan that works for you. That’s great!
LikeLike
Starting school is horrible. I’m serious, but don’t start sighing yet! The reason I state this is because we abruptly are starting back to an earlier school. After the first couple of weeks, it gets a lot easier. I don’t mind once we settle into a regular schedule.
LikeLike
I’m following my states school schedule. Start September 2, the day after Labor Day. This is going to be my first time so I am hoping this works out for me.
LikeLike
I see no reason it shouldn’t! Have fun! 🙂
LikeLike