Our "Normal" Homeschooling Schedule

When we first started homeschooling, we followed the traditional school year and week; we schooled from late August/September through May or June...and Monday through Friday. A few years later, we tweaked it slightly to sort of mimic the year-round track of some really good friends of ours, so the kids could get together and have the same time off. I really like that schedule because that's where I got the idea of taking off from before Thanksgiving through New Year's. I didn't have to try to squeeze school in around dealing with the hectic schedule of the holidays.

A few years into that schedule, the kids joined a homeschool bowling league on Mondays. It met at noon. Since we're all pretty much night owls, it was very difficult to get any schooling in before bowling...let alone after it. We adjusted our school week to be Tuesday through Saturday.

Shortly thereafter, I also realized that a big 6-8 week break during the holidays was great for everything but academics. We shifted our school year to begin mid-January and end the first week of November. (Some years we've schooled through November, but we aim to be done the first week.) No, we don't take the summers off because it's generally too hot here to do anything. So why not school then anyway? We're already staying inside.

There ya have it. We school mid-January through around November and Tuesday through Saturday. Oh! We also don't start school until after lunch. Talk about being rebels! None of the kids are in the bowling league anymore. (Two are graduated.) We do still meet one of the families we met on the league for lunch and talking every Monday instead. It's our crazy, mixed-up homeschooling life, and it works wonderfully for us!