Schooling Year Round vs a 10 month calendar
Title: Schooling year-round vs School calendar
The joys and benefits of homeschooling include the ability to learn at your own pace. I can only speak to what has worked for us. Having worked in sales for a long time, I approach our day, week, month, and year in terms of quotas. Here in Louisiana, the law requires us to school for 180 days a year. Don’t tell my kids, but we actually school far more than that!
Let me explain. Because I have dyslexia, I’ve developed certain strategies that work for me. My brain requires repetition, almost to the point of muscle memory. I believe we learn how to learn—it doesn’t just happen. Everyone has their own unique way of absorbing information, and the key is figuring out what works best for you. For us, that means learning a little each day, well beyond the required 180 days. Now, some might say we’re always learning, and yes, I believe that too! But for those of us with a processing disorder, our learning receptors aren’t always on, nor can they be turned on at will when we say, “It’s time to learn.” That’s why I use a muscle memory approach—a kind of slow drip! As you get older, it becomes easier to pinpoint what triggers your learning switch, and for most people, interest is the key.
In our house, we work hard to find our rhythms—rhythms in our sleep, our eating, and our learning. If you pay attention, everything has a rhythm! This was very challenging for me when I first married my husband, started having kids, and started a business (we’re entrepreneurs). My husband runs faster (figuratively) than anyone I’ve ever met! For the first 10 years of our marriage, he was always moving on to the next big project. This was exhausting for someone with a processing disorder who is also an introvert. I know it might be surprising, but I am an introvert! An introverted/extrovert, but mostly an introvert. I need downtime; I need processing time.
Okay, back to everything having a rhythm. I love seeing trends and patterns in things, and don’t shoot me, but Facebook has actually helped me recognize the trends and patterns—the rhythms of our life. We vacation at the same time every year. Not because we’re ruled by a work or school calendar, but simply because that’s when we naturally vacation. This realization opened up a new world for me! Could it be that our bodies have built-in breaks we need to take? Are we more inclined to learn during certain times? Living in Louisiana, could the overbearing heat be a factor? I began to chart this. We want to hibernate and school from January through early March. We want to be outside from March through early May, so we school four days a week. From mid-May through September, we school heavily to escape the heat and the crowds. From September through December, we school lightly—three days a week. Also, during the heat of the summer, if we don’t have a project like flipping a house, we work physically on the weekends and school on the weekends. So yes, we school year-round, but we school in rhythm.
In my calendar, I work with a quota for each month. At the end of the month, I review whether we met or exceeded the quota and adjust the other months accordingly.
The majority of our vacations are educational because we LOVE living history museums. We spend about 20 days a year on the road for educational purposes, and we don’t pack our school materials with us. However, we do have a complete educational plan for these trips. More on that later—I LOVE educational travel.
Homeschooling offers the incredible freedom to tailor education to the natural rhythms of life, allowing us to learn at our own pace and in a way that best suits our unique needs. In our family, we’ve embraced this flexibility, finding the perfect balance between structure and spontaneity. By aligning our schooling with the seasons, our energy levels, and our interests, we’ve created an environment where learning happens naturally and joyfully. It’s not about cramming 180 days into a calendar year; it’s about nurturing a lifelong love of learning that flows with the rhythm of our lives. I look forward to sharing more of our adventures and strategies, especially our love for educational travel, in future posts. Thank you for joining me on this journey!