3 Reasons We Don't Homeschool Year-Round | We take a full summer break! 🌞 

You have to do what makes sense for your homeschool when it comes to this! I have ALWAYS (11 yrs) schooled year round, but this year, I am feeling like a little longer break is in order for this year, so I am rolling with it. For some reason, I am needing this break. My kids in a way too, but I just need a break. So this week we are doing "project school". You know, all those hands on things we just didn't get to that I wanted to do. We did cave painting today (Story of the World) and my kids had so much fun! I did have my older ones do math too because we are trying to fill some gaps with Math U See. I do LOVE year round schooling mainly for the flexibility that it gives me all year long. I never have to worry about "getting it all done". There is always ample time to finish things each year - our school year runs July to May. Then June is "summer school".

I wanted to school year round but my kids always wanted to have a big summer break. Mostly because of friends who also had this big break and wanted to spend time with them. So we have always followed a public school schedule as well for same reasons. I will say as years have gone on I have really liked having this big break, it really feels like a break and it takes me so long to rest, so a big break has been very helpful. We are done as well. I think if I had my way and we did year round I think I would have missed not having a big break. I would feel like we were always schooling. We have never struggled with the summer slide, we always review when needed during the school year. We do no academics during summer, reading is only if people want. I read alot.

I don’t even know what to call what we do because we don’t school year round but we don’t take our break in the summer. So instead of taking a break in the summer we take it November-January. The weather is great and we can go everywhere and it’s not crowded. Also traveling before the holiday season starts its cheaper. If something pops up in the summer we take time off and enjoy it too. That’s one of the benefits of homeschooling. Last year we did take almost two months off because I had surgery- so I just took the break in December instead of November (added the month there) and it was still good. I like hearing other families experiences and what works for them.

We have done both as seasons made it necessary. We started schooling the traditional school year. Then I had 3 babies in 4 years and the year round schedule worked better. My youngest is 2 now and our year round cycle will finally end next year in May so we will be transitioning back to the typical year so we can have summers off again.

I say we school year round but we don’t follow a strict schedule. I do two weeks off for each season, with the second week as a slow start back, like just morning time, bible curriculum work, and an interesting subject like geography right now. So there’s 8 full weeks without core subjects or strict lesson plans.

Are you a summer break family or a year-round family?