Academic Terms in Homeschooling?

Why Scheduling Terms Can Help Your Homeschool!

Scheduling your homeschool can be a little bit overwhelming. There are so many great schedules out there and every family has such a unique rhythm, it can be a little tricky to figure out what works for your family.

Deciding whether you’ll homeschool year-round or on a school term is one of the first things you’ll need to decide.

Regardless of whether you homeschool year-round or on a school-term, we really believe that every homeschooler can benefit from having academic terms in their year.

By terms, we mean that you find a way to divide your year up, giving yourself a point (or a few) throughout the year to stop and see how things are going.

First we are going to take a moment and define a few different term options you’ve probably heard of.

Semester: Half a school year (typically 15-18 weeks) at which there is a change in subjects being studied. Very common in high schools.

Term: Typically found in elementary schools where the subjects are taught for the full school year. Often the year is broken down into 3 terms. The length is determined by the school or homeschooling parent. There is also usually a rather large break (for example a summer break after the 3rd term).

Quarters: Four 3-month blocks of time. This timeline is often used by businesses and financial institutions, but many year-round homeschoolers like this to break down their year.

Now that you understand what each of these words mean, you might be wondering why you need to schedule your homeschooling using one of these breakdowns. Why do you need terms or quarters?

The end of a term or quarter is the perfect time do several things that will help make your homeschooling successful. Take an afternoon, a day or even a weekend (or even a week), and do these 4 things to help you keep your homeschooling moving forward.

Reflect

At the end of the term, you can look back and see what worked and what didn’t. You can look at fixing what needs to be fixed, tweeking your schedule to better fit your needs or ditching the curriculum and trying something new.

Regard the Future

It’s also the time to start looking ahead and making some of your plans a little more solid. Booking a field trip? Now is the time. What books will you need in the next few months? Make a list with your library so they are ready to be reserved for you.

Re-set

It’s the perfect time to reset your homeschool. We like to take some time at the end of the term to tidy up our homeschool area. It’s the time to see what we’re low on, and restock.

Record

Some provinces and states require that you have records of what your kids are learning. Take some time now to get caught up on your records, fill our our files and get your paper work in order. We are lucky that we don’t have that kind of requirement in Ontario, but I still make notes on what worked for us and what didn’t, so that this time next year, I’m better prepared. I also make a list of ideas, themes, trips, etc. for the future. It makes my life easier to look back and see that this field trip was awesome but that book fell flat for us.

Another reason you want to use some kind of breakdown is because you want to give yourself a timeline if you are trying something new. Those first few weeks of a new class, curriculum or schedule might have some growing pains. That’s okay. But you don’t want to throw in the towel after 1 week. By using a term or a quarter, you give yourself a realistic chance to see if it’s just growing pains or if it’s really not working.

How do you choose?

Usually, its choosen for you. If you are using online courses for your highschooler, you’ll probably use semesters because that’s what the on-line schools use.

But, most homeschoolers use terms or quarters. School-term homeschoolers often use 3-terms to divide their year while year-round homeschoolers can pick between terms (3) or quarters (4).

But how you break down you year is up to you.

We homeschool year-round, but with 3 terms; September to December, January to April, May to August. Why? Because this is the schedule that works for our family and how our year flows naturally.

Hopefully this will help you figure out which school-year breakdown works best for your family!