Year-Round Homeschooling vs. School-Term Homeschooling

One of the first things parents think about when homeschooling is the schedule. You could easily spend a few hours browsing Pinterest looking for the perfect schedule.

But you will never find one.

Why? Because your family is different and unique from every family out there. So while it’s great to get some ideas, it’s ultimately best if you create your own.

One of the first things to consider whether you want a school-term homeschooling or year-round homeschooling.

Term-based vs. Year Round

School-term schooling typically refers to parents who school their children during a specific period of time, very similar to the public school system in you area. For example, you might choose to homeschool from September to June (which follows the Canadian public school system). At the end of the final term, you would take an extend break like a summer holiday.

Year-round schooling is exactly as it sounds. You homeschool year-round. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t get a break. Year-round homeschoolers often take several smaller breaks throughout the year. There’s something called Sabbath Schedule, where you teach for 6 weeks and then take a week to rest (like God worked to create the world for 6 days and rested on the 7th). And while that works for some religious homeschoolers, even secular homeschoolers can benefit from taking shorter breaks throughout the year.

Which is Best?

There is no one answer. It’s really what works for your family. There are pros and cons to each schedule.

School-Term Homeschooling

Pros

• It follows the public system, which means you can take advantage of various programs likes camps for your children
• You have a longer break for holidays
• The longer break means you have more time to plan, organize and order things (supplies, curriculums, etc) for the next school year.
• The shorter school year means that you have a more structured day and a stricter routine

Cons

• Learning can be lost over the summer.
• Feeds into the idea that learning is something that is done at a particular time, place, and in a certain way.

Year-Round Homeschooling

Pros

• Learning stays sharp because kids don’t have big breaks to forget the lessons they were learning
• Fosters the idea that learning can happen “anytime, anyplace”
• Allows kids to go a little more at their speed
• A more flexible and relaxed schedule (3-day week, 4-week)
• Easy to move away from grades

Cons

• A less structured routine
• Can feel like school never ends
• You have less time to plan your next year
• Can be more expensive, if your child finishes their curriculum earlier than you anticipated.

What do we do?

We personally do year-round homeschooling. It just works with our family. We like it for several reasons. We can encourage our kids love of learning based on their interest and not on the schedule

1. We can school only a few days a week, and focus the rest of the time on following the kids interests, activities and spending time with friends and family (aka. socialization)
2. We want to foster a love of learning that goes beyond “school”. By schooling year-round, we hope to encourage them to see learning as something that can happen at any point in time, and not just “during the school year”.
3. We can take time off when we needed. If the kids get the flu for a week, it’s no big deal. Mom’s got a conference in the middle of April, great! We take the entire month of December off, just so we can fully embrace the season and all the festivities that come with it.

Picking a schedule for your homeschool is a very personal decision. Both are valid options and only you can pick the one that works for your family.