On one of my other blogs the other day, someone asked how we approached schooling; whether or not we went year round or followed a school schedule. There are reasons for doing both schedules, but since my family schools year round, I thought I’d talk about the advantages of doing this first.
Historically Speaking. . .
Our current school calendar, with summers off, is reflective of our agrarian routes. It used to be that children were let off of school during the harvest season to stay home and help with the harvest. Often times, the only way teachers could convince families of the benefit of school was to have it when nothing else was going on–during the winter. Farm families simply weren’t as busy and the children were more free to pursue an education.
Benefits
We enjoy schooling year round for a variety of reasons. However, we started because we could do less work in one day and still make our minimum requirements of 180 days and 900 hours. Doing the math, 900 hours in 180 days is 6 hours per day which was too long for us. However, 900 hours in 300 days is only 3 hours per day and still gives us a substantial time to be off.
Another reason I enjoy schooling year round is because it eliminates the need for review. In traditional school, the first four to six weeks is spent assessing the students and reviewing what they should already know. The cliche, “If you don’t use it, you lose it,” rings true. However, if you school year round, you never have to spend a long time reviewing.
What About Vacation?
We do take vacations or breaks from school–just for shorter periods of time. We take a few days off for Christmas, a few days off at Easter and of course a few weeks during the school year. If you divide the year up, schooling year round means that for every three months, (12 weeks) you can take off about 3 full weeks (15 days). I find the pace to be substantially more relaxed and I also find the paper work to be more manageable.
However, to each his own, and tomorrow I’ll talk about benefits of following a traditional school schedule.