When you have a child in public school, charter school or private school you have the benefit of getting a calendar at the beginning of each school year that clearly states when there will be school days and when there will not. Your vacations are defined and you know that you will average 180 days of school for that calendar year.
Well, when you home school, there is no set calendar. It is up to you as your school's administrator, to make that decision. Some families start up in August and end in May, others wait until after Labor Day to begin and go through the end of June. There are families that start out their year thinking they will stick to a traditional calendar similar to that of the public school's but end up teaching through the summer because they did not finish all of their curriculum as planned due to life getting in the way.
A traditional calendar is what most of us grew up with: You started school in late August or Early September and ended in late May or early June. A year-round calendar usually starts in July and you teach for nine weeks and then have off for three throughout the school year. The benefit to the year round calendar is that you spend less time reviewing material from the year before; a lot of kids enjoy their summer break of two to three months and forget all about what was taught the previous year, and who can blame them!
An important rule to remember is that in North Carolina, there is no exact number of days dictated by the NCHE or the NCDNPE. Most families use the 180 days that the public school's use as a guideline but other than that, the number of days that you have to teach in your home is up to you (within reason, of course!).
So with that thought in mind, some of the pressure should be relieved. You now have a guideline and the rest of your decision on your school calendar should be based upon what your family has going on in your life for the upcoming year. Are you planning a vacation? Then you might want to work around that - unless you can turn it in to a teaching vacation - which we will talk about in another article. Is mom expecting a baby? Then you'll want to work your calendar around the time of the expected birth and give mom some time afterwards to recover and get used to having a baby in the house.
Life throws all sorts of things our way - some expected, some unexpected. As home schoolers we have the freedom to teach on days where they cannot in the public schools. We don't have to take off on Federal holidays or weekends. Is there a benefit one way or the other to choosing to teach on a traditional calendar vs. a year round one? Well, that really depends on you, as the teacher and administrator. Most homeschooler's make every day a learning day - whether books are used or not. So look at your calendar, think about what you have planned for the year ahead and remember to take it one day at a time.
Comments
I enjoy reading your blogs. Do you happen to know a resource for pulling your child out of a NC Public School to travel for a year and then putting them back in the next grade? We would be out of the country so don't think we can officially NC Homeschool. Any suggestions?
Hi, May! For a situation such as that, I would suggest talking to the principal or vice-principal of your child's school first. I know many people pull their children out of school a year at a time for other reasons (to homeschool on the short-term). But even though you are going to be out of the country, as long as you are maintaining a mailing address HERE in NC, you should be able to register as a homeschool for that time period. The only problem I see is if your child is in a year-round school where they may fill his spot while you are gone. That's why I would speak to your child's school administrator first. Good luck!
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