Thursday, January 5, 2012

January Homeschool Year Start

I've read others who start a new school year in January and it really peeked my interest.  After reading how they do it, brainstorming how we would do it, I decided that it was a good fit for us!  So we restructured our homeschool schedule and are putting the starting place at January 9th.  We plan on taking from Thanksgiving through New Years off every year, since those are our busiest times, it just made more sense.  I also find September too busy outside in the garden to "start" a new grade, it just doesn't work for me!

I also like the fact that you can use one calendar to do your planning.  So we are starting second grade on Monday, yes we are already a couple of months ahead but now we can slow down and enjoy more projects and experiments.  I don't like taking off 3 months in the summer because children forget too much in that length of time, so we are just planning to take off days when its sunny - being in the rainy Northwest, those are not a guarantee and we want to enjoy when they come in the summer!  Even on those "days off," we may still be doing 'school' with nature walks and such - life is a learning adventure!

I'm planning in weeks off for my freezer cooking throughout the year, but I only do freezer cooking 4 times a year and one of those falls within our December break.  So, we only need 3 weeks off this year for my freezer cooking.

Here is our schedule for the years to come, although I'm not married to this thing and we will change it to what we feel like - that is the great part about homeschooling!

2012 - 2nd grade
2013 - 3rd grade
2014 - 4th grade
2015 - 5th grade
2016 - 6th grade
2017 - 7th grade
2018 - 8th grade
2019 - 9th grade
2020 - 10th grade
2021 - 11th grade
2022 - 12th grade

It feels so weird to write 2022, wow!  To think that my baby will be finishing high school in 10 years is sad, it seems so short.  I was listening to an audio by Susan Wise Bauer and she was saying how you don't have to do school 12 years, you can do it 14 years if you want!  If my daughter wants later on, we could do a 5-6 year high school, instead of a 4-year one, allowing her more time to finish her learning.  Who knows, but I love having the option!

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