Ready for the New Year?

We are. I just finished packing last year's curriculum and unpacking the new year's. The boys are ready to begin again on Monday. Everything in the dining room is cleaned up and organized and ready to go.

So, do you have your curriculum? Are you ready to dig into it? Are you excited about teaching it, and are your kids excited about studying it? Well, what are you waiting for? There's no time like the present.

As homeschoolers, we have the freedom to arrange our schedule any way we want to. My boys do not enjoy having three months off at one time. Like most kids, they get bored. So, we don't take three months off at one time. We've been off for one month, and now they are ready to begin. So, on Monday, we will begin again. We will have more time off in the summer than we do the rest of the year, but we will do several weeks in July and in August, and then get really serious about it at the end of August. This gives us more freedom and flexibility with our schedule. We can take off other times throughout the year and not be pressured to put our noses to the grindstone to get our 180 days in.

I like to take extra time off at Christmas time, and we may have extra time off here and there between September and November, before the weather gets too cold. When it's winter and really cold outside, we really dig into the schoolwork, and we never have too much trouble finishing up by the end of May. Sometimes we even finish by the beginning of May. We usually do more than the required 180 days too, just because I like to have that cushion and because there may be some loose ends that need to be tied up in one or two subjects.

Some people, plan their whole schedule for school, and if they do year-round like I do, they may do three weeks of school and take a week off and rotate it like that. I don't lay out my whole schedule. I simply keep an attendance sheet that has the days counted and as I mark them off I know where we are. I simply take off when we want to, or sometimes we may need to like if there is a family emergency or something. We have that freedom. So I don't have a rigid schedule. I just make sure that I am counting and that we are staying on track that we won't be pressured in the last month to squeeze a bunch of days in.

Yes, there are those who still feel the desire or need to take the whole summer off and do. There's nothing wrong with that. That's what's so great about homeschooling. There are so many freedoms and opportunities that other children miss out on. I love the flexibility we have. It makes life easier and less stressful.