Using rubberbands to make patterns on the RightStart Math geoboards.
Recently I've been thinking about when to end this school year.
Initially I wanted to be done with kindergarten by Memorial Day so we could have the whole summer off. But then I reconsidered what our school schedule should be.
A traditional 9 months on, 3 months off?
I like the idea of not doing schoolwork for 3 months, but didn't like the idea of wasting time doing review in the fall.
Year round?
That would mitigate the need for lots of review, and maybe be a bit more flexible. This post on The Pioneer Woman gave me lots to consider.
If we did year round, what kind of schedule would we use?
There are many variations that people use, and after considering them, I looked at the calendar and some of the things we have planned for the next year or two and then tried out a couple options. This post was a good starting point, even though it doesn't quite work for our schedule.
In the end, this is what I came up with for the next school year:
4 weeks vacation (June 24 to July 21)
6 weeks school (July 22 to September 1)
2 weeks off (September 2 to September 15)
6 weeks school (September 16 to October 27)
2 weeks off (October 28 to November 10)
6 weeks school (November 11 to December 22)
4 weeks vacation (December 23 to January 19)
6 weeks school (January 20 to March 2)
2 weeks off (March 3 to March 16)
6 weeks school (March 17 to April 27)
2 weeks off (April 28 to May 11)
6 weeks school (May 12 to June 22)
4 weeks vacation (June 23 to July 20 )
We get 36 weeks of school, with frequent, shorter vacations. The vacation schedule is flexible, allowing for illness, adoption (hopefully!), and other happenings that we can't schedule. If we start to burn out (there will be a lot more schoolwork and structure in first grade than we did in kindergarten), we can even do 3 weeks on/1 week off/3 weeks on/1 week off.
Have you tried a year-round schedule? Did you like it? What worked? What didn't?
