Education Short List

The Home School Calendar

One of the largest benefits of home schooling is the ability to create an individualized learning path for each child in the family. A major component of that plan is a child’s learning schedule. Fortunately, for homeschooling parents, there are so many different options for scheduling the learning process. In our house, for example, there is learning going on every day. Other homes may choose to take summers off or take quarterly breaks. Choosing the calendar for home schooling is one of the most personal choices, along with curriculum that a parent faces.

In all reality, there is no significant research that says that one type of calendar is more beneficial than another and, for a home-based education especially, building a calendar to meet the needs of an individual student seems to make sense. When deciding the best method for scheduling, it is important to think about a multitude of factors. These might include health issues that make learning in a certain part of the year more difficult than others or perhaps knowing that child enjoys a particular time of year as opposed to the traditional break in the summer. It may also include acknowledging that children within the home learn differently and therefore would do better with separate learning calendars. Although that may seem difficult, it isn’t actually. All it takes is a little bit of preparation and organization.

For all children involved, coming up with the list of different topics and units that need to be addressed during the school year, in each subject, and matching them to the correct time of year (spring, for example, is a great time to learn about life cycles while winter is beneficial for learning about multicultural holidays). Then, decide if the child does better with small breaks such as long weekends or would do better with longer breaks. Some families find that each child varies and, when that happens, occasionally one child will continue with his or her studies while the other takes a break. This may sound stressful, but it actually gives the parent an opportunity to work one-on-one with a child in order to ensure mastery of concepts that are otherwise juggled in time between multiple children. This works especially well with families that have multiple children with learning issues. I have been known to use this technique when one child needs a break and the other needs to work on a particularly challenging concept.

Whatever choice an educator makes, it must be based on the needs of the child. If it makes sense for the child and meets the requirements set forth by the law of the state in which you reside, it can work with some planning. Usually, that just means that a parent informs the home schooling monitor for the state, county, or school district (depending on state regulations) of the anticipated calendar for the school year and is able to show proof that the schedule was met. This can be done by both dating assignments and creating some kind of learning log that clearly indicates the educational progress of each child and is dated clearly.

In our local area, I know a family that takes a spring vacation rather than summer because the children are involved in many activities during that time of the year and, instead of balancing those interests with a full curriculum, they take a break and start school back up when summer begins. As I mentioned earlier, our family schools year round. This is for a multitude of reasons including my daughter’s precarious health. Year round schooling, for us, ensures that even when health gets in the way of a regular schedule, something is still being learned. It has also proven effective with my ten-year-old son who responds well to learning on a daily basis with the added component of review. Another friend, also the mother of a child with special needs, tends to school year round, as well, but takes frequent breaks when her son is feeling overwhelmed or transitioning with a new medication. Meanwhile, other families do take the summer off and start back when the public schools begin.

Creating the school year calendar can be fun and easy. Just remember to include the child in the process and discuss his or her style of learning. As with anything in life, you, as the parent, have the final say, but basing the decision on the best interest of the child/ren being home schooled is a great way to help ensure success.