Why We Homeschool Year-Round

Our "official" start of the school year starts next Monday, August 26th. The only reason I chose a specific day to start the school year is to have a bit of a transition from one year to the next. But the reality is that we homeschool year-round. So why did we make that choice? I will discuss some of the reasons in this blog.

Learning never ends

A big reason why we homeschool year-round is because of this! Learning never, ever ends. Both children and adults are constantly learning something new every day. We can't really put homeschooling into a 9 month block. Even children who are not homeschooled are still learning throughout the summer. We may go a little slower in the summer, plan more outings during the nice weather, and use it for an opportunity to do different kinds of learning, but my children are still drawn to learning their letters, math, reading, writing, etc.


More time to cover the same amount of material

Homeschooling year-round allows us to cover the same amount of material in a longer time frame. This gives our children more time to master the material, more time to spend deepening their knowledge of that material, and more time to rest when needed. I set goals every year that we want to cover over the year, so having the full 12 months to do this allows us to meet (or exceed) those goals set out at the "beginning" of the year. We also do not need to spend any time reviewing material from the previous year as we just continue with what they are working on pretty seamlessly.



No school room

We don't have a room where we house all of our materials. We do school in our living room and dining room. Our materials sit on shelves in our living room. They are accessible 24/7, 365 days a year to our children. I don't want to pack up materials at the end of one school year and restore them at the beginning of the next. That makes no sense to me, especially after discussing the first point. This also means that we don't have a set school time, which is totally fine by me.


Flexibility

Our state requirements are pretty lax, and we don't even need to take official attendance until children are 7. That being said, we most likely fulfill the state requirements when it comes to the number of days that we homeschool. By homeschool year-round, we have the ability to take vacations or long weekend trips whenever we want, take breaks or have shortened weeks when necessary, and not worry so much if one of the children gets sick and is not interested in doing work for some time. Flexibility is one of the reasons that we chose to homeschool anyway, but it works out well for us to homeschool year-round.


Odd Schedule

My husband works shift work, which can change suddenly or, at the very least, every six months. Some shifts that he can potentially work would mean that he would never see our children if they were in traditional school. It is another reason that we chose to homeschool, but schooling year-round gives us the opportunity to really work with his schedule in such a way that our children still spend significant time with their dad, have family experiences, and have down time.

So those are the top reasons why we homeschool year-round. Do you homeschool year-round? Or do you have specific months that you use to homeschool? I'd love to hear your thoughts!