This is our sixth year homeschooling. Each year has looked a little different than the last and this year is no exception.
I'm watching many of our homeschool friends post their "first day of school" pictures, but for us, there's not really a "first day."
We homeschool all year round.
Why? Because freedom. Because life.
When we keep our schoolyear going all year long, we can take shorter breaks whenever we want. With my husband being a pilot, he comes and goes pretty randomly. My job is wherever I am, but there are trips here and there throughout the year. Also, life happens and some days were just not meant to be spent doing school. Maybe that's because it's a perfect day for an adventure, or maybe it's because everyone is busy rolling Thieves and DiGize all over themselves with a bowl in their lap (aka: not feeling well). Either way, there's no stress this way. This non-stop flow gives us the freedom to pause school whenever we need to or want to without worrying about getting behind!
The first year we homeschooled, we started in the fall and ended in June, just like the public schools. We took the summer off and when fall rolled around again, I was so frustrated that we had to spend the first several weeks relearning everything we'd forgotten over the summer. We started off feeling behind and all the plans I had made went right out the window.
Note to new homeschool mamas: Embrace what works for YOU and throw convention out the window! We are choosing *not* to school conventionally, so there's no need to model it after what we opted out of.
So, the next year, we just lightened our load for the summer and when fall came again, we picked up some speed but just kept on going. It was continuous and amazing! We had a slower pace each day, but over the course of the year, we learned just as much, if not more than we would have if we'd taken a big long break all summer long.
We've tweaked and refined this over the years, but at this point, we do time blocks. Our core work is done 4x each week and the other stuff is done 3x a week. We make steady progress, but don't stress about being done with curriculum by a certain date. Sometimes we zoom through things, other times the progress is slower. It all evens out.
The longer we've been at it, the more I realize this homeschool journey is so much more than school. It's about these beautiful people turning into who they were made to be. To enter into adulthood with the life skills to be successful in pursuing their limitless potential and the confidence to make it happen! Getting A's or keeping up with standardized tests and benchmarks is not important in the end.
I am pretty sure at this point I could call what we do lifeschooling more than homeschooling, but we do it at home, so maybe the shoe still fits. Either way, I totally remember reading blogs about year-round schooling and being horrified by how intense it sounded. The reality of it couldn't be further from the truth though. Year-round schooling brings freedom and rest into our home and that is worth it's weight in gold!