We get it. When you think about planning your entire homeschool year, it can be a little overwhelming. But when you break it down, it really isn’t. First things first: How many days should you be schooling your children? Well the answer to that can vary state to state, and some states don’t necessarily have day requirements but hour requirements. A great way to double check your states standards is through the Education Commission of the States. There, you will find day and hour requirements for each state. But a safe daily requirement for planning in most states is 180 days–that’s 36 five-day weeks of school.
So, now that you know a number, what do you do with it? Let’s find a method that works for you and your family in how you will get all of those days in. There are many different ways, and just because you try one once, doesn’t mean you can’t switch it up the next year. Try a few ways to see what best fits with the needs of your family.
Year Round Schooling
Sabbath Day Method
- Six weeks on, one week off.
- Repeat this cycle 6 times and you’ve covered your 36 weeks of schooling, giving you an extra 10 weeks to work with for longer vacation (summer break, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Spring, etc…)
Four Days a Week Method
- Only school four days each week, leaving Friday (or another day) for a day off
- Doing this method, you’d need to school 45 weeks out of the year, giving you 7 extra weeks to take off for longer breaks
Monthly Methods:
Magic Number Scheduling Method
- This method comes from Pam Barnhill (a homeschool genius!)
- Take the number of days you need (180) and divide it by the number of months you’d like to homeschool
- For example, if you’d like to homeschool all twelve months, you’d only have to homeschool 15 days each month.
- Another example, if you’d like to homeschool for nine months and take a regular summer break, you’d need homeschool 20 days each month.
Three Week Method
- Exactly what it sounds like, you only homeschool for three weeks every month, giving you 36 weeks of schooling a year.
- Families who follow this method, usually only homeschool the first three full weeks of the month, and then take the rest of the month (and possible few days of the next month) off.
Traditional Method
Academic Year Method
- Nine months on, three months off
- Families who follow this method, usually follow their public school district days and time of schooling.
So there you have it! A few different ways to schedule how many days and weeks you’ll be homeschooling. What does your family do?
Your Homework:
What’s a homeschool blog without a little homework?
- Find out how many days or hours are required in your state
- Pick a method above and highlight the days in your yearly planner you’ll be homeschooling
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