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You are here: Home / Homeschooling / Planning & Organization / Scheduling a Low-Stress School Calendar

Filed Under: Planning & Organization · Strategies & Tips · Homeschool Planning

Scheduling a Low-Stress School Calendar

We finally may have found our low-stress school calendar that works for us.

We've been homeschooling for five years, and in that time we've experimented with a number of different school calendars.

We started off following the public school calendar, beginning and ending at the same time, and taking the same breaks at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring Break.

Then in 2008 we changed it up a little, moving to three 12-week terms, taking the entire month of December off, and schooling through mid-July. We loved the longer break in December, but soon discovered that the 12-week terms were just too long and stressful.

So for this school year we shortened the terms to 6 weeks, planning to take 2 weeks off between each term, then schooling during the month of July. This schedule went well for most of this school year; the shorter terms relieved a lot of stress for the kids, and I really enjoyed being able to plan 6 weeks of school at a time. But I felt that the frequent 2 week breaks were too much. (I'm never satisfied, am I!)

As a result, since Christmas we have changed to 6-week terms with only 1 week off in between. And this finally seems to be the right fit for us.

So for the 2010-2011 school year, we are planning 6-week terms with 1-week breaks. With the calendar I've set up, we have some flexibility that will give us anywhere from 180 to 200 school days.

Here's a look at our school calendar for the 2010-2011 school year. (Click the image to view full size.)

I'm thankful we've finally found a low stress school calendar that works for us. I'd love to hear what works for you.

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Comments

  1. Darlene Collazo says

    June 11, 2012 at 1:16 pm

    Thanks so much for this post. I began homeschooling my daughter for her Preschool year. I figured that although I was terrified, how could I mess up numbers, letters, and shapes (right?!!). Well, it's been such an amazing adventure. My husband and I decided to take the leap and continue homeschooling for Kindergarden (and as long as the Lord permits). I was terrified of scheduling. Then I came upon this post about 3 weeks ago and I loved it! 6 weeks increments with week long breaks in-between made so much sense to me. I can handle 6 weeks. I will be printing out your calendar. Thank you so much for the free printable!

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