Traditional, Shmaditional!

The Blog Cruise is Cruisin' again, after taking a break over the holidays. This week's topic asks, "Do you follow a traditional school schedule?".  I bet my regular readers can answer that question without me saying a word! But . . . you know me, give me something to babble about and of COURSE I'm going to babble!

I thought about trying to compare and contrast traditional school schedules to what we do, but I think instead I'll just share what works for us, and leave it at that:

Our yearly schedule is very . . . variable. Our travel is mostly dependent on Daddy's work. He travels around the state of Pennsylvania as part of his job and sometimes, depending on where he's going and when, we tag along (he's going to Erie next week but driving 5+ hours in snow isn't my idea of fun so we're not going along on this one). Because of that variability, we school year-round. That way when we DO travel, there's no worries about "missing school", though really, the vast majority of our traveling is also "educational" so it's not a big deal.  Perhaps a bigger issue is that learning is a way of life for us, we are always learning, just as we try to eat every day and sleep every night and . . . you get the idea.

Our weekly schedule is also designed to work around Daddy's unpredictable work schedule. He usually works Sundays and then theoretically has at least one day off during the week to make up for it (technically he should have 2 days off during the week since his office works Mon-Thurs, but realistically, we're lucky if he's home one day besides Sabbath). So, rather than "doing school" Mon-Fri and having to "do school" when Daddy IS home, and not doing school on Sunday when he typically is NOT home. We typically school Sun-Fri, but most weeks there's at least one day when something comes up and we don't "do school" if not, then Fri ends up being a free day, though some weeks, if we've had lots of non-school-time in the previous few weeks, I might go ahead & have all 6 days include school time. It all evens out. . . 

And finally, our daily schedule. Our scheduled "school time" is generally an hour or two in the morning, right after breakfast. This is when we do read-alouds, copywork, things like that. If we want to do things that are easier without Little Bit's "help" we do them during her nap. Car time generally means books on tape or other audio resources (lately we've been enjoying learning about creation science and the history of evolution/creationism by listening to Jonathan Park CDs). Bedtime means Sabbath School lessons and a "fun" read aloud (that often teaches some history or something, shhh . . . don't tell them they're learning LOL).

It works for us, and can bend as needed to meet the demands of our schedule.