Y is for Year-Round Schooling

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This is the time of year when people start thinking about the "end of school".  And that means that people at church, and the store and the library and most everywhere else we go, ask my girls variations of "Are you ready for school to be out?"

A few years back, that cause some consternation in our house. See, school is never "out" at our house! And all those people planting the idea that it should be, led to Lexie and Ashlyn thinking they must be missing out on something. . .

But one thing I love about my girls, is they ask questions about EVERYTHING and are happy to talk things through. So, when they started to think it might be "not fair" that they didn't get a summer vacation, they asked me about it, and we talked about why we don't do that. Now, when people ask, Ashlyn and Lexie enthusiastically tell them "we do school all year!" And will happily go into more detail if asked.

So, why DO we do school year round? And why are my kids glad that we do?

At first, I assumed we'd "do school" during the school year, the same as "everyone else". And we started out with that schedule. But I soon discovered something. . . we all thrive on the schedule (loose though it is) of "doing school". The girls weren't sure what to do with their time, when we didn't have that extra big of structure, and they ended up fighting and whining and . . . life just wasn't pleasant . . .So, in those early days, when school was only an hour or so a day, and extremely laid back, my reason for not "taking breaks" from school was simple, it provided a structure that worked for our family. And that structure cut down on the whining and bickering!

As the girls got older, we discovered a couple other things . . . one thing . . .there is SOOOO MUCH to learn! It's fun to learn! And there's no possible way that we'll ever find time to learn everything we want to learn! So, in light of that, it seems illogical to waste time when we could be learning fun things! A big example of this is history. Even with schooling year round, it took us 3 years to get through most of (not all of) American History. If we'd "taken summers off" we would have had to cut out tons of awesome books and field trips!

Another thing. One of the things we love about homeschooling is the flexibility! That can mean deciding to head down to Mama and Papa's house, or go with Daddy on a business trip, or just go out and fly kites on a day that is PERFECT for it!

We take "snow days" when the snow is perfect for playing in, and we don't on days when it's too cold or too powdery or whatever. We take LOTS of "spring days" as the weather turns warm and we can revel in being OUTSIDE!!!!

On the flip side, when it's July and 98 degrees and 100% humidity, we happily settle ourselves inside near the air conditioner and read books and do art projects and just generally "do school". . .

I don't ever have to worry about "missing school" on days when the weather is begging us to spend the day outside, because I know that we don't just have 180 days to cram everything into, we have all year, every year!

And finally, we live a lifestyle of learning . . .it's hard to decide what "school" is . . . just this week, as we approach Lexie and Ashlyn's birthday, Lexie asked me if we could "skip school" on their birthday. My response . . . "Sure, so you don't want me to read God King to you for Bible?"  Well, yes, she definitely wants to do that! . . . "ok, so you don't want to do art?" YES!!! Of course we want to do art!!!  "Ok, then we'll just skip history?"  NOO!! History is fun! We need to do history! . . . hmmmmm . . . so what exactly are you wanting to skip? In the end, I think they decided they didn't want to do math on their birthday LOL.  And what DO they want to do on their birthday? They want to sew! Guess what? That's school too! Call it home ec or art or problem solving class or all of the above, but they certainly are learning stuff when they sew!

So, we school year-round because learning is fun, and we don't really know how to NOT be learning, and all learning is "school" . . . it works for us!

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