Why we school year year round

I think I'd like to try and take the next few weeks and hash out our home schooling here. So, y'all will have to bear with me. I like to take time throughout the school year to evaluate what is working for us and what isn't. Is what we are learning in-line with our family's goals? Is what we are doing in-line with the Bible?

 I know many of my fellow home schooling friends have already started and some of them will start in September.

But, us? We never stopped. <Gasp.>

My children never got a summer break.

They never went on a family vacation.

They didn't sleep in.

They didn't veg out all day.

They didn't whine about being bored, either.

They won't forget what they have learned.

They also won't have to adjust to a new daytime routine.

And they never wondered why they have to do school while other kids are not.

You see, we've always done school "year round" though, I never set out intentionally wanting to do school this way, it just always happened that way. But, up until this year, I always felt pressured to get done by June 1st, even though it made us miserable. I was trying to fit my family, our lifestyle, our learning style, and our family dynamic into what other people were doing, and it never worked. By the time June would roll around, I was getting anxious to be done because everybody else was done. I was exacerbated. I was cross with the children. And I felt like we didn't live up to everybody else's expectations.

Then it dawned on me.

We are not everybody else.

We don't have the same lifestyle as everybody else. We don't have the same learning style as everybody else. And we don't have the same family dynamic as everybody else.

So, I reevaluated my goals for our home education. And realized that the way I was trying to school the children was not in line with our goals. And it certainly didn't fit in line with our family dynamic.

During the typical school year, we take a fair amount of time off, just not all at once. My husband makes his own schedule and is gone away from home most of the week, so if he is home, we are busy spending time with him. The children don't want to school on those days, and to be honest, neither do I. The days when he is home are often spent on projects around the house, running errands, or family outings and trips. Now, that is not to say that we aren't learning on those days; we certainly are for most of them. But the learning takes place outside of our school books.

So, for instance, when one of my boys built a raised bed for our garden, he is used math, geometry, problem solving, and learned how to safely operate power tools. And the amount of confidence and sense accomplishment he gained was priceless. That, my dear friends, is a day of education more valuable than anything learned in a textbook. And it counts as day of schooling towards our 180 days that my state requires.

However, even though the children are being educated outside of their school books, I still want to finish our books. So, in order for us to make it through our books, we have to school year round. But where is it written that the books have to be finished by June 1st? And where is it written that their books must be started on some arbitrary date in August? You're not going to find that rule, anywhere. In the state of Alabama, we must do 180 days of school. Our state's law doesn't state that the child's education must be done Monday through Friday or even what constitutes a day of learning. Our state's law is very flexible, and for that I am thankful.

And I'm thankful that I have finally stopped trying to do things that weren't working for my family.

2 Corinthians 3:17 ...and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

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Living history. Education outside of our text books.

Living history. Artillery demonstration.

Living history. Confederates in camp.

Living history. Artillery discussion.

Living history. Calvary demostration.

Toad with a Leusistic abnormality.

Causes a pie-bald appearance in some animals.

Zoology.

Hand picking squash vine borer eggs with the children.
Biology. Ecology.

The first yeller squash.

Helping to put up corn.

Food preservation and home economy.

Purslane. Excellent source of vitamin A and C.

Great for use in salves for insect bites and stings.

Herbology.

Raised garden beds. The children helped assemble these, fill these, and plant these.

Math. Geometry. Botany. Physical education. Team work.

P.S. Over the next few weeks, I'd like to share a bit more with y'all about our goals for home educating the children, what books we use and why, and maybe even what a typical school day looks like for us. But it will have to be as time allows. My most important priority is serving the Lord by serving my family and I must redeem the time because the days are evil.