Schooling Shake Up

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Last year when we began in the fall, I encountered the Fall Fog for the first time.  The fog lowered quickly and was all encompassing. Tears ensued.  Frustration for both teacher and student were the norm!

What is Fall Fog, you ask?  Fall Fog is when you begin school in the fall only to have to review for weeks upon weeks those skills that have been forgotten over the summer break.  The typical subjects that encounter Fall Fog are spelling and math.  It probably took us about two months to "catch up" to where we had stopped in the Spring.

All year long I though and thought about Fall Fog.  I did not want to encounter it every again!  I prayed about it and talked to my homeschooling buddies

(Do you have a homeschooling buddy?  If not find one.  I actually have three:  one in town, one across the country and one out of the country.....although she just moved back.  Homeschooling Buddies will be another post.).

The end result:

               Schooling Shake Up (aka Year Round Schooling)

Yep........we are transitioning to year round schooling.  The 2013-2014 school year ended in early May as it had started in early August.  We were so ready to be done.  We had a fun but very tiring year.  We slept in and did not do much those first few weeks.  We are just now coming up for air!  The down time has been so refreshing and so rejuvenating!  We are soaking up the sunshine!  The warm breezes.  Home projects are being tackled.  Berries are being picked. And....................

School will begin in less than 20 days!  Yep!  You read that correctly!  We will begin the 2014-2015 school year in less than 20 days.  Just 10 days after the local schools here in the PNW finish up the school year we will begin our new school year!  We are looking forward to it.  At least I am.  ;)

The plan:

We will begin the fourth week of June and school five weeks.  We will then take a week off school.  We will start back and school an additional five weeks which will bring us to the week local schools here in the PNW go back to school.  This will be about the second full week of September.

The weather here is GORGEOUS in early September.  Warm and just AWESOME!  We will be out of school for two weeks to enjoy the weather and to be refreshed!

We will return to school for an additional five weeks on and one week off and continue on until the end of November.  The entire month of December will be school free.  After the New Year, we will continue with our five weeks on and one week off routine until we have completed approximately 36 weeks of school.  If everything goes as planned, we will be finishing up in the school room the middle to the end of April.

So what do we do with days during the summer when there are other things to be done?  When friends call last minute and we want to join them?  We will school in the morning when we can and join in with the fun around us as we desire.  Park dates and play dates will be enjoyed with gusto!  Since here in the PNW, the mornings can be gray and very cool, school will be accomplished in the morning.  Also, we have a tendency to rise very early in the summer.  This bodes well for our new school schedule.

This is our attempt at answering the Fall Fog and chasing it away.