Maximizing Flexibility: Benefits of Year-Round Homeschooling vs. Two-Semester Model
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: one of the best aspects of homeschooling is the opportunities it offers for customization. You can craft an educational experience tailored to your children’s interests and talents. This applies not only to the materials and methods you use but also to the schedule you keep. Today, we will be exploring two different plans for structuring the school year—the traditional Two-Semester Model and then Year-Round Schooling.
Experienced homeschooling families generally have already chosen one of these two methods, so this post won’t be news to them. But if you are new to homeschooling or just doing research, this may help you!
The Two Semester Model
What Is It
The Two-Semester Model is what we are all familiar with from institutional education. It is an academic year consisting of a fall semester and a spring semester. There are variations of when the fall semester begins and the spring semester ends, but on average, you are about nine months of full-time schooling with the traditional vacation of three months in the summer. Most public schools, colleges prefer this model, and just about every formal educational institution.
Pros
Since the Two-Semester Model is so universal, you may find it easier to slip into. It is simpler to find courses and materials that accommodate this schedule. It gives students an extended break to look forward to each year and several months to decompress over the summer. The long summer holiday affords opportunities to travel and vacation. Furthermore, since most children are on this schedule, it is easier for your kids to make plans with their friends and take advantage of summer extracurricular activities (i.e., summer camps, etc). The Two-Semester Model is also very structured, allowing for a precise gradation of a child’s academic progress. This can make planning easier.
Cons
The Two-Semester Model also puts you under a time crunch to wrap things up before the end of each semester. It doesn’t give a lot of leeway if your student requires more time with a subject. For example, you get to the end of May, and your 7th grader still needs several more months of algebra practice before moving on to the next level. It also makes it difficult to schedule family outings during the school year. After all, not everyone wants to travel during the summer. Some families enjoy traveling during October or March. You also risk students forgetting subject matter over the three-month vacation and needing to devote extra time in the following semester to retreading old content. This is primarily a danger in subjects that require a cumulative progression of knowledge, like mathematics and foreign languages.
Year Round Schooling
What Is It
Year-Round Schooling is exactly what it sounds like—you do school year -ound. Year-Round Schooling has become increasingly popular in recent years, both in homeschooling and institutional schools. While it is still the minority option, it is rapidly gaining traction. The year may be broken up into three semesters of Spring, Summer, and Fall (although there are other ways of structuring it). Instead of one significant summer break, the year is punctuated with multiple smaller breaks. For example, you may school for nine weeks, break for three weeks, and repeat.
Pros
The biggest pro of Year-Round Schooling is the continuity of schooling throughout the year. Since kids are not pausing for a three-month break in the summer, they can progress steadily through content with less risk of having to stop and relearn old material because they got rusty over a break. It also allows greater flexibility for taking breaks during the school year; since you aren’t on a time crunch to wrap everything up by May or December, you have the flexibility built in to take more time off. Many Year Round Schooling families prefer taking a week off every five or six weeks, which actually works out to being roughly the same amount of time off kids on the Two Semester Model get.
Cons
Because you don’t have a three-month break in the summer, you don’t have a lot of time to stop and catch your breath and plan for the next school year. There’s more planning on your feet. Finding courses and materials that suit this schedule may be more difficult. Also, since most kids are on the Two-Semester Model, children schooling year-round may find it more challenging to sync schedules with their friends for socializing (e.g., your kids’ friends are off all summer and want to hang out, but your children have school obligations).
Kids in Year-Round Schooling often find themselves in a more indeterminate place academically; in other words, since school goes year-round, when exactly do you progress to the next grade? While homeschooled kids not knowing what grade they are in is so common it’s cliche, going on Year-Round Schooling will require a little bit more planning in terms of how to progress kids from one grade to the next—if you even use grade levels.
What’s Best for You?
Of course, these two options aren’t your only choices. I’m sure plenty of homeschool families opt for some kind of hybrid between the two, for example, schooling most of the year but taking a full month off in July. Or some families might stay on the Two-Semester Model overall but homeschool-light over the summer for a specific subject or trouble area.
As we stated at the outset, homeschooling is about customization. Whether you adhere to the more traditional Two-Semester Model or choose to school year-round, the important thing is to consider your family’s concrete situation and choose what suits your needs.
What are your thoughts on this topic? To continue the discussion, join me and other homeschooling parents at our Homeschool Connections Community or our Facebook group!
