Year-Round Homeschooling: A Teen’s Perspective

For some families, year-round schooling can be a debated topic. While some countries require year-round schooling for kids, America does not. And, the idea of completing schoolwork in the summer months is almost as bad as saying you dislike apple pie! It’s just not very American. However, for those families who need the additional flexibility to take some time off throughout all the seasons, or for those families who know their child struggles after taking so much time off at one time, year-round homeschooling may your better option. So which is better for your family? A traditional school year? Or year-round homeschooling?

To help you think it through from a teen’s perspective, here are my best pros and cons pertaining to the idea of year-round homeschooling.

Pros:

Academic skills: Choosing to homeschool year round does wonders for study habits. I know that trying to get back into the swing of things after a few months off is always hard. You have to reteach yourself how to study, remotivate yourself, and relearn how to succeed in classes. Whereas if you were to be taking classes year round, you would never lose these skills!

Advancement: If you were to take classes year round, you would advance much more quickly throughout the year. Almost all classes start with a review of what was learned in a previous year, but if you don’t take a long Summer break, you can skip all of that review! This helps you to advance much faster in your courses. Meaning, that you can decide to graduate early, take more classes, or even spend time focusing on a passion! If I would have done this, I would have tried to convince my parents to let me spend a year studying abroad!

Flexibility: If you decide to try and do school year round, you will also have the opportunity to take more breaks throughout the year as well as some extra time in the summer! For instance, you may decide to take a month off for Christmas, two weeks off for spring break, and some time off for a summer vacation or a mission trip! While you won’t get a huge block of time off in the summer, you can give yourself something fun to look forward to throughout the whole year.

Cons:

No Summer Break: This is easily the biggest con about doing school year round. Not taking a full summer break means that you might miss out on fun things like summer camps or VBS. Plus, you will probably know that your “regular school” friends have a break and will be getting together to have fun.  Make sure to watch out for conflict and jealousy if you aren’t able to hang out with them.
Also, during summer break, many teens get to take seasonal jobs and can miss out on an opportunity to learn about the workforce.  This means you won’t be able to be that lifeguard, camp counselor or work at your favorite amusement park.

So, if you know that you definitely want to homeschool through the summer, consider doing your classes at night or earlier in the morning. That way you will have some time to spend with friends or participate in a summer activity or job!

Burn Out: Especially with more vigorous homeschool schedules, it’s easier to burn out and lose motivation when trying to do school year round. Taking a summer break gives you time to recharge and relax before jumping into the school year again!

One way to avoid the burnout is to switch up your course load! Instead of doing a full course load each summer, try taking just one or two classes. You can even just stick to electives during the summer months, like taking a fun art class!

Whether you decide to stick to a traditional school year or make the jump to year-round homeschooling, the flexibility and customization that Bridgeway offers will help make it easier for you! We can help you choose which classes to take, what your schedule will look like, and even take care of the grading and transcript process for you! 

We’d love to hear your ideas about year-round homeschooling. Give us your thoughts in a comment below!