Hello! It’s the middle of July already! The summer is flying by. Our year 2 of homeschool will begin, officially, August 27th. We have some educational trips planned prior which will count as school days and we’ve just completed Vacation Bible School at our church. My going into 8th grader was a volunteer as I was and my going into 6th grader spent her last year participating in the Bible lessons, crafts, music and games. It was a great week. Now that is over and my curriculum orders are coming in, I am prepping my schedule and lesson planning. I have most everything we need to begin right now, waiting for another order of books to arrive. School supply shopping has also begun. As with most homeschooling families we will have well over the PA requirement of 180 days or 990 hours. Every day can bring about an opportunity to learn and we are allowed to begin counting school days beginning July 1st.

What counts as a school day? I’ve seen this question posted numerous times on homeschool groups. The fact is, there is nothing in the law that describes what counts as a school day. On my official attendance log I count every academic day and every field trip (or educational trip), even if that trip happened during a family vacation. It counts. It counts even when people take their kids out of public school in the middle of the year so long as they get prior approval, so why should it not count for homeschoolers? Take a trip to a zoo or aquarium over your “summer break”? Count it! I count these as EXTRA days. I plan for 180 academic days. It’s really up to you how you add these trips in. For vacation Bible school, I didn’t count it last year, but I should and I will. My 13-year-old  son can and should be tracking every time he volunteers for something and my daughter definitely did some learning this past week. Some people suggest only counting a school day if you did more than one subject or if you spent so many hours on something. I say, it doesn’t matter. If they learned, it counts! There is nothing in the law that tells us what counts and what doesn’t.

Onward to prepping for our school year. Here is a glimpse at my lesson plan book, uncompleted.  And a peek at our schedule I’m putting together. At this point I have planned out most subjects except History, which I have the books I just need to go through them. I also have not planned out what course my daughter (6th grade) is going to work on while my son (8th grade) works through German. I am waiting for the book to arrive. She will be working on critical thinking skills. As you can see by my images here I have chosen to stick with the Christian Liberty CLASS lesson planner because it worked for me last year. They have updated it. This year I don’t need it as much because the courses I’ve chosen, several have come with their own pre-planned schedules which saves me a TON of work. I however still wanted to write them into my planner and the schedules do not account for days off for holidays so I needed to adjust them for our needs.  We do not take off for every school holiday, instead we take a few days for Thanksgiving, 7 days off over Christmas and a week off for Easter. This allows us to reach 180 days by the middle of May. We didn’t have any sick days last year, but that would alter our schedule slightly if anyone was too sick to do school work that day.

This schedule is really just a guideline for us. It’s hard to know exactly how long each days work will take. My children and I do best with a schedule and routine, however, we can and do deviate from it when needed. Here’s an example of provided schedule from our chosen curriculum. This one is from my son’s math course by Masterbooks. They get to keep these schedules and I have copies as well.

Below is our Art, English, and Health choices. I’ve added literature study guides from Veritas Press to complete our “Language arts” course. We are using Apologia’s Writer’s in Residence book 1 course. Choosing English for this year was extremely difficult. My kids will be doing the course together. Health and art are also being taught together. The life skills book is full of information and worksheets. Topics include, nutrition, healthy living, disease, drugs and alcohol, exercise, smoking, making decisions about your future, etc. The Abeka ArtC book is full of techniques in drawing, painting, attention to details, crafts, and art appreciation.

Next up is our Science, Math and History choices. Masterbooks “God’s Design for Life”, Principles of Math book 2 and Math for Living education level 6. History we are continuing with Alpha Omega Lifepac. Grade 8 is covering US History and Geography and Grade 6 covers World History and Geography. We already spent several weeks on PA History last year and it’s only required to be taught at least once during elementary years (k-6) and once during secondary years (7-12). Often some PA History is covered during US history as well. We are not dedicating class time this year to PA History but will again next year. Many people satisfy the requirement by taking field trips which is completely fine.

Next are the books we are planning to use initially for German and Bible studies. We will likely be utilizing the free Duolingo app for German as well. The “Everything..” book does contain a CD for learning HOW to say the words. For the 10 min journey book, I will be expanding this beyond 10 minutes with Bible reading and discussion time.

So that’s a little insight into my planned school year thus far. We have other subjects not shown here such as cursive handwriting and typing we will continue to work on. Here in written form is what I have planned for my 8th and 6th grader this year.

8th Grade – US History by AOP, Writers in Residence by Apologia, German basics, Bible, Literature books (Swiss Family Robinson for one), Life Science, Principles of Math (basically pre-algebra or essentials of pre-algebra), Art, Music, Health and safety, Physical Education, Handwriting, Typing and technology. I am also supplementing with grammar workbooks.

6th Grade – World History by AOP, Writers in Residence by Apologia, Critical thinking skills, Bible, Literature books (Anne of Green Gables for one), Life Science, Math, Art, Music, Health and safety, Physical Education, Handwriting, Typing and technology. I am also supplementing with grammar workbooks. 

Our planned school day is from 8 am to 2 pm or thereabouts which gives us about 5 1/2 hours to do schoolwork. 5 1/2 hours multiplied by 180 is 990 hours. That plan satisfies the law requirement, however, we had 189 days of recorded school days last year and well over 1000 hours. Why is this important? It’s basically paperwork until you reach 9th grade. Your evaluator you choose, however, may look very closely at your days/hours completed to be sure you comply. This becomes more important when you start counting credit hours for your high-schoolers transcript. I get to experience that next school year, Lord willing we are still able to homeschool. Rest assured that I will continue to share my adventure with you as time allows.

Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”

Not only Fathers, but Mothers too.