Should You Follow Normal Term Times When Homeschooling?

The key advantage of homeschooling is that you have considerably more flexibility when it comes to choosing the right schedule and curriculum for your child, and the support of dedicated tutoring services to ensure that they thrive.

Whilst you must provide suitable, sufficient full-time education, you do not necessarily have to follow the same timetable or the same curriculum, and this can lead to many different schools of thought when it comes to holidays.

Should you, your child and your tutor follow traditional term times for your area and take the same holidays? You can, but you do not have to, and some homeschooled children continue to learn during what would be school holidays.

That flexibility works both ways; family holidays, commitments and taking whole days out for activities and school trips are far more flexible than they are with full-time education, without the risk of fines.

Homeschooling is complex in that children are often learning even on days where they are not having a structured education day, and that needs to be taken into account if you decide to take time off or, conversely, do not take time off from studies.

There are a lot of ways of managing homeschooling, but the two most effective are:

• Following the school year.
• Spreading homeschooling throughout the year.

There are positives and negatives to both approaches, and ultimately, the best way to work is the one which suits your child’s learning style the most.

Some children thrive on a constant routine of learning and benefit from the chance to either catch up or take holidays as and when they are convenient. Whilst others want to ensure they can spend time with friends and have a proper break to unplug from school.

There are in-between answers as well, such as having year-round learning but having much easier, more relaxed and more fun lessons during the summer break and over Christmas.