Today is Friday! For our family, that means NO SCHOOL! For years now, we’ve schooled on a 4 Day Schedule, and we love it! Some of you may be wondering what exactly a 4 Day Schedule is. Some of you may have heard of a 4 Day Schedule, but aren’t sure if it’s right for your family. And some of you may simply be curious about how a 4 Day Schedule works. This post and video are for you!
Visit my Homeschooling Year Round Resource Page for helpful tips and resources to make a smooth transition to homeschooling year round!
Let’s explore some reasons why you might be interested in homeschooling 4 days a week:
- Your family travels a lot.
- Your family has several extra-curricular activities they are involved in.
- Daddy’s schedule is flexible or irregular.
- You are caring for another family member, friend, or neighbor.
- You want your family to be involved in volunteer work.
- Mom has a part time job or works from home.
- Mom is burned out and needs break from the regular routine.
Things to consider:
- You can choose the day of week you want to take off.
- You can vary which day of the week you take off, but this could lead to a lack of discipline.
- This might be just for a season, or you may find you really like this schedule!
- You may need to tweak your curriculum to fit your schedule.
- 4 day a week schedules usually require you to school year round. Doing so gives you even more flexibility.
Other 4 Day a Week Homeschooling Posts from Raising Arrows:
How We Implement a 4 Day a Week Homeschool Schedule
My Year Round 4 Day Homeschooling Schedule
Posts referenced in the video:
One Day House Cleaning
Homeschooling Year Round
Large Family Homeschooling ebook
(also on Kindle)
Suanna says
I like the 4 day a week schedule, bit more often we find ourselves doing a combo of 4-5 days a week. One day is a light day of school. Looking forward to seeing how it works for your family.
Jessica says
We travel full-time and typically school 5 days a week, but we usually include the weekend in our school week. Our “weekend” is Monday and Tuesday (and sometimes Wednesday) so that any errands or sightseeing are done during off-peak times. You won’t catch me at the grocery on a Saturday ever again!
Amy says
I hear ya there! The grocery store is awful on Saturday!
Becky says
We love our 4 day week! We start our ‘new’ year mid-July or early August with 2 or 3 day weeks and then go into a 4 day week late August / early September. We’re usually finishing up early May. I schedule our day off for Friday, but it is a floating day to be used wherever we need it that particular week. It has greatly reduced our stress and pressure for the school year.
When we finished up our last school year in May, we had a family meeting and gave the kiddos some choices for the upcoming year ~ they all chose to keep our 4 day week 🙂
Love that we can each evaluate our family’s needs and set the course based on what works!
WiffytoJ says
Great post! We homeschool school four days a week as well. My husband is a pastor and he takes off Tuesday each week. We started off doing school Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. For the last two years we decided to take off Monday as well. So generally when we have a high schooler they have to do school on Monday but for the younger kids up through junior high we only do school on Wednesday through Saturday. We enjoy having Monday as kind of a flex day or catch up day for those who need it. This enables me to do my errands all on Monday and not be getting behind on schoolwork. We are slightly different in that we do this schedule and we still take off 3 months in the summer. We have found that we can still get all of our school work done at least up through junior high in the four days a week.
We are planning to move to a hot climate very soon and so we are thinking of tweaking our schedule yet again. We are hoping to school through the hot summer and then take off a month or two in the fall and then a month in the spring. Thanks again and I can’t wait to see your post tomorrow!
Blessings,
Chris
Rébecca says
Where we live, schools either have a 4 days a week schedule or a 4,5 days a week, having at least Wednesday afternoons off, and in some schools all day. We went back to doing that this school year, as the kids have their Wed. Afternoon filled with extra curricular activities. I still count it as a school day because they are having sports/music/art classes, but I really enjoy the break midweek and I think it helps me not to burn out (well I’m just doing a lot of driving, but no teaching !)
Tiyana Dill says
I love the four day week. We used to take off on Friday as well. Now that my husband has off on Tuesday, so do we!
Veronica says
We have been homeschooling 4 days a week for a few years now and love it! Wednesday is our day off, which helps a lot to prevent burnout for me, as I only need to focus on two days at a time and am never too far away from a day of rest. Wednesday is usually “Grandparents Day” and sometimes the kids will even do some baking with Grandma, depending on the season. It’s also a good day to schedule anything that needs to get done outside of the house.
We also homeschool year round, from June to May, usually with two week breaks for Christmas and the end of the school year, as well as a “bonus” week off every 8-9 weeks, which is a good time to stop and assess how things are going. My favorite part about the 4 day/year round schedule is the peace that it brings. I have never worried about “getting behind” or if something unexpected comes up during the week, since I know I have both a weekly and bi-monthly “buffer” in case I need it.
Looking forward to the next post!
Karyn says
We take off Friday as well. I like having a “catch-up” day for school projects, errands, field trips and/or cleaning. We take off for Christmas, Easter, baby arrival (during “baby years”), and only about 4 -6 weeks during the summer. The summer break is sort of how I started doing the four day week — two or three months off in the summer just didn’t work. The kids and I needed the schedule/routine homeschool provides and being off for a shorter amount of time means we don’t generally have to do a lot of review when starting the new school year.
Sheri Vick says
Curious…have you ever been involved in a co-op or tutorial with the older kids? With that we do good to get it all done in 5-6 days. Would LOVE to have a 4 day school week, but my daughter has a hard time focusing if the day gets too long.
Amy says
I’ve never been a fan of coops unless they are for one or two classes. I feel like all too often they end up too much like traditional school, and that does not fit our family very well. If you feel you need help with some classes, perhaps you can find a group that offers just that class and doesn’t require you to spend long hours in class and doing out of class work.