180 Days

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Most of us are finishing up the school year.  Some of us (well, me) are counting down the days to go until we have finished our 180 days and can take a long (and much deserved!) break.  We do get a number of questions throughout the year regarding the requirement to school for 180 days and exactly what that entails.  Here are the answers to some of them.

Q: Do we have to do school for a certain number of hours each day?  Unless you are registered with your school district, the answer is no.  You are free to set the length of the school day.  So a child in early elementary may very well only take an hour or two to complete each day’s assignments. 

Q: How many days of school does my high schooler need to do to receive a credit in one subject?  High school credits are based on the number of hours worked and subject matter completed, not the number of days completed.  Each credit requires 150 hours of time spent on that subject (spread between lecture, research, study and other assignments).  To complete on credit in 180 days, the student would need to spend 45 minutes on the subject each day.  Keep in mind though that different students take longer to grasp the material.  If a student takes twice as long to grasp Algebra 1, it is still only one credit.

Q: Do we have to cover each of the required subjects in order to call it a school day?  The law requires you to teach certain subjects (Reading, Writing, Math, Science and Social Studies, and in 7^th grade and above Literature and Composition).  When and how you teach them are up to you.  I teach most subjects each day – our curriculum is laid out that way and it seems to work pretty well for us.  My mom used to switch off science and social studies so that we had a little more time for science experiments and map studies that we might have if she was trying to cover both subjects each day.  So plan your days so they work best for your family, but make sure you document that you did teach each subject. 

Q: Do we get any sick days?  The law requires 180 days and we do have to complete them.  If you have one child sick while everyone else is working and you later work in the missed work into the school days to ‘catch up, you can leave your lesson plans showing the work as you made it up.  If everyone is out with the flu, you just have to put those days in elsewhere.  Doing Math review once a week during the summer is a good idea to keep those math skills sharp.  Add reading a novel to that day and it will also give you 10-12 ‘make-up’ days for any sick days you missed.

Q: What if my student is really sick and we can’t complete 180 days in a calendar year?  It is possible to do home schooling with a student who is really sick.  The details of how that works is complex and too long for this post.  I will post a more detailed answer to that question later this week.

Q: 180 days, are you kidding me?  How can I keep my kindergartener busy that long?  Your child may be so eager to learn that you breeze through all the books and workbooks in half a year.  If you have an eager learner, consider moving on to the next grade level even if you are in the middle of the year.  The freedom to move at the child’s pace is one of the great things about homeschooling.  If you don’t want to start on next year’s books, find other educational things to do with the rest of your time.  Try some science experiments, or take some field trips.  Even if you don’t use Sonlight, I highly recommend checking out their book lists for each year.  Most of the books can be used apart from the curriculum, and many of the titles are available at the library.  Their website has a list of readers, history books, science books and read-alouds for each grade level.  Mix and match, pick and choose as needed!