Our 6:1 Homeschool Schedule and Why We Love It

Not long after I first started homeschooling, I implemented a 6:1 schedule, also known as "6-weeks on 1-week off", and it's been the best thing I've ever done in my homeschool. Once I knew I wanted to school year-round, it didn't take me long to settle on this method - and I've never looked back after all these years. It's been the perfect balance of frequent enough breaks to never risk burnout while also not risking a learning slump. If you are open to any new ideas about scheduling your year, or if you're still struggling with finding that perfect schedule - read on.

Breaking The Year Into Six Week Terms

When I was still in school, many MANY years ago, we had 6 "six week" terms, and at the end of each term is when we got our report card. Today most schools now do 4 nine-week terms instead, because it's less report cards and less parent-teacher meetings for them and aligns school districts in a predictable 4-quarter schedule. But this doesn't mean it's the best structure for homeschool planning. Read more about that here.

Many homeschoolers use a six-week or even four-week planning block instead of the nine-week block used by education institutions. Six weeks works perfect in my home so that's what we use. And at the end of each six-week term it's a much-needed week off for my kids, and a week of planning, adjusting, or catching up for me. This off week is where I plan out my next six-week term. Taking it term-by-term helps me plan in bite size chunks through the year, often enough to make any necessary changes as I go.

I've personally done this for over 10 years, but only recently I stumbled on something called "sabbath schooling" which is basically the exact same schedule. The term draws inspiration from the biblical concept of the Sabbath- a day of rest after six days of labor. It metaphorically applies to homeschooling as six weeks of instruction followed by one week of rest. It mirrors the 6:1 schedule almost exactly.

What My "Week Off" Looks Like

First priority is to plan our next term. When we worked primarily with unit studies, I would use my time picking our topics, gathering all our books and resources, planning any projects, adding all links to online resources in advance in our OneNote account, and scheduling everything in my planner.

Today we do things a little different and I'm able to schedule most of my year completely up front, but every six weeks on our "off week" I look at our pacing to see if we are ahead or behind, and I make little tweaks from there. If I see one of my kids has been struggling with a concept or lesson, I look for new resources to add in our next term to aid them and adjust anything as needed before it turns into a full learning gap.

Once the school tweaks are out of the way, my next priority is to play catch up with any other mom/adult responsibilities that fell behind during our school term. Sometimes between business, school, and my massive homesteading hobby, the house ends up needing a little extra attention. So I catch up on chores, food prep, organizing, gardening, canning, decluttering, shopping, anything that just needs to get done but keeps getting put off. This is my time to knock it all out.

Finally, if I have the time, I take a nice little break myself. Because I need it just as much as the kids. When our week is over, we feel refreshed and ready to conquer a new six-week term. This method has helped prevent burn out during the school year for both me and my kids.

What My Kids' Week Off Looks Like

Do my kids just get a whole week off, weekend style? Not usually. While I want them to have a break from their routine and their scheduled curriculum, I don't want them sitting around watching tv or playing on the PlayStation all week. I usually let them have lots of outside playtime, indoor art time, educational game time, and time to socialize with friends.

When they were really little, we used Osmo educational games. It didn't feel educational to them and when I set it up they would get excited. They also got lots of time to color and draw, and do art projects. Another favorite activity for them was our slime sand kit. We set up relaxing music and the kids would really emerge themselves into this activity. Getting extra time to run outside and play when the weather is nice is also a huge bonus for them for the week.

As they've gotten older, activities have shifted. My son now likes to build his prototype inventions, usually gathering his "materials" from all over our home, leaving me with no tape, glue or cardboard left by the time he's done. He also spends an enormous amount of time outside exploring, catching and observing bugs, and taking care of our animals. My daughter on the other hand, spends most of her time working on art projects. She wants to work in art, so I have been giving her as much time as we can for her to develop her skills, experiment with styles, and find her art direction.

I also like to work in some life skills during that week. If i have a lot of gardening to catch up on, the kids are going to get some extra time learning gardening life skills as they help me. Same with food preservation. Where there is home grown food, there is a need to preserve it, so the kids learn life skills for canning, fermenting and so on. And it works this way with just about everything, chores, building projects, sewing, shopping, organizing. Life skills are so important for preparing them for adulthood, and it's something that isn't normally part of their curriculum, so the "off week" is the perfect time to weave these little life lessons in.

How I Work So Many Weeks Off Into My Homeschool Schedule

You might be wondering how I make room for these 6 extra weeks off during our school year. It's pretty simple. I don't follow that public school traditional schedule of starting in august and finishing at the end of May. Having an entire summer off really makes no sense for me. It's far too hot and humid where i live to enjoy being outside in the middle of summer, and this quickly leads to bored kids who might turn to video games and tv to pass their time because no one wants to be out in that hot miserable weather.

Another reason summer-breaks don't work in my house is the kids forget too much from the school year. Their brains need to exercise all those connections that have been building though the school year or those connections weaken, and we end up wasting too much time in the new school year having to re-learn things they already knew months before. I'm all for breaks, as you are about to see, but too long of a break can be detrimental.

One of the first things I had to get used to when I first started homeschooling 11 years ago, was that homeschool isn't public school, and we are free to make our own schedule. As soon as I got used to this idea, planning our schedule became a huge breath of fresh air. And the freedom we have experienced since then has been totally worth it.

So, we are "year-round" schoolers. Meaning we have no huge summer break. But we do get a "long enough" summer break. And an even longer spring break, and a nice and long winter holiday break. Plus, all our 6 of our term breaks too. We love taking breaks, so we are taking plenty of them through the year. Long enough to feel refreshed and ready to return, but not long enough to forget any important skills.

What My School Year Calendar Looks Like

Here's what my year-round schedule looks like. This is a spread from my Mindful Homeschool Life Planner that shows a basic idea of what my year can look like after filling out this spread. There are two spreads, a full 12 months that start when you start, and it takes just a few minutes for me to complete my entire school calendar this way. You can see I'm able to quickly number my weeks and tuck in a term break after every 6th week, and I still get generous winter, spring and summer breaks. (I especially love when a term break and vacation run into each other for extended time off, which happens every spring break and Christmas holiday vacation.

So what do you think about taking a week off after each term? Is this something you plan on trying? Do you already do something similar? Let me know in the comments below!