Planning Our Homeschool Year

July 7, 2025

Today is the first day of homeschool at the Qurollo Christian school. Gulp. We had some tears last week about starting, but what the kids don’t know is that I’m not any more excited about starting than they are. But leaders have to be strong and do the right thing despite inner feelings, but that doesn’t make it any easier…

So why in the world do I start so insanely early? Well, I start this early for several reasons.

First (and most importantly), for my mental and physical health, I have to spread out the schoolyear. I cannot go full throttle for 9 solid months with no breaks and keep up my home, maintain my personal health and well-being, and stay actively involved in our church (which is a huge part of our lives). I have to space out school. I love the breaks we are afforded by starting early!

Second, it’s hot, hot, hot here in SC. Now I know there’s other parts of the world that are way hotter, but it’s still hot here to us. My kids don’t like being outside unless there’s water involved, so why not get started on some schoolwork during the inside hours?

Third, the kids need breaks throughout the schoolyear. Kids need time to just be kids, and the childhood years are quickly passing. They need time to decompress and refresh before starting the next stint of school.

Fourth, I want time to just be a mom to my kids and not be the glasses-on-the-nose teacher peering over a textbook for 9 solid months.

Fifth, I like the cushion starting early gives me should something come up during our schoolyear. This cushion gives me peace of mind knowing that even with unexpected events, we will not fall behind.

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Now that I’ve convinced you of the plausibility of starting early (wink, wink), I would like to share how I map out the school year for maximum performance and also rest.

In case you are wondering, I got the inspiration for such a non-traditional school calendar from a dear friend who has followed the sabbath schedule (more on that soon) with great success. This dear friend got the idea from Sarah Mackenzie’s Teaching from Rest. This book is oddly hard to come by, so if you can get your hands on a copy, it is well worth the read.

In Teaching from Rest, Sarah proposes a schedule that she calls “the Sabbath schedule.” Just as a week consists of 7 days, so Sarah proposes a homeschool time frame consisting of 7 weeks—6 weeks of school and 1 week off (the Sabbath).

I have found the Sabbath schedule to be approachable, doable, and breathable (aka I can actually catch my breath, refocus, and renew). I have been following this concept for several years now and can honestly attest to its functionality, verity, and success.

In this post, I will share my roadmap for the year and how I plan out my school days. I believe a wise homeschooler has a plan for the year, and though that plan may be broken, she has a roadmap and a focused destination. Not planning is simply not planning for success.

I am going to share the basic planning concepts with you and then I will also share my actual, literal calendar for the year (with hand-written notes and all. Charming? I know. This is real life, folks. I get tired of the fake….I’m off my soapbox now…).

Here are my basic planning concepts:

-Start the week after July 4th (the numbers work so tidily, I promise)

-6 weeks of school then 1 week of rest, 6 weeks of school then 1 week of rest, and you get the drift

-Take 1 week off for Thanksgiving

-Take 2 weeks off for Christmas

-I do end up splitting a 6-week chunk due to the holidays, but I’ll show you that later.

-Every 18 days, plan an outing/field trip. In SC we are required to fulfill 180 days of school. I figure public and private schools allow up to 10 days of absence, so why shouldn’t we as homeschoolers enjoy the same benefit? So every 18th day, I am planning a field trip or outing. By spacing out my field trip days, we are pacing ourselves and getting us out of the house for hands-on learning opportunities. I may not take the field trip on the exact day that I marked on my calendar, but sometime within that week, I will plan an outing.

Here’s my gorgeous calendar!

If you can't read my chicken scratch, here's how to decipher my handwritten notations.

-I circled the weeks that we will be in school and wrote the number of the week to the left.

-I drew a green rectangle around break weeks.

-I circled in red our field trip days.

-We will complete half of a cycle before Christmas (3 weeks). I guess you could say the other half of the cycle (3 weeks) is at the very last in April. This makes a total of 6 6-week segments.

-If you would like to print your own calendar, I found it free on General Blue's website.

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To all my homeschooling friends out there, I hope this post was encouraging to you. Pease know that I'm not presenting this calendar as the only way to homeschool. Absolutely not! It's simply an idea that may or may not work for you.

No matter how you schedule your year, don't forget to take breaks and intentionally plan for rest. That's the surest way to enjoy your job as a homeschooler and avoid burnout! Happy homeschooling!

-Ashley

P.S. If there's any interest in a "pretty" calendar that doesn't look so scrappy, leave a comment below. I'll see if I can come up with something a little nicer...wink, wink.

Personal Disclosure

As the author of Ashley Qurollo Blog, all opinions are my own. Any possible applications are universal in nature, not directed at any one individual or people group. My sincere desire is to help others by sharing what I am learning. Nothing stated on this blog is ever intended to hurt others. Ashley Qurollo, owner of Ashley Qurollo Blog and Website, is not held liable in any way for any application of the ideas and thoughts stated here.

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