Want to know a secret? Shh….it’s one of the best-kept secrets of homeschooling. Ready? Here it comes…

Homeschoolers don’t have to follow any schedule at all. We can take a break ANY TIME WE WANT OR NEED TO. Oh my gosh, right?

What kind of schedule or break am I talking about?  Hourly? Yes! Learning in your home does not need to take place between the hours of 8:30 am and 3:00 pm. Your school can be from 5pm to 8pm or 5am to 8am or, if you are all night owls why can’t you do lessons at 1 in the morning? No reason at all… go head, enjoy!  Daily? Yes! Plan to take a Wednesday off just because. School Tuesday – Saturday instead of the tradition-al Monday – Friday school week. Or if your school day isn’t going so well, choose to change your planned lessons, choose to reorganize the day or choose to just take the day off!

Weekly? Yes! You are not required to “have school” on the same weeks that the public schools do. You can work on weeks they are on vacation and you can take vacations on weeks they are in school. Days at the playground without bunches of kids around. Disney World vacations without LINES!!!  Monthly? YES!!! Yes!!! It’s true! You can skip school all of January but have lessons all of July! YOU CAN MAKE YOUR YEAR’S SCHEDULE LOOK HOWEVER YOU WANT IT TO!  Yearly? Well, SURE! Why not?? When it comes right down to it, why not? Take off a year, travel, un-school, do what you want. The next year will still be there waiting to be used as you wish.

On a serious note: nowhere in Rhode Island is it a law that you follow your town’s school schedule. Your town may LIKE for you to do so. Your town may send you pretty attendance sheets that cover Mon-Fri, September-June, but you are not required to use them. Rhode Island law requires that you complete 180 days of school. You can achieve that in any way that you want to.

R.I.G.L.16-2-2. City and town schools required — School year …. — (a) Except as specifically provided in this section every city or town shall establish and maintain for at least one hundred eighty (180) days annually exclusive of holidays …



by Melissa Robb