The Beauty of Year Round Homeschooling + Montessori

One of my favorite things about homeschooling year round is the flexibility to “do school” (if you will) when it makes sense for our family. One of my absolute favorite things about using the Montessori Method for our homeschool is that the prepared environment does much of the work for you. Let me explain what I mean. My role is to be a guide. I don’t “teach” in the traditional sense. The child is the center of learning as opposed to the teacher centric model. By following the child, I am able to guide her through the next piece of the scope and sequence, the next phase of development, and/or dive into a particular interest more deeply.

But that environment you guys. The prepared environment is crucial. I’ve found that even when mine is not perfect, my child will begin her work cycle on her own. We are in a rhythm and even if things don’t happen at the exact same time of day, once we have breakfast my oldest usually begins to get ready for the day and then dives into the morning work cycle. She requests circle time and new lessons. She works with her available materials and open ended toys we have in our main living area. She gets SO much from this alone.

This past month I really was incredibly grateful that we chose the Montessori Method and that we chose (this past June) to officially school year round (we basically were already). I am pregnant with our third child and early pregnancy does not agree well with my body. This is not the worst I have felt while pregnant (that first one was a doozy…) but I have not been at the top of game by any means. We took more days “off” than I planned and I did not introduce as many new works as I planned PLUS I did zero prep work so if it wasn’t already prepped (hello continent studies… I am looking at you) then it was postponed. I hate to call them off days, our oldest has rocked some form of work cycle even when I wasn’t able to be as present as normal.

That said, in the month of September, we still got in 13 days of school. Our goal is 4-5 days a week with a morning work cycle and 3+ days with space for an afternoon work cycle. As of today, we’ve already had 68 days for the 2021/2022 school year and while we don’t have to track this (at least in our state) I feel pretty good about our time on task.

Even if I had been completely unable to do any form of “school” with the girls, that would have been ok. We would have space for that. That’s the beauty of schooling year round at home. You can step back when you need. You can do what is best for your family in each season. The beauty of doing Montessori at home? It goes on without you. The child works, plays, learns and grows in their prepared environment. At least that has been my experience for 3-6.

Do you homeschool school year round?