You can read this article in the July/August 2022 Issue 7 of Torah Sisters Magazine.
Now and then I ask the Torah Sisters on Facebook a question, and will share some of their answers. These are things that we all do a bit differently, and I have my own opinions, of course, but I want to give an opportunity for you to hear from several Sisters and how they do things in their homes.
QUESTION
How does your family handle homeschooling around the Feast weeks? I know you all take off the First and Last Days of the Feast weeks and most of you take off the entire week, but do you also take off some days before or after? Do you homeschool year-round?
ANSWERS
We take off only for the High Sabbath days of all of the feasts. For the 2 long feasts, we homeschool on the days in between the holy days (Pesach & Sukkot). We don’t school year round, but are somewhat flexible. The flexibility makes it really a struggle to finish and have any summer at all! -Nicole
We normally take all of Sukkot off and a couple days before and after to get ready/recoup. Normally, we homeschool around the same start/end dates as public schools. But we’ll have to homeschool through the summer this year due to family emergencies. I think we’ll just start doing it year-round though, so we can just take breaks as needed. -Amanda
We have 6 cycles of 6 weeks of school and take the 7th cycle off (in summer) with room for flexibility built into that. Then, we start our year again when we need to, depending on when the first Shabbat week of the year would be revolving around the holidays. -Hannah
We take about 4-5 weeks off for Sukkot and 2 weeks for Passover. We still do some things such as Bible, picture study, composer study, hand crafts, etc.. We just don’t do the main lessons. -Kymberli
We usually take off three weeks each for Passover and Sukkot. One week to prepare on the front end, one for the feast itself, and one to recover on the back end. We also have small breaks scattered throughout the year as needed. Our summer break is usually just the month of July. -Erika
All our special days are no school, and we have no issue taking off the odd extra to prepare. -Niesa
For Passover we take two weeks before and the week of, to allow time for cleaning.
The others I just take the day or week off. -Ruth
We homeschool year round, only about 3-4 days a week. We take days off whenever we need to for feasts, when family visits, if we are sick, etc. it’s very flexible and relaxed that way. -Rebecca
We take off all of Sukkot and definitely any High Sabbaths associated with any of the feasts. Last year we extended our summer break until the end of Sukkot and then started school, it was wonderful. We also school year-round as needed so it works to do things like that. -Julie
We are taking off for the feasts days and the whole week of Sukkot and Passover. We school year-round and take breaks as needed. -Brittany
We usually take off for the whole week of unleavened bread and sukkot. Of course we take off the high sabbaths as well. We also do something a little special. Every 7th week we take a Shabbat week off. During that time I focus on studying the Word more and I also use the Shabbat week to rest and reflect. Just like the regular weekly Shabbat. -Malinda
We do year round schooling because learning never stops but this also makes it easy to take time off when needed. We never work on holidays or prep days. We also include these as part of our school records so that our facilitator knows. -Lyn
We school year round. We officially take off the week of feasts, plus 2 days before and after, but learning never truly stops. -Ashley
We school as long as it takes to get through the curriculum. We will likely be schooling most of the summer. Normally we take off feast days – days when the YHVH says we are not to do any work. My kids are old enough to be independent so I can spend time prepping without the need to sit with them and actively teach all subjects. When they were younger, we took prep days off as well. It just got to be too much to adequately prepare for Shabbat, the holy days (cleaning, baking, extra cooking, etc) AND to be actively schooling with them. So I involved them in hands-on stuff and helping with preparations. Sometimes we school on Sundays if things get too busy around the Holy Days and we don’t get far enough in the week. -Tiffany
We school year round, so Passover/ULB and DOA/Sukkot get two weeks off apiece and Shavuot/DOT get the day off. -Sarah