What if we miss the cohort start date?

You take the next term. There are three a year, and moving between them is a normal request rather than a problem.

The terms are Summer, Fall, and Winter. Summer is the biggest one, because there is more time, no competing schoolwork, people are home so doors actually get answered, and the weather suits the outdoor businesses. Winter is the one most gift buyers land in, since a box given in December opens into a January start. Fall sits between them.

Current start dates are on the kit page, because they change every term and a date printed here would go stale.

Two things worth knowing about why start dates exist at all.

They are not an administrative constraint. A kid who can start any time starts never, and the box goes on a shelf next to the other things that were going to be great. A published start date turns a gift into an appointment, which is most of the difference between a kit that gets finished and one that does not.

And the cohort is the other half. Everybody starts the same week, which means other kids are on the same chapter on the same Tuesday. For a homeschool family in particular that is the reason to buy rather than a nice extra, because the hardest part of anything self-directed is that nobody else is doing it.

If your timing is genuinely awkward, the honest answer is to take the later term rather than the earlier one. Starting a ninety day sprint in a month you already know is crowded is how good intentions become a box on a shelf.

And if you have already ordered and the date stops working, tell us and we will move you. The box is yours regardless of which term you run it in.