It’s December, and most families are either currently on their winter break or about to start it. As we approach various holiday’s, I’ve discovered another wonderful perk of homeschool. We can take breaks whenever we want, or not at all.
Back in early November, I rented a house and enjoyed a socially distant vacation with my kids for a week. Since we really weren’t doing much other than hanging out in a different house, we brought tons of books to read and games to play. My kids work load was lighter during our vacation than their standard schedule. I think I made them both do one math lesson the entire week. But school wasn’t completely forgotten.
This week, my kids are actually spending the entire week with their dad. In the past, they’ve gone to their dad’s house for one week of winter break. Since we can now have winter break whenever we want, they’re spending a week with their dad in the middle of December instead of right during the center of all the holiday’s. They did bring some books with them, and I tossed their math books in the bag as well, but I’m not expecting them to do much school work this week.
After my kids get back from their dad’s we’ll have a week long winter break. Both of my kids have birthdays the same week as Christmas, so that week is going to be CRAZY! But once the holidays are over, it will be great to be able to get back into our standard routine. I’ve always hated the second week of winter break, because the excitement of birthdays and Christmas is over and my kids are just antsy. Lucky for us, we can jump right back into school on December 26th. Well, this year we’ll probably wait until December 28th.
Maybe we’ll decide we’re in desperate need of another “winter break” sometime in January or February. Or maybe we won’t even bother with spring break this year and push through until summer. If 2021 looks anything like 2020, we’ll probably do a lot of school over the summer too.
My kids have always thrived with routine. We have the homeschool thing down now, and too many breaks is just too much disturbance from our routine.
New Schooling 