Home School Reflections: Our First Break of the 2016-17

One of the biggest perks of home schooling is being able to create a schedule that best fits your family.  Our family pretty much schools year round, and takes one full month off during the summer.  This schedule allows us to take breaks during the year as needed.

For the past two weeks, we have been on break.  It wasn't totally planned.  Our first official break was actually planned for this upcoming week.  Our break began with my birthday per the girls' suggestion.  The next day we picked up their sister friend from the airport, and she hung out with us for 11 days.  Now, her plans including doing some home school lessons so she would be prepared for her first day of school which we did, but not as many as I thought we would.  It is a high compliment when my friend's kids want to home school because of our home school.  I was glad to help her get started learning multiplication since that's what she wanted to learn, and I was able to send her home with some activities to help her continue to grow the skill.

Their friendship is so beautiful.  They have known each other since they were 7 months, 2 years, and 4 years old. Those are their friendship Beanie Boos.  :)

Part of the reason we didn't do as many lesson was because the week I had planned to do lessons with all of them was also the weekI planned the most activities for them like going to the movies, the trampoline park, and swimming.  I just have to say time flies when you are having fun!  I also must admit teaching three different grade levels can be a bit challenging so we mainly did our morning gathering activities, math, and astronomy.  Our visitor was into math and astronomy so it made it easier versus trying to carry our normal load.

Home School Tip of the Week:

Plan your breaks.  Our break wasn't on the week that I planned, but because I knew we would take a break during this time I didn't feel like all was lost because of the change in our schedule.  I knew that we could recover some of the time by not taking this week off.  Also by having your breaks planned, you are less likely to overwhelm yourself.  Breaks give you the opportunity to breathe and do some of the things that you may not be able to do when you are in the throngs of homeschooling.  During our break the girls were able to play, play, play with their sister friend who they only see once a year since we've moved, and I was able to get some of my thoughts in order as it relates to my businesses.

Do you have your first break scheduled for this school year?