(ok I feel a bit better)
Here is a question for all you homeschool moms:
How do you handle breaks? Do you find they are something to be enjoyed or avoided?
I *so* enjoyed our break…but if what I’ve been dealing with the past two days is the price I will pay for any further break – then forget it! It does not balance! There’s been yelling, crying, eye-rolling, foot-stomping, patient explainations, impatient demands, threatening, complaining and stony silence. And, just in case someone thinks they’ll be cute – I only did SOME of those things! 😉
I’m joking around – but I’m also serious. I’ve got a figure out a way to make an improvement here.
Can I offer my 2 cents even though I am not a homeschool mom?
I am going to take that as a yes.
I can confirm all of this with my mom, but this is how I remember it. When did school when it worked. No formal breaks, no structured, must do it this way days. We did the work we needed to do. Want to spend a day on Math, ok fine. If we ended up doing school all through summer, so be it. The mini breaks, and less fights, were worth it.
I quit doing mid-morning breaks, and now give them an hour at lunch…they can eat and then the rest of the time play outside or play inside (no tv or computer though — that’s a reward for getting school and chores done). If they get hungry mid-morning, they can eat a snack while working on school. Of course they can go to the bathroom whenever the need arises,and sometimes there are unavoidable breaks in the day, but as a rule this is how I handle it.
Good luck! I’ve struggled with this too!
We are having a little bit of an adjustment too. I think especially for your boys, break in routine is probably difficult for them to transition in and out of. I’ll say a prayer for you tonight for school tomorrow!
Definitely something to be enjoyed!!! 🙂
We took the last 2 weeks off for our Christmas vacation and officially started school again this morning. I admit that it was a little bit harder to get going again, but I wouldn’t trade the last two weeks of just hanging out and having fun for anything.
During our homeschool week, I have a certain schedule for school days and another schedule for Saturdays and Sundays. The weekend schedule allows more play time, tv time, game time, etc than during the week and DS has a later bedtime on Friday nights. DS is also allowed to lounge on Saturday mornings and doesn’t have to do chores until after lunch. Weekends are a lot more flexible than weekdays!
The way I usually handle our breaks from school depends on the length of our time off. If it’s only a day or two, it’s usually pretty easy to get started again. The days we are “off”, we stick by the Saturday schedule.
Now the two weeks for Christmas were a little bit different!!!
I think a week of absolute free time is lots of fun! It gives him a chance to do whatever he loves without interruption and gives me plenty of time to get a few things caught up and enjoy some things myself. And it’s only once a year!!!
What I normally do is the first week we’re off, anything goes… within reason of course. The second week we use the Saturday schedule and although it doesn’t get us completely back on track, it usually gets us halfway there. LOL
I enjoy our breaks… Probably more than I should. *rofl* … Luckily, the kids don’t give me a problem when it’s time to start again.
I know how you feel about breaks, or more correctly, coming back from breaks. Been there, done that. However, no breaks isn’t really better….we need em! Besides, with Dh and J-3 on break, it would never work anyway….Hang tough, get out the knee pads, and be grateful there are no more big breaks til May.
Well, we have always unschooled, so there’s not really any delineation between holidays and not, except for music lessons and such that don’t happen then. We never did any formal schooling, and both kids just started college when they decided they were ready. It was painless for all of us.
I’m not sure if you’re talking about breaks during the day or holiday type breaks. I’ll address how we handle both.
Damaris is doing Switched-On Schoolhouse for her schoolwork (a computer based curriculum for those who aren’t familiar with it). Most days, she can get through her schoolwork in around 2 hours. Thus, we don’t have issues with daytime breaks since she is focused on getting the work done so she can have the rest of the day to do what she prefers to do (reading, knitting, etc.). She is very motivated though and I know some kids aren’t. I’m blessed to have her be this motivated and it helps me alot since I’m in graduate school and having to study and attend classes myself in addition to homeschooling her. That’s why SOS works so well for us because I don’t have to spend alot of time teaching since the curriculum does it for me. I’m always available to clarify things and answer questions for her though.
Holiday breaks – We homeschool year around, so she does 4 weeks of school and then gets 1 week off. This year, it happened that her week off in November was Thanksgiving week and her week off in December was Christmas week. We tried following the school calendar and it just didn’t work for us.
I don’t know if this is helpful at all. Praying for wisdom in how you should handle things.
Coming back from breaks has always been a struggle around here. You just have to remember that eventually you will get into your routine again and the resistance will stop (or at least lessen) 🙂 . Small comfort, I know, but I’ve never figured out the secret to smoothly transitioning back into it. One thing that helps a little is to gradually transition back. The first day or two we only do a couple of subjects and gradually build back up. You still get resistance but it ends sooner because you are done for the day sooner. 🙂