The joy of spring BREAK

This past week was Spring Break. And it was great.

As a homeschooler, I can pretty much do what I want with my schedule as long as my kids complete about the same number of school days as our local district does within a calendar year. The flexibility is really nice. Some homeschooling families choose to school year round- some schooling six weeks on, two weeks off, all year long. Others choose to follow a more traditional September-May school year. We fall somewhere in the middle.

 We had about a week of school in July last year where we focused heavily on writing skills, and will probably have a bit of school here and there over this coming summer as I see fit. I wouldn't exactly call our schedule "year round" but at the same time, I don't plan to take three solid months off over the summer. The kids got a week off in October because Tim and I went to a wedding out of town and they stayed with my parents. We actually started out Christmas break pretty late (December 23rd I think) because we were really close to finishing our reading curriculum and I wanted to get it done.

I've been keeping track of our days and I realized that if we continue at our pace, we'll be done with the required number of days the first week of May. I didn't originally plan to have Spring Break. But then I found out that Tim was going to be out of town for almost the entire week, and that our Enrichment Program would be off for the week, so I decided we needed a break too.

I'm really glad that I did! I personally needed time to not worry about school, and I know the kids enjoyed it too. We got together with family and friends, rode bikes, played outside, had a super lazy day of doing nothing, and just hung out. I also had time to schedule the 5 or 6 appointments I've had on my list for a while, which was a huge relief. I read a book and a half, tackled almost an entire season of Grey's, scrubbed the litter boxes in the sink downstairs, and went through the girls' clothes to see what they need for spring and summer. (Turns out Lydia has enough stuff to clothe four girls while Lexi had no shoes that fit and only one pair of shorts) I even cleaned the entire bathroom, including the baseboards.

Overall, it has been a productive, fun, chill week and I am glad we took a break. Breaks are refreshing. Taking a break from school allowed me to focus on other aspects of my life that really needed my attention. After not thinking about school for a week, I feel like I'll be ready to approach it again with fresh eyes and renewed energy over the weekend. And I think that will be good for all of us.

So I guess the moral of this post is: Whatever your job is, whatever you do with your time, don't forget to give yourself a break now and then to recharge. You might find it's just what you need.