A Dramatic Pause

During our first year of homeschooling I made sure to stick exactly to the schedule ordained by the local school district. We started our homeschool year on the same day that the public schoolers returned to class. If they had a day off, so did we. If it snowed and the buses couldn't safely navigate the roads, we had a snow day. When their school year ended, so did ours.

Time and experience have taught me that what makes sense for the public schools often makes none for us. Our schedule today is designed to fit our own needs. We don't stop learning during the summer months, although our course load is much lighter than during the school year. We take breaks for major holidays, and the occasional long weekend. However we've eliminated many of the nonsense days off. There's no need for us to take off for teacher in-service days, snow days, and any holiday so minor that the general population doesn't a day off for it.

Recently the kids and I worked through winter break for the schools. This wasn't a big sacrifice on our part as every time we did venture out during that week, we were confronted by long lines. Our precious library time was marred by noisy kids on school vacation. My kids were puzzled by exactly why the school kids were on break again so soon after their week long vacation at Christmas.

Well now we're reaping the rewards of our hard work, and benefiting from the flexibility of homeschooling. It's performance week for K-boy and M-girl's drama group. They have five performances, resulting in three days this week that are entirely taken up with drama, instead of school work.

I'm not sweating it. They're on track to wrap up most of their work before the summer, and they love spending extra time with their drama buddies. They'll fully enjoy these three days, and be exhausted at the end of them. As for me, aside from the extra driving to their performance venue, I'll enjoy this mini-break from our routine also. I'll have more one on one time with D-boy and some extra time to get things done around the house. Maybe, just maybe, I'll even get a moment or two to do nothing. Nah, that's crazy talk.