Not a whole lot to report, as we took the week off. We were supposed to take next week off, after we had finished eight full weeks of school, (I don’t even know why I chose eight–a full quarter of nine weeks would have made more sense!), but we had some other things cancelled this week, so it felt right to just have a week off from everything!

As a homeschooler, it’s easy to “forget” to take time off. Frankly, my children would rather have school than not. They just don’t burn out that easy. As the teacher, though, I really need a break every now and again, or I *will* burn out. So, I make sure to schedule regular time off. We usually end up taking off full weeks like this, instead of a day here and there like the public schools do…it’s just easier for me to keep to a schedule that way.

No matter how you arrange it, though, it’s important to take breaks. Sometimes, for us anyway, these breaks still look like school. In December, for example, we’ll have two to three weeks of “Christmas School.” While we will continue with our regular math and language arts, everything else will be different. To me, this is a break, because we’re doing things we choose to do, (instead of the “have to’s” of curriculum), and we’re doing something different. Just feeling like you’re not “really doing school” is often enough to make even a specialized school unit feel like a vacation!

This week, though, was just about relaxing. Yes, there was still reading time. But aside from that, we had fun. We did puzzles and played games, (which I lost all of, somehow!), and we even watched TV, some of which was educational. There was also a lot of drawing and listening to classical music. So, our house has not been devoid of learning this week, but we did get a break from our usual routine, and I think we’ll all feel refreshed and ready to continue on next week!