So, I am headed off to jury duty today (here’s hoping I don’t get put on a jury – but it’s already a small victory since I got it commuted from a full month of grand jury to the regular petit jury). Poor BalletBoy has a cough and a small fever. I hope it isn’t going to be “one of those weeks” as they say.
Last week was spring break here in the city. We had to fight the crowds a couple of times and there were real, live, not infant children at the parks! But we didn’t take a break. We just kept on with school. We even began testing out yet another approach for writing (I’m sure I’ll write a post about that at some point). When I hear other homeschoolers talk about not giving the kids a break ever, I cringe. How dare they? And yet… I‘m sort of one of those homeschoolers. We don’t even break for the weekend most weekends (though we do usually do at least one day off from morning school at another point in the week).
I believe in breaks for kids. I believe in free time. But I also believe in routines and regularity. I don’t know why these should compete, but lately I feel like they have here at the rowhouse. I feel like I’m on this path where we never stop doing school if we’re not sick. It’s not bad exactly. Mushoom and BalletBoy get a crazy amount of free time. They get time on screens, time for creative play with each other, time to make bizarre junk sculptures, and time with their friends just playing on a playground or in the woods every single week. And the last time we did have a couple of days off in a row, both kids actually took out school books on their own and did work. But there’s a benefit to taking a break and not doing a lick of work for a few days. I know it and I’m trying to remind myself.
I’m still hoping to avoid a full week (or, eek, more!) of jury duty and I’m hoping BalletBoy gets better and we all manage to stay well, but regardless, I’m calling this week off from morning school. No reading time, no spelling tests, no math, no writing, no educational videos coordinated to history and science. Just time off. Hopefully without fevers.
Well, time off except for ballet, co-op, other co-op… But that’s not really “school.” Is it?
I Capture the Rowhouse 