Break Week in our Charlotte Mason Homeschool
We are on a break!
I briefly considered skipping fall break. Then I thought maybe we should take one when our family came to visit. Alas, grandparents won’t be visiting until Thanksgiving, so we opted to take our fall break starting right now. While I know we could power through and come out the other side, I’m not sure we could do that joyfully.
I’ve learned there’s wisdom in adhering to a break in my homeschool and that just because I can finish out over the next couple of weeks, doesn’t mean that I should. Rest is good, and when you have smaller children that you homeschool, rest is necessary.
What does a break look like in our Charlotte Mason homeschool? Since you’re reading this post, I’m going to assume you asked this question to yourself.
We will take time off from all of our required readings, math, language arts, and any other academic activities. However, we continue to do morning time, rest time, and afternoon tea time. This means our free reads, piano practice, handicrafts, and Spanish continue.
Break week is my time to balance being a fun mom with bringing order back into my home. I try to take the kids on mini adventures that we wouldn’t ordinarily do during school hours and work ahead on some tasks I know I need to accomplish.
Fun:
-A long visit to the library and park during the morning: while we try to get to the library once every other week or so, it’s often in that hurried hour between lunch and rest time. My kids are itching to play with the new activities and pick out their own books.
-Having friends over for a play date and lunch: we planned our fall break to go with the district. One of N’s closest friends also has the week off, so she’ll be coming over (with her mom and brothers) for lunch and a play date. I can’t wait to spend time with them.
-The botanical gardens: We plan to visit our local, free, botanical gardens for a picnic and nature walk.
Our mighty guy is going to be Bluey for halloween
Home:
-Bring order back to the homeschool room: by this I mean, dust the nature shelf, clean up any discarded scraps of paper, bits of string, and reorganize our curriculum shelf.
-Deep cleaning house work: You know, get ready for winter by scrubbing baseboards, wiping down walls, and cleaning window seals. Please tell me I’m not the only one to do this?
-Rotate out clothes for the new season and donate things that we no longer need.
-Work on Halloween costumes
-Close down the garden
Work (Personal and Professional Development):
-Finish up units I have in progress for Little World Wanderers
-Plan out Q4 blogs and content
-Finish and commonplace books in progress
School:
-Write T1 exams and plan T2 schedule
-All the crafts my kids desire
So break week is less of a break and more of doing all the things I have a hard time doing when we’re heads down in school work, but I’m still excited for our week off.
Happy Fall Break Friends!
