I recently shared in one of my Intentional Inspirations newsletters about how I have set up our homeschool schedule a little different this year. I am planning in 6-7 week intervals, with 1 week breaks in between. We just finished up our first 6 weeks of homeschool and had our first week break last week! Well, a reader asked what exactly we do on our break week, so I thought I’d do a quick post with some tips for you.
Pray
Spend time seeking the Lord about the next interval. It is too easy to begin planning our days without consulting the Lord. So, begin your week in prayer, asking the Lord to direct you as you plan out the next interval for your family.
Rest
Spend some extra time getting some rest, going to bed earlier, taking a nap, or doing things you enjoy like reading or crafts. This is so important! I want to warn you that you will be tempted to fill up your week with busyness, but this break week is to have some time set aside to rest. You need it! Don’t feel guilty for allowing yourself some down time. You will find that it will refresh you and equip you to better face the next interval with joy.
Prepare
There are several things that you may do this week to prepare for the next interval. You will need some time to plan out the next interval of your homeschool, time to do some catch up on housework or extra deep cleaning jobs, and maybe time to do some freezer cooking to get some meals in the freezer. So be sure to set aside some time (a day or so) for preparing for the next interval. But don’t allow yourself to drag this out all week! Focus and try to get it done in a day or two. You want to give yourself that time to rest as I shared above.
Relationships
A break week provides a wonderful time to be intentional about building relationships with your family and friends. Play games with your kids, take them to do something special, have a friend over for tea and a chat. There are lots of ideas of things you could do. But again, don’t overdo! Choose one or two things you want to do and enjoy it with your family and friends.
Structure
Even though it is a break week, still provide some structure for your kids. You want them to have some down time too, but they will enjoy their time more if you give them some sort of structure to their day. Maybe use blocks of time and give them freedom to choose what they want to do in those blocks of time. You could have blocks of time for outside play, blocks for free time, blocks for table games, blocks for cleaning jobs, etc. Have fun with it, but do provide some structure so your days are fun and productive for everyone.
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I can’t say enough how much I am enjoying scheduling our homeschool this way. It not only allows me to be more focused on our studies, but it is allowing me to work on other projects and make tons of progress simply because I have it thought through and planned ahead of time! Give it a try and see how it works for you — just be sure to keep these 5 things in mind during your break weeks!
Click here to watch a video I recorded on this topic!
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