We homeschool year-round. Ok, now that you are over the shock, let me explain. There are many benefits to homeschooling year round. First of all, as we learned this year, life happens. Now, when “life happens” and your child is going to a public or private school, no big deal right? You drop them off, you deal with life, you pick them up. However, when “life happens” and you are homeschooling, you do not have the option to drop the kiddos off at school (unless of course you want to freak your kids out). They get to participate when “life happens”, and guess what happens to school? Well, let’s just say we mark down those days as “life skills”. Another benefit to homeschooling year-round, is that we take breaks when we need them. Of course, we typically take days off around Thanksgiving, and have even been known to take off 3 weeks for Christmas break. I think every parent knows that there are some days that would be better spent in bed, and sometimes, we do that too. Year-round school really gives us the flexibility to teach when the kids are at their best. It also gives us the blessing of being able to help those around us at a moments notice, without feeling pressured to complete school that day.
Recently, we have fallen into an interesting schedule. Hubby is getting up at 3:30 and going in to work around 4:00. (Yes, AM). Florida remember? It’s stinkin’ hot and humid around here lately, and in his shop the temps are soaring to around 115 degrees. So, he goes in around 4:00 and works until 1:00 or 2:00pm and then runs his errands and comes home. It’s been nice, because typically we rarely get to eat dinner together. Back to my point. Since Hubby gets up at 4:00, now he’s in bed around 7:30 watching TV and starting to drift off to sleep. Which is where I come in. He doesn’t sleep well if I am not there with him, so now, guess who is getting up at 4:00 (AM!). It’s good though, I have roughly 3 hours in the morning to myself. I get to exercise, read my Bible, write crazy things on my blog, shower, make bread, whatever until the kids get up. My house is much cleaner and running much smoother. So, back to my point, now school is getting started a little earlier in the day, and we all sit down together and I help each one as they need it. I try to give the littlest guy something to do other than TV (until Super Why comes on). Sometimes he does Preschool in a Bag activities, sometimes he plays blocks, yesterday he played with the Aqua Doodle. If you don’t have one of these, seriously consider it. We have loved ours and gotten tons of use out of it.
Yes, he dressed himself yesterday. He cracks me up. I think I’ll call this picture “Redneck preppie cowboy”.
See what happens when I get up at 4:00 (AM!)
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