Whirlwind Adventure
I have not written much for the past few weeks, as we have been “off-schedule” on Christmas vacation. I try to coordinate our homeschool vacation schedule with Nick’s work and Catherine’s school schedule, to maximize the time when our whole family can be together. It also ensures that half the house is not partying while the other half is painstakingly trying to study.
So, we have been on break since December 15th. It has been a very full time. We’ve had a very blessed time together with our little family and our extended family. We did all the Christmas ‘stuff’ that we usually do (preparing for Christmas during Advent, baking cookies, putting up the tree, taking lots of pictures, gift-giving, visiting family and going to Midnight Mass), and then some (redoing the living room, building new computers & creating a “Network Server” in our basement).
I tried to keep things simple to give us all time to reflect, and I think for the most part, we were successful at this. However, all this activity did catch up with me several times over this break…and I just wished for solitude. The day-to-day happenings encompassed witnessing joy melt into tears, excitement switch to boredom, quarreling transformed into peace, and vice versa; repeat.
It is a wonderful thing about homeschooling that we can set our own schedule which does not always mean school has to take place from 8:30am-3pm, Monday through Friday. More often, we are at the books from 9am-3pm most days, but take breaks to go to music lessons, outings during the day with other kids who are home educated, and sometimes just a “lazy day” as a reprieve from the diligence of “the schedule”. This gives us the chance to place attention on things which are most important – giving a hug to that child who has waited patiently for it, settling that argument that otherwise would not have been resolved because one person had to run out the door to avoid being late, having more “down time” instead of driving around town. During special times of the year, homeschooling allows us to not be “too busy” to focus our attention on those things which are well-deserving of it – especially during the feast days of the year, such as Christmas and Easter.
