At the moment, schools are breaking for the spring two weeks of holiday.
People often ask me, “do you take the school holidays off?” Well, my first response is, “homeschooling: we’re always on holidays, but never on holidays.” So in short, “yes” and “no.”
We are always learning.
Whether as home educators, we are executing thoroughly planned ‘lessons’ or ‘unit studies,’ or we are enjoying a nature walk with our children, they (and ourselves) are always learning.
I find it an interesting question. Once we begin to educate our children at home, we begin to see life a little differently. Rather than the concept that children learn just when they are taught something in a lesson context, we see our children learning and growing in their understanding despite formal lessons. Learning is not confined to lessons or the 9-3 school time.
Learning is holistic.
It is all of life.
Learning is not just numbers, grammar and historical facts, it is also life skills, friendship skills, emotional awareness and more.
There is much more to learning.
So, I find it a difficult question to answer. Once you see the freedom and joy of learning in homeschooling, considering ‘school holidays’ can be a little foreign.
So, how do we map out the ‘school year?’
In our home, we aim to loosely spend blocks of 6 weeks engaging in our more formal learning (4 days per week). This is the time we do topic or unit studies, language arts lessons, writing, nature study, math topics and morning time. We don’t necessarily do all of these things all at once….you get the idea?
After this block, we take a week (or sometimes two) ‘off’ where the children enjoy more time for pursuing other things. The children love the freedom to pursue their own interests, spend extended time with friends and family and go on family nature adventures. This change in pace is a welcome time for me to take a breath and reflect on our learning so far. I also use this time to catch up on more involved housejobs and plan some learning for the next block.
When school holidays do come, sometimes it lines up with our week off. Often, we do take the break that happens to line up with school holidays. Especially if the children want to connect with friends and family who are at school, this can be a good thing.
When the schools resume again, we may, or if I am not planned enough to jump into our next block of more formal learning, we take another week. The children have another week (or two) to enjoy their own interests and play!
We also keep the year pretty flexible to have the freedom to take extra time where needed and unexpected life that pops up. This last month we have packed up our house and are living in temporary accommodation before moving into a new home in a few months. Needless to say it’s been a BIG few weeks! During this time, we have the freedom to pack away the school books and focus on what we needed to in that time.
On the other hand, sometimes over the summer break, I may spend some extra time with a child working on some skills that they find challenging such as handwriting, number facts or a math concept. This helps build confidence for when we start the more formal learning, they feel more comfortable. And, if the weather is beautiful in summer, you will find us enjoying the quiet beaches. One of the joys of homeschooling!
So, do you take school holidays? Homeschooling gives you the free to take them, or not. Totally up to you!