Fully enjoy both your breaks and your homeschooling!
Everybody deserves a real break now and then, and that includes homeschool parents and children alike! It is healthy – even necessary – to take breaks. The key to enjoying both your breaks and your homeschooling is to mindfully know which you are doing. This seems like a simple thing, but I assure you – it isn’t. Dabbling in breaks and dilly-dallying in homeschooling have the same effect: they both leave you feeling like you got nothing done. Why? Well, when you don’t know which you are doing you don’t know if you did what you wanted to do. When you are halfway taking a break, but still doing a little homeschooling, you end the day feeling dissatisfied. You didn’t do either well. If you don’t know your goal, how do you know if you met it? So, what’s the answer? Well, read on!
Choose to be all in!
The best way to fully enjoy both your breaks and your homeschooling is to choose to be “all in”! In other words, when you start your day, know if you are taking a break or if you are homeschooling. Whichever you are doing, fully commit to it!
Now, I am not saying never take a break at all when homeschooling in the day-to-day; small breaks should always be a planned part of every homeschool day. I am also not saying never work on one homeschool subject or skill during a long break, such as during a summer break. Extended breaks can be a good time to work on one troublesome skill. Likewise, I am not saying it is wrong to make logical adjustments during homeschooling. If you are partway into your homeschool day and your child throws up, though you planned on homeschooling for the day, a break is now needed and should obviously be taken.
No, I am talking about something different here. I am talking about knowing what you are planning on doing for the day at the start. Are you taking a break for the day? Or are you homeschooling for the day? Whatever your purpose is for the day, choose to be all in and commit to that purpose fully. For example, if you are taking a break for the day, don’t make your children do any of their homeschooling. Likewise, don’t make yourself do anything with your homeschooling. A break is a break. If you are homeschooling for the day, don’t make a habit of getting partway into it and just stopping to fritter the day a way. A homeschool day is a homeschool day.
What does “all in” look like?
If you are all-in and are homeschooling for the day, it will show in your actions and in the choices you make. For example, if you know you are homeschooling for the day and you read an email that says your favorite clothing store has an online sale just for today, what do you do? Well, you finish your homeschooling. If there is time at the end of the day, you shop online then. Or, if your phone rings and it is your chatty Aunt Abigail, you let it go to voicemail and call her back when you’re done homeschooling.
Likewise, if you know you are on break for the day and you see a homeschool history project half-done from the day before, you leave it. Your child will have to finish it the next day you are homeschooling. Or, if you’re on break shopping for Christmas gifts on a budget with your child who has been struggling with math and that child adds wrong repeatedly when totaling what you’ve spent, what do you do? Well, you resist the urge to break out the math manipulatives to do a lesson on adding. You are on a break, and so is your child.
You can be “all-in” on a break for a day in a general way or a specific way. For example, maybe today’s break is just for a break from homeschooling. So, in general, you are all-in simply by doing no homeschooling for the day. In contrast, maybe today’s break has a specific purpose. For example, you are taking a break to bake Christmas goodies, to go sledding, to visit your parents, or to shop for Christmas gifts. You are all-in simply by sticking to the break’s specific purpose.
Avoiding the Pitfalls of “Halfway”
The opposite of being “all-in” is hovering in the “halfway.” There are definite pitfalls to the “halfway,” and it is wise to avoid them. When you make a habit of doing things halfway, nothing ever truly gets fully done. For example, each day you start off thinking you’ll homeschool for the day, but you lack the discipline to stick to it and be “all-in”, you are hovering in the halfway. Children’s work is half-done, skills are half-taught and half-learned, and HOD guides are only half-way done by the end of the year. Halfway is no place to remain.
Likewise, you start off thinking you’ll take a break for the day, but you lack the discipline to stick to it and be “all-in.” You think this is a positive thing, but it is not. Your children have seen this before. They don’t believe you will really take a break, and they don’t believe you will really let them take a break. They are on call. At any moment, the break may go away to the “halfway” world, and the children will be made to do just a few homeschool subjects or just one more thing to get ahead. Breaks are a figment of the imagination. They don’t really ever happen. Halfway is no place to remain.
So, here’s a challenge for you!
So, I now have a challenge for you! Choose to be all-in – whether you are homeschooling or taking a break each day. Mindfully commit to whichever you are doing, and let it show in your actions and in the choices you make. Don’t live in the halfway. Don’t let things derail you. If you’re all-in and an obstacle arises, deal with it quickly and efficiently, and get back to being all-in. Try to end your day with the feeling of commitment you gave it your all – whether it was for homeschooling of for taking a break. Always, be open to God’s plan – as His plan is always best! However, don’t just hover in the halfway and let life just happen to you. You deserve the best of both homeschooling and of breaks! So, know what you are doing and dive in! Contentment awaits.
In Christ,
Julie
