Another Spring Break

Here's how homeschooling works: you get a lot of stuff accomplished in particular areas of study over a few weeks, maybe two to three, and then you basically end up having to ditch the routine for various reasons. But somehow, you always manage to catch up and/or get ahead in your super productive weeks.

Theo is finished grade 2 Math. And while I could start him on his third grade book I'm inclined to put it off until after Bright Week (the week following Easter, for those of you who are not Orthodox).

Coming up in the next few weeks, we have a LOT of church. My kids have more or less missed all the Lenten evening services so far because they start at bed time and whether they can handle being up late or not, Mummy certainly cannot, especially if I am juggling them through a church service (we stand at church) and Daddy can't help because he has to direct the choir. And at the end of the evening there is a meal, which we always have to skip because Daddy needs to get home to bed. So all in all it's a rather rough ride and not worth the tears the following morning. However, the week before Pascha (Easter) is different and we won't be doing any regular work. The work of that week will mostly have to do with preparing for the feast and learning about the services. And there will also be a special page in the Liturgical Journal for Palm Sunday in about a week's time. Whether we get to ALL the Holy Week services or not we will certainly go to the extra long Holy Thursday and Holy Friday ones and probably a few earlier in the week so I am prepared to set aside most of my homeschooling ambitions until after the feast.

The week following Pascha we will be traveling to and from Saskatchewan to help friends move and we may miss part of the following week as well. So while we could work super hard next week on Science and History, the fact that Math is finished has led me to feel that we have plenty of time to finish up our other subjects before the end of June. Next week will likely include a little Science and History, and hopefully a few field trips to Science World and the Aquarium in between the usual errands and preschool.

With the weather warming up the kids are spending half their mornings outside playing in the backyard-- even Eustace. Which is delightful because I can sit inside and get some work done and have my coffee in peace. Such a treat. And of course the kids are thrilled to have the mornings to play. I anticipate a lot of resistance when we have to get back to the usual routine in May, but for the time being we are enjoying a second spring break. And of course the learning is still happening. Georgie is still going to preschool, Theo is still reading as often as he can, and we are still doing little pockets of work here and there, but the pressure's off and we are well on the way to finishing up the year's work early at this point, so it's time to sit back and relax before the big feast!