Marie131 Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 My school aged kids are in K and grade 2. We started hsing this year in the summer at a relaxed pace as I was having a difficult pregnancy and knew that I would give birth prematurely. We started our break at the end of Sept/beginning of Oct and are not starting up again until January. Despite starting early, my kids are behind where I would have liked them to be. Is it really important in these early years to stay on track or will they catch up quickly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 THey will catch up, imo. IIWY, I'd do some "unschooling" while on break--strew lots of interesting things and see what they come up with on their own. Bake some cookies and have them help with dinner to get some math in. Read aloud. Leave notes for them to read. Have them write Christmas/holiday cards to G'ma or friends. Make some crafts/art for the holidays. Plant some paperwhites. Go to the library. Watch a few fun history-related videos (Liberty's kids, American Girl movies, etc.) and some nature shows. Teach some chores. Get a clicker and keep track of things in the car (stop signs, out-of-state license plates, red cars, dogs being walked, etc.). Listen to music. Let the new baby teach--gentleness, responding unselfishly to needs, kindness. Go on walks. Sort laundry. Polish the silver. Just that sort of thing. Lots of learning in living. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StartingOver Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 180 days in the average school year X 12 years for 1st through 12th = 2160 / 365 days in a year = 5.9 years total to educate a child through highschool. We have taken days, weeks, months and even a whole year off when my mother was ill. My children learned in spite of it, and still graduated on schedule. Two of them are in the medical field, I totally attribute that to the time they had with my mom before she passed. They will tell anyone at 23 and 24, that taking that year off is something they cherish, the time they got to spend with her. You have plenty of time. ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 I wouldn't even worry about "catching up." Just keep moving on when you can, and it will be fine.:-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbel Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 My school aged kids are in K and grade 2. We started hsing this year in the summer at a relaxed pace as I was having a difficult pregnancy and knew that I would give birth prematurely. We started our break at the end of Sept/beginning of Oct and are not starting up again until January. Despite starting early, my kids are behind where I would have liked them to be. Is it really important in these early years to stay on track or will they catch up quickly? So, reset your expectations. :) As others have said, strew around interesting things for them to read/do/look at, have them help with baking and other cooking, read when you can... it will all work out. :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 Well I'll give you a little bump here and just say that there's no need to take COMPLETELY off. They still need structure and routine and things to do everyday, and those things might as well be educational or worthwhile. It takes no effort to turn on audiobooks if you're too distracted or tired to read aloud. It takes no effort to turn on a SOTW audio to get some history done. It takes very little effort to tell them to plunk their fannies down in front of the computer to do their TT math for the day. And hopefully someone you know is willing to take them to the library once a week to get books. That really only leaves handwriting, and PROBABLY if you really thought about it you could all sit down for 10 minutes a day and have a grand contest of doing writing with a timer and follow it up with cookies. And then boom, with no effort school is done. No, it doesn't matter if more than that gets done, but yes I'd at least be getting SOMETHING done. I wouldn't let their brains vegetate into mush and insipid cartoons and captain underpants all day any more than I'd let them sit and eat potato chips for 3 months. Use the time to do what you can without feeling stressed to do more than you can. BTW, when I had my kid (9.5 years apart, a big jolt!), life DID stop. But after a few weeks those are the types of things we did. You don't have to guide them, but you want to at least make sure you're providing a stimulating environment. If you do that, they're still learning and growing and all is well. And really, I would add to that list some intentional purchases of kits, games, that sort of thing, things they can do together that *they* think are their play but *you* know is edu-fun. Anything from Timberdoodle or the kits and models section of Hobby Lobby would be in that camp. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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