How to prevent homeschool burn out | Why breaks during school are important.

It's March, we are a couple of months into school since Christmas break.

Who's suffering from school burn out?

We schedule regular breaks into our school year, it helps keep everyone fresh and ready to learn. Two weeks ago I was sitting in the living room, during school, wondering why I would rather run away and hide so they couldn't find me to teach math. 
Then it occurred to me...we hadn't taken our scheduled break! Due to being sick and crazy weather it had slipped my mind.

Last week we took the break we had missed. I am still always amazed at the difference it can make in all of our lives and outlooks education and school.
We watched movies, went for haircuts, built gingerbread houses with friends, visited the library, attended science club, slept in a little, meandered through the mall, took adventures outside, visited the candy store and just generally had fun. It is always fun to unplug from the school part of homeschooling and focus on the home part of it. It can sometimes get lost in the shuffle of school, eat, sleep, repeat.

Something I have been making a mental note of, every time we take a week off, everyone of the (school age) kids has found themselves elbow deep in their own self lead form of education by Wednesday afternoon.

When you see your child has turned their own mind back to learning, then they are ready to start school again.

We keep our work loads full but not too heavy for them to manage. However, when we are doing school a lot of information is going into their brains, scheduled breaks are necessary.    Our brains process a lot of what we have learned while our bodies and minds are at rest. How can that happen if we never give them a moment to rest?

We started back to school this week ready to learn.

That's a great feeling!

Learn from my past mistakes, take regularly scheduled breaks. They are best for everyone's mental and physical well-being. 

Blessings!

~Lyndsay