Taking a break

[Mgs]

Does anyone take breaks from HoD and do just the 3rs and read alouds?

[StephanieU]

We school year round so we can take breaks as needed. Some times it is a complete break. Some times it is just the 3Rs and Bible. Some times it is a time for everyone to catch up on anything they got behind on. The older guides are only 140 days, so that leaves us a lot of flexibility!

[Rice]

Not really. However, my last 4 kids to start HOD (with 3 older ones in higher guides) have done just 3Rs and Storytime through K-3rd, starting the full guides in Preparing, when ready (usually for 4th).

Also, each child usually has what we call a Reboot, some time around the middle of each guide. In a Reboot, they read everything, but the only written work they do is the Timeline; *everything else* is done orally and "Reboot" is written in any NBing page boxes that they don't complete. They finish a unit per day in the younger guides or one every 2 days in the middle school guides. We usually do a Reboot for 3 or 4 units, then go back to "school as usual." We've found that the Reboot helps not only to get back on track on my mental calendar (catch up if we've gotten behind, or even earn some extra flex days), but also refreshes them, feeling they've had a break from the usual way of doing things. And I don't feel guilty because we still covered ALL the content; I just, as the teacher, made the executive decision to allow them to respond in a different way for a few units.

When we take a break from HOD (Christmas and summer, mostly) I use that chance to read the non-HOD books that we want to get to. We continue the hour of read alouds every night before bed, though I don't tend to add a morning time as well. A break from academics is a break, not a chance to add more to our days. (That said, if kids got behind in math, we may still do that a few days per week in the summer. )

Blessings,

[Mgs]

We took a few days off.. just doing math and LA. Stephanie, do you ever get “tired” of doing heart of Dakota and find a break helps?

Rice, I can see how starting with preparing would help a lot.

[StephanieU]

I wouldn't say tired is HOD necessarily. But we do get burnt out with everything going on. I think we would get the same burnt out feeling with most curriculum! Only doing school four days a week helps, but if we have busy weekends, we need a break occasionally.