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DS is in 3rd grade, using Bigger. I have never really built in breaks , just take days off when needed and when grandparents visit take several days off. We had a horrible day today and a friend said it sounded like we needed a week off. WE've pretty much gone straight since the last week in August.

I just go through the book taking a day here and there when needed but keep going until we finish the book.

How do you build in your breaks?

Katherine
ds 8 Bigger
dd 4 LHTH
dd2

My dh is a ps teacher, so we generally follow his schedule. Sometimes a "break" just happens because the day suddenly filled up. I take off one day every two weeks from HOD and do other kinds of school things. We take a nature walk, have an artist and composer study, do a little painting or something like that. My kids look forward to it. It is still a very important part of their education, but it does break things up a bit.
Laura

Laura, I like the break idea every two weeks to do something else.

Is your school year Sept to June? Mine has been about the last week or two of August until June. But the past two years we've moved and taken 2-3 weeks off. i'm thinking more days off and finishing in July might be okay too.
Katherine
ds 8 Bigger
dd 5 today! LHTH
dd2

First, Happy Birthday to your little one! And yes, school is late August until mid-June around here. If I have to go until the end of June, that's fine. I would just like to be done by July. My kid's birthdays in July, summer things going on, Daddy home more, etc. makes it tough to get much done by then.

one mom I knew went year round and once a month took a 4 day weekend and took the whole month of december and July. It gave them a break without disrupting the "flow" I found that I'm costantly tweaking my system to find the one that works for us without throwing us off track or getting burn out.

This might be our first "normal" year. I mentioned that we took 2-3 weeks off for moving, I forgot to mention there were also a week when grandparents visited. We did do field trips then but no book work. Plus the week at Christmas and a few other days here and there.

I'll look at my calendar again and see when we'll finish if we go straight and add in breaks that way I think.

Okay, I counted out the lesson days and if we went straight through we'd finish May 7th. So I'm going to plan in 3-4 weeks of breaks. One week at Christmas, one week at Tgiving and then 1-2 weeks split up.

If we get to the point where I feel like I need a break to teach well or just to step away from it that is an automatic break builder. I always takes breaks when I feel that way. That is something for me that only a break will fix. Unplanned breaks like that as long as it is not all the time are really good I think. I keep a certain amount of time set aside for just such a time. When you need it you know and I just take it.

We take a summer break. We also take 2 weeks at Christmas, and a day here or there for time for my dh to do outdoor things with the boys. I think it's good to have breaks. We all need them, and we all look forward to them. I do think it's important not to just take a break if the kids are having attitude issues though. They are smart little cookies and can figure out quickly that if a bad attitude = a nice break full of free time and playing, why not bring out the bad attitude more often?!? Otherwise, breaks are pretty important in my mind. I think it sounds like you are on your way to building some nice breaks into your year!

In Christ,
Julie