finishing the year

[tanyainne]

Hi,
I'm new to the boards but not to HOD. I need some advice. We had a house fire in January that has put us about a month behind in finishing up our school year. Public schools let out this week and my kiddos are itching for a summer break. We are on week 30 of LHFHG. We are also midway through Bigger and just starting LHTH. Would it be wise just to end LHFHG now and start with Beyond in August or just keep plugging along to get it done? I'm planning on doing LHTH throughout the summer with my dd, and picking up where we left off with Bigger in August.

I could really use the break without guilt... we are rebuilding the house ourselves and it is taking longer than expected.
Thanks for any and all advice!
Tanya

[StephanieU]

First, are you using the math scheduled in LHFHG? If so, I would definitely finish that out. How about fine motor skills? If you are doing the K options, I would finish those as well.As for the rest, I think if you don't think jumping to Beyond would be an issue, you could just jump up there. Or, as another option, do history, rotating box, and Bible a couple of days a week. You have 20 days of LHFHG left, so if you just did 2 days a week during the summer on average, then you could get it all done. The left side only took us about 30 minutes, so you could do that around lunch when it is too hot to be outside (assuming you live where it gets hot of course).

[8arrows]

Take your break without guilt. You will be fine!

[MelInKansas]

Since you are so close to finishing LHFHG what I would suggest is try to finish up math and look at anything else you may want to make sure you finish and just spend another week finishing up those things. Make sure your Bigger child finishes a unit, and don't worry about LHTH. You can pick back up in the fall. Sorry to hear about the fire and rebuilding, what a crazy thing to go through!

[Nealewill]

If you are personally at a point where you need a break, take it! That is always what I have done and I never feel guilty about it. Everyone is so much happier when we do that. But one thing I have found - I never take 3 months off. I usually limit my amount of off time to less than 4 weeks. We school all year now and my kids are so much happier. I would give yourself some grace right now to get your life back in order and this way you can focus on the things you need to in your life. Then pick back up with school when things have settled a bit. My kids get off 3-4 weeks at Christmas and then rarely have school the last week of January or even the last 2 weeks. I work from home and am an accountant for a small business. I have TONS of tax filing stuff and year end mailings I need to do that month. If I need a break, we take a break! That is why I love homeschool. I set my schedule for my family and we all thrive with this.

[tanyainne]

Thanks for all of the quick responses! I think we'll just go ahead and take a few weeks off to give everyone a break...there's a lot that can be learned from construction! I'm planning on doing something educational most days, that's just the way I'm wired and the kids seem to enjoy it. So I think we'll work our way through it as we can. I just didn't know if I would be really messing things up by not going straight through to the end.
Thanks for the permission to move forward guilt free...it's been a pretty chaotic time!