Winding Down

Even though we plan to school through the summer, this time of year is still a winding down time at our house. During a typical year, I usually make it through burnout (sometime in February or March) and then I'm looking forward to the change of pace summer brings. This year burnout hit in the fall... not the best time, being that it's the beginning of our official school year. BUT since I got that mess over with early on in our school year, planning mode was in full force for me this spring. I've broken down our year in to trimesters and feel like, for the first time, I have a grasp on the overall, annual plan. Previously, I've just kind of floated and gone loosely by the public school schedules and felt bad when we missed days due to the typical homeschool distractions- field trips, illness, and even hurricane evacuations. This year I've decided that I don't need to do that. We are able to abide by our own schedule and enjoy the rhythm of the year in a unique way. We're winding down, planning a trip north soon and looking forward to some summer fun. Whose to say ocean study between wipe-outs isn't school? We'll continue with some formal lessons too, but in a much more relaxed way. So, while it won't be the "daily visit to the pool" kind of summer that I remember (did we really do that Mom?) it will be summer in the "lazy days" kind of way... even if we lift our faces from cool glasses of lemonade to hit the books a bit.