Dec. 28, 2006
Holiday Break--December 28, 2006
Posted in Past Journals
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Today is still supposed to be holiday break. Since we school year 'round and always have, it is hard to define "break" for us. It seems like breaks are just as busy or busier than "non breaks." Speaking of schooling year 'round, I can still remember when our first born, then six or seven, first went to Sunday school and discovered that kids do not do school on Saturday. Ray had a very demanding job then as a controller in the automotive industry, and he always worked on Saturdays, so we pretty much did the same things that we did through the week: get up, read together, take care of the babies and toddlers, housework, Joshua's little workbooks that he had, etc. Every Saturday, he would blissfully and obliviously, pull out his little school tub and get his workbooks out on the dining room table. Then the peer pressure began! He discovered that other children do not go to school on Saturdays. (We were the only homeschoolers in our little town nearly twenty years ago, so his only frame of reference for school was what we did at home and when/where the kids at church went.) It wasn't that we had been making him "do" school on Saturdays. It was just that school was part of life and life was school. We learned all of the time. Some days we had things going on, so we didn't do school. Other days we schooled all day and evening, if Dad was out of town on business. (I am thankful now that we marched to our own drum then because that became our point of reference for "school." Not just books and assignments but a learning life.) Those days seem so simple now. And sometimes so desired. With seven children--and seven different sets of needs--it is never quite that simple today. We want to spend time with and invest in our son and daughter-in-law, who live a few miles from us. We have two daughters living at home who are in college and need us nearly daily to talk to and encourage. We have a teenage daughter who doesn't know exactly where she belongs and feels like the older three children are successful and gifted and she is not (which couldn't be further from the truth). We have three growing sons: fourteen, eleven, and eight, for whom I don't want to lose the momentum, zeal, and urgency in raising and training. I remember thinking that I was so busy and I would never "get it all done" with so many small children. The tasks were so physical and exhausting then, but so different than the emotional and spiritual stress in what we are doing with seven children eight through twenty-four! So, anyway, it's holiday break. We have been Christmas-ing until everyone is just about Christmased out. Too many get togethers and too much junk food. (Yesterday everyone just wanted to eat cereal! :) We are switching gears from partying with family to reflection (love those new books we all got for Christmas!), housekeeping, and thoughts for the new year. A day of holiday break means cleaning out the learning center and organizing homeschool product (for Training for Triumph) on shelves, reading aloud from our Christmas books we didn't get finished yet, cleaning out closets and cupboards before everything is back in full swing, learning how to blog (!), goal setting for the new year, and getting back to my forgotten edits! (Oh, and, of course, the three little guys playing with legoes, Playmobile, and hexalinks by the hour!) What's your "holiday break" like? It reminds me of when we had seven kids fourteen and under, and we would take a vacation or a weekend away all together, and after we got all unpacked and unloaded, the washing machine and dryer were in full mode, and everyone was fed, Ray and I would look at each other and say, "We need a vacation!" :) Have a great day. Love, Donna the relational homeschooler |
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