I love this time of year! The flowers are all blooming, the trees are beginning to grow little leaves and the weather is warm enough to put away all of the winter coats until next year! Spring is such a wonderful time of year, but it is one of the hardest times of the year in our home school.
The warm weather beckons to us and thoughts of the upcoming care-free, run-wild summer days distract us all from the school work that we know must be done. As soon as the temperatures reach about 60 degrees consistently, all the kids want to do is play outside and none of us can wait to put the books away for the summer!
All school year we work really hard to keep on track with the schedule that I’ve planned out. We don’t take any of the public school holidays like Martin Luther King, Jr. day, Presidents’ Day or even Spring break. We rarely take a snow day, and my kids have to be really sick to get excused from their school work. The reason we do this, is so that we can finish our school year before Memorial day, and so that we can take our summer vacation before the beach gets crowded! This also gives us a nice long summer break before we get started on the next school year.
So, here we are, with less than 6 weeks of school left, and we are all struggling to finish our school year well. This is not a new struggle. It is the same struggle that we deal with year after year. Can’t we just call it a year and be done already??? Of course not.
The God that we serve is an excellent God, and He calls us to be excellent in all the we do. “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus…” Colossians 3:17 “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men…” Colossians 3:23 ” Whatever your hand finds to do, verily, do it with all your might…” Ecclesiastes 9:10
God has given me the privilege of home schooling my children. I do not take this task lightly. It is my belief that any task worth doing is worth doing well, all the way to completion – including getting through all of my curriculum, even if it feels like summer outside! This is why, every morning during our prayer time, I pray that we would pursue excellence in our school work and not just do enough to get by.
Along with this prayer, there are some practical things that we do to help us during this season.
- If it’s a warm sunny morning, I’ll send the kids out as soon as they eat their breakfast for 20 or 30 minutes before starting school.
- If school work can be done outside, do it outside! (Reading on the trampoline is awesome – as long as no one is jumping!)
- Have a picnic lunch.
- Plan afternoon outings to the park or the river. This gives the kids incentive to finish their work in a timely fashion.
- Take field trips!!!
- Count down the school days until vacation.
- Plan a year end day trip to the beach!
With just 26 days left in our school year, the end is in sight and we are all ready for summer. As hard as it is with the beauty of the creation calling us outside, we will pursue excellence and finish our year well.
