Rest For Our Homeschool
Summer. Summer brings to my mind lazy summer days and getting away from the day-to-day activities of the busy school year. I grew up going to public school, so summer was a time to get away from the school books and just rest. As a homeschooling mom, I am leaning more and more toward doing more of a year-round school. But I also know that after spending a considerable amount of time in the books and learning, we need a break as a family. This past year we took the month of December off from normal school days and focused on the Christmas season and learning what it really means. It did wonders for us. The break, the rest.
Now we are in summer and I fully expect at some point we will bring out the normal school stuff, but right now we are taking time to play. To REST. Rest is an important element of our homeschool life. Rest is an important element of our family life. I believe that the Lord knows the importance of rest. We look back to the beginning and we see in Genesis 2:2-3 that He rested.
“By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.“
The Lord showed us that after he was done working, He took time to rest. I believe that is the example that He wants us to follow. Our kids need that time to recharge and play with their siblings and just be. So this summer we have a few weeks where we have nothing planned. There are huge white spaces on the calendar. We have some summer activities that are planned, but they are spaced out. Then in the late summer we will begin to ease into our school work. Our focus right now is resting our brains and letting natural play happen.
Matthew 11:28 says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.“
We are finding fun stuff to read to keep up the reading skills we learned through the year. We found some local reading programs that allow our children to read for fun and earn fun prizes. We are also focusing on our garden. The learning doesn’t stop, but we are taking a more relaxed approach.
Author Bio
Angela is a homeschooling mom of two beautiful children. She had a change of heart about homeschooling when it was time to enroll her sweet daughter in school. She now blogs about her journey with homeschooling at Homeschooling — A Change of Heart. She is married to her best friend Jeff. Two weeks out of every month Angela holds down the home front while Jeff travels for business. Angela loves to learn about photography and see what she can capture behind the lens.
