As the homeschool mom and principal, I cannot fathom taking a day off of school this early in the year. What if we need to take days off this winter because she gets sick? What opportunities will I have to turn down because we took a break now and don't have more school days to spare next spring?
Lauren wants to make sure she gets finished with school for the year the same time her friends do, but we're facing a more difficult challenge. In Colorado, we are required to do school for 172 separate days. Her friend in a charter school only has to go to school 163 days, hence the long fall break. Basically, we're already starting the year nine days behind her friend, and we have to figure out a way to make up any/all sick days that Lauren may need.
This week, I reached a compromise that appeased both of us. First of all, I declared our official Fall Break to be the weekend in November that we go visit Addison in Oklahoma. It's only one school day, but since I'm calling it Fall Break, Lauren is happy.
Secondly, I declared last Monday as a Game Day. Tim was home from work for Columbus Day, and the three of us played games pretty much all day long. (Brennan was invited to play, but he had a lot of other assignments to catch up on that day.)
We started our day with Disney Scene It! and then moved on to Rummikub (one of my childhood favorites).
We then played Pandemic, a game we were borrowing from a friend. It has quickly become a new family favorite, and we're all hoping to find one of our own under the Christmas tree.
In the afternoon, we played both Ticket to Ride (using the board instead of just doing the iPad/iPhone version) and Scotland Yard.
In between games, Tim and Lauren took several breaks to read more of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. They're almost finished, and I suspect we'll be scheduling a movie night in the near future.
Our game day was a wonderful way to meet both mine and Lauren's needs. She needed at least one day to take a break from our regular school routine, and I was still able to count last Monday as a school day. She did more critical thinking on Monday than she often does in a day of our regular assignments. That's a win in my book.
One of my friends on the Homeschool Review Crew has started a new "Homeschool Highlights" link-up this week. I'm sharing our game day post this week, and I hope to share some of my weekend summary posts in the future.
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ah.. I like your game day. :) My lad likes playing Risk...is that kinda like pandemic? And Rummikub... I like playing that one as well. :)
ReplyDeletePandemic is the first cooperative game that we've played. In it, we're all working together to cure the four diseases that are threatening the world's population.
DeleteMy oldest daughter enjoys Risk, but I find it tediously long. Even worse, she likes playing Riskopoly which combines the two longest games known to man. I don't have the attention span to play that with her.
I love game days. I feel like we may need one of those if our week is rough like last week. Hopefully, I have a plan to turn it around. The games you played all look wonderful.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Dawn
Last month HOME hosted a discussion night for moms regarding games in homeschooling. It was pretty unanimous that games were important. The lady leading the discussion told of a teen who was drifting into trouble and a pastor (maybe it was just a friend) helping asked, "You used to play games a lot as a family. Do you still do that?" "No." He told them that they needed to incorporate games. As a group, we came up with a zillion reasons why families should play games together.
ReplyDeleteI'm reluctant to take breaks early in the school year too, although we aren't required to count days. I just know that things will come up later and we'll all wish we'd done more in SEptember and October. LOL
ReplyDeleteA game day and a short Fall Break is a great way to take a little break and make everyone happy though!
So glad you linked up with Homeschool Highlights and I'm looking forward to seeing what you have to share in weeks to come as well!