When "days off" aren't "days off"

Last week we had house guests. Dear friends that we were glad to have, but a week off wasn't on the "schedule." I did what I could to stack the first week so we didn't miss much by taking most of Thursday and Friday off. The next week (Monday-Thursday) wasn't as simple.

We had a great time with our friends. Did some kayaking, fishing, camping . . . and while we were sad to see them go . . . I felt . . . behind. 

I schedule some things in the summer so our schedule (with the goal of being done before convention in May) is set before we begin. I do fill in things like which math pages we do on a daily basis, but the weeks and some subjects are set in advance. While I love the bump feature on Scholaric, too much bumping means school in the summer. No Bueno. 

So, I was slightly stressed. I didn't want to bump it all, but while E can handle some doubling up, her daily school work is already hefty. C on the other hand . . . well, doubling anything is just not happening. 

So, making myself feel better I am not bumping everything, and slowly doing what we can to "catch up" without passing my stress onto the kids. 

Breathe and carry on. Well, then as our friends leave on Thursday, and I am reminded that we had a zoo field trip planned for that Friday. Sheesh. I can't catch a break. I was sooooo tempted to cancel the field trip. I mean, we were BEHIND!!!!

And then I can hear my kids little voices are we behind? and I am reminded of how hard I worked to convince them that as long as we were diligent, we couldn't be behind. We set the pace -- it's the beauty of homeschooling. 

So, we went to the zoo. And I am so very glad we did. We all had a great time, and really needed that time to reconnect as a family after a crazy busy week. The kids learned so much as well, and I was reminded about lifeschooling! How sad it would have been for me to have stayed home to learn grammar and writing and read about science from an encyclopedia when they were able to learn the difference between apes and monkeys, learn about all kinds of animals, their habitats and behaviors, and be reminded of topics like carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores. 

We left the zoo and instead of rushing home to get some "school work" completed, I decided to take the kids out to lunch just us and debrief from our zoo trip. The kids told me all about what they had seen, learned, and experienced. We were able to categorize the animals we saw, discuss, and share with one another. It was a great time, and I was reminded how important real life learning is. How tragic it would have been for me to give up this opportunity by prioritizing "school work" about learning.

Embrace learning. 

Remember it doesn't usually look the way we think it should.