Right from the start of our homeschooling journey we kept to a 4-day week. Sonlight presented this as a planning option and it was the one thing that saved me from complete burn out in my first year of homeschooling.
I’m glad I realized that we could homeschool “only” four days instead of every day.
We often used our “free day ” for doing our weekly shopping, There was nothing really educational about many of our free days, but it was the day available for outings, going to the library, meeting with friends, or playing in the park. I scheduled at least one free day per month for some educational activity.
Let me be completely honest here … we took a day off for shopping every week because we lived so far from town, but, now and then we took another day off for homeschool outings and meetings. That meant that sometimes we took 2 days off our week! And do you know … we still didn’t fall terribly behind! Somehow we fitted in the week’s work in 3 days.
Our “free day” 
also became known as fabulous Fine Arts Fridays which was a delicious day of art, appreciation, art activities, listening to classical music, reading or listening to poetry, and most importantly, relaxing together in the world of fine arts.
Free days were excellent for catching up on work we skipped or books we needed to catch up. We also watched related YouTube videos or historical movies on free days.
A free day is vital to ~
- soothe stressed moms
- unwind tense kids
- fill your lives with a rich culture
- give you time to catch up when life interrupts the schedule
- offer a variety
- present new opportunities and experiences
- fit in all the extras that make homeschooling wonderful!
Plan free days in your schedule and enjoy your homeschooling!
Blessings, Nadene
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