Burned Out Already?!

We started school six weeks ago.

For Sunlight Boy nothing changed but the frequency of homework. While during the summer we were casually skipping and skimming, now we stick to a 5-homework days per week. Our school days are Monday-Thursday and Sunday.

For Ballet Girl things have only mildly changed. She reads some Bulgarian and some English  and plays piano 20 minutes per day during our school days. The new is that I introduced spelling twice a week (Sunday and Thursday).

The evenings have been slightly stressful (for me) because I have tried to cram in some history and science-half month dedicated to history and half a month dedicated to some scientific concept. In addition, I have been strict about the presence of Portuguese in our lives-we now dedicate at the minimum 15 minutes per night to it.

Since the weather has been keeping steady and good for the most part of the last six weeks, we have emphasized outdoor play too. So, we should not be burned out. Yet, we are. So, next week is our vacation week. I looked at the school calendar of the kids and it more or less follows the same pattern-six weeks on, one week off- and for once I agree with the school, but conditionally-and the condition is that learning continues year round.

Our next planned vacations are for the weeks of 11/24, 12/22, 12/29, 2/16, 4/6, 5/25. The summer we will go to a reading/math/piano routine only, and only  4 times a week.