I’ve got a bad case of spring fever. I don’t know about you, but I am ready for the school year to be over. My ailment started in a week or so ago when I was itchy to be done. Now that it’s Spring Break here locally, I am simply ready for summer to be here.
But we have three to four weeks left of The Mystery of History IV*, and at least that much left for CKE Chemistry*. So, while I could just declare “We’re done, that’s it,” it wouldn’t be fair to the kids, since those are some important lessons in the last few weeks. Also, my kids are excited to read history lessons they were alive for.
How I’m curing my spring fever
School in the park
This probably seems like a weird cure, but it works amazingly. It serves a dual purpose. I get some time outside in the gorgeous spring weather we’re having, AND we all get a change of scene.
Sometimes it just takes changing the scenery to calm down the spring fever. It certainly worked for me. Just sitting at the picnic table as the kids worked on their math, and feeling the breeze calmed my nerves. I also got some exercise in as I chased the math papers the wind blew away.
Then when we stopped for a break, we all enjoyed the swings, and climbing on the playscape. There’s a new park in our area that has THE most amazing playscape, and my kids always want to go there.
Doubling up on lessons
Sometimes you just have to buckle down and get it done. With that in mind, why not get it done more quickly? This past week, we’ve done extra history lessons. Instead of doing the traditional weekly schedule, we are completing one history lesson a day.
We aren’t quite doing one chemistry lesson a week, but we are trying to increase our frequency of meeting.
Setting a time limit
This week we had gorgeous weather. I mean, that perfect spring day, you weren’t sure existed. I told the kids they could have friends over as soon as our lessons were done (I’d already arranged a playdate for 12:30).
You would be amazed how quickly they got their schoolwork done, no complaints, no “is it time for a break?”, no they worked hard.
I’m pretty sure in the not too distant future they are going to start asking about going swimming. We’ll be adding that into my bribery, I mean plans to get work done faster.
We took the week off for “Spring Break” which turned out to be Spring Cleaning. We will hit the books again next week.
We need to take a week of spring cleaning….. so many things to get done, and so little time.
I feel for teachers in schools where they have to invent creative ways to deal with spring fever. Our excellent Humanities teachers allows kids to go for 5 min run in the beginning of the class and also in the end if they are done early. But, between us, I am also ready for summer 🙂
I’m surprised they can do that. I don’t think Texas schools would allow teachers that freedom (of course that may have changed since I was teaching so many years ago).
Seriously, we are completing about a week and a half worth of history each week right now, because our spring fever is that bad.
It really is hard to sit and work when the weather is amazing!
I know, I’m very thankful we can take our schoolwork outside now.