It’s hot here.  Is that an understatement for relentless 100° afternoons and night time “lows” of 80°?

When the afternoons are 100° – 105° that is not the time for kids to be out bike riding and roller blading and scootering.  They’ll either have a heat stroke or just sit around on the porch.  Both are less than stellar options.  They go out there in order to  get lots of exercise and stay fit play and have fun!

So we turn our days upside down.  We get up and eat breakfast, the kids do their chores, then they are FREE to play out doors until lunch.

Once lunch is over we have school till we’re done and then they can have leisure time in the house, either reading, watching a DVD or playing board games right up until supper time.

I am running my a/c now, but we’re trying to be very smart about it.  The rule is that you just don’t open a door in the afternoon, not without a very compelling reason.  That way all my bought air stays where I want it, and my house stays comfortable, and we don’t go broke when the bill comes.  Noble causes, all!

Some of the secret, hidden, don’t-tell-my-children side benefits to this schedule are:

• Chores get done in a hurry or it starts cutting into play time.
• School work is not done in a rush, just to get out of the house to play.
• I have time in the mornings to get all the days laundry washed and hung out.
• If I want to bake anything, I have time to do so in the cool of the day.

Ok, so they’re not secret, or hidden, and you can tell my children if you want to, but this works out nicely for us.

I love the freedom that homeschooling affords.  Not that I really know any other way, but part of my middle squirms when I hear gov’t school moms talk about having to abide by certain rules and schedules.  I really love making up our own rules and schedules that fit us.  Anything else seems so wasteful.

We take off huge chunks of time when the weather is fine.  Around here that means mid-Autumn and early to mid-Spring.  We may take 6 weeks or more during those times.  It only makes sense.  Why would we want to take time off when everyone else is?  I wanna go to the zoo when the high is 74° and there are only 4 other families there, don’t you?

Related posts:

1. The Plan – part 5 -The Schedule
2. Bible in 90 Days! It’s not too late!
3. Bible in 90 Days – Day 2
4. Homeschooling back at the ranch
5. The Plan – part 4 – Housecleaning and Philosophy