Spring Break, III

We went back to school this week.  For the third time this Spring.  Yes, indeedy.  Our happy little preschool table had already had three Spring Breaks this year, for a total of three and half weeks of time off.  Luckily, when you only spend about forty minutes a day, four times a week, at school, getting back in the habit isn’t too terrible.  And it wasn’t as though our Spring breaks involved imitating root vegetables on the sofa. 

First there was Grandma.  She blew into town in March – a la Mary Poppins - and she’s always good for field trips and playing outdoors.  We were right back to school after that, with a complete lesson plan ready and everything. 

Next Daddy was in bed for a week and we discovered that just having him in the house all day is enough to throw all of us completely off of our normal routine.  He wasn’t a bad patient at all, but the first two days when we tried to have school it was just a mess – like everything in the cosmos was actively working against us.  I think the kids were wound up knowing Daddy was in the general vicinity, even if they weren’t allowed to see much of him.  I gave up and scheduled two impromptu days off until he would be back at the office.  This turned into some spring cleaning days, and I spent the whole next week doing battle against clutter instead of teaching phonics.  I’ll confess, there probably was a bit of excess TV time for the kids while that was going on, but the monster pile of outgrown kids clothes in my bedroom has been defeated once and for all.  Going back to school after that was a bit more haphazard, pulling out a half completed lesson plan to massage back to life. 

Finally, we were swamped with cuteness last week when two adorable cousins arrived, with an auntie and grandpa in tow.  We jumped right back to it when they were gone, though, only to discover that the lesson planning I thought I’d done in advance actually hadn’t been even started – for those who don’t know, I have an exceptional imagination.  So we decided to wing it, which turned into making and erasing every day’s lesson plan all week, and just filling in what we actually did after the fact.  I’m starting next week’s lesson plan right this minute. 

I don’t think I’m allowed any more Spring Breaks this year.