Winter break = just as much work

We are currently on our winter break.We follow a year round schedule so we have a big break in the middle of our year. We start our year in July; this year it was July 20^th. We do 90 days and then stop for a 30 day break. This year we stopped the week before Thanksgiving. We will start the second semester January 4^th and end our 90 days some time in May. Our summers are shorter than the average American child gets; approximately 50 days; but we don’t mind. It gets very hot here in the summer months and there isn’t a lot to do. There are no day camps in the area and sleep away camp (as much as Turtle would like to go) is out of our price range right now. We don’t work a whole day anyway and the rest of their time is their own. We spend much of the summer in the pool, but there are days when it’s even too hot for that.

Speaking of the pool, it is never too early to shop for a swim suit. If you like a modest suit, like I do, then you might enjoy the suits from Princess Modest Swimwear. I love my suit and I don’t feel self conscious wearing it. I did shorten the sleeves since I don’t mind wearing short sleeves but otherwise I love it. Shipping was also surprisingly quick and easy from Israel.

http://www.modestswimwear4u.com/

I love this long break. It gives me a chance to catch up with myself, work on my curriculum and get all my ducks in a row for the second half of the year. If it goes half as fast as the first half, we are all in trouble. The hardest part is fitting in everything I want to cover in one year.

We've done some Chanukah crafts/decorations during the first part of our break. A project the kids loved was to color a picture with crayon and pencil. Then we watered down a little white glue and painted it over the picture. Before it dries sprinkle salt over the picture. Don't sprinkle too much or when it dries you wont be able to see the picture through the salt. When it dries the picture will look frosted. Place it in a frame (under glass) to keep it safe and enhance the look.

I’ve been working very hard on a full curriculum; k-12. Even though my kids don’t need the k-2 anymore I thought it would be handy to have just in case a little blessing arrives or someone else needs it. I'll be posting it little by little as I can...

but now my husband is forcing me to go to bed LOL. I should get some sleep. Butterfly has a dance recital tomorrow and then we will be going to dinner with my parents and brother and his family. We will also be exchanging gifts with my brother and sister in law (for the kids only). Fun for all!