When your children were young, did you take breaks from schooling during the school year or in the summer? 

Julie



Yes, we took off school for the summer. We did a
 lot of gardening and animal work in the summer, plus we were in 4-H for 
many years so we needed extra time for projects. If we had lived in town
 and didn’t have as much work occupying us, we might not have taken the
 summer off. 
During the school year we often took breaks from schooling, but then, we
 must define “schooling.”

In my mind, schooling encompasses much 
more than books and curriculum. When you go to the library, that is schooling because the
 children are learning how to categorize and organize; when you go to the 
nursing home, you are teaching them compassion, and that is schooling; when 
you go to Hy-Vee grocery store, you teach them thrift, and that is 
schooling; when you go to Crazy Girl Yarn Shop or The Cotton Shop to pick
 out materials for the next project, you teach them to love simple things,
 and that is schooling. 
In addition, we would often take off from formal schooling for several days at a
 time if we were working on a science fair or history fair project. I think
 children can be more creative if they are given large chunks of unscheduled time to 
think, experiment, and produce things, rather than just small segments of time, here 
and there.