Each year I see more benefits to be had from homeschooling schedules.

Ask for private lessons during school hours so you can get the best teachers who are booked after school.

Do most of your academic tutoring during the summer so you have your pick of all the teachers who are out of school.

Apply for fall and winter internships so you don’t have to compete with kids who are in school.

Never go to museums during school vacation.

Go to water parks on weekdays.

Go to open rehearsals for major orchestras during the day.

Vacation in September. Even families who pull their kids out of school to beat the vacation crowds don’t pull their kids out in September.  But here we are in September again, and I didn’t book anything. I did a lot of research, though.

I realize that the times we have gone on trips to different places did not feel like a vacation to me. Because the hardest part of homeschooling isn’t being with the kids all day, but rather the pressure I put on myself to make sure the kids are aiming high and making every minute of their day count. It’s a messed up trait of mine. I mean, maybe not messed up, but definitely not conducive to relaxed vacations.

Really, I just want to sit and watch the kids have a fun childhood. That would be a vacation for me. And my kids want to have some time where they don’t feel pressure to reach for the stars, or whatever we are calling what I’m encouraging them to do. Melissa set up a vacation where the dog was so fun he was like a resort.

But not quite.

Really, we need one of those all-inclusive Beaches resort vacations. I look at the list of activities and I imagine myself laying on the sand, totally relaxed, while I watch the kids do whatever great activities they choose and I don’t have to do any planning. The activities just happen. And the kids magically are engaged and excited and childhood is full of joy.

I can imagine all that happening. But I get scared that we’ll miss something. It’s not a rational thought. And what I really want to teach my kids is that taking time to relax and do something outside of the ordinary is important and fun. It always comes down to this: the lessons that are most difficult to teach the kids are the lessons I have not yet learned myself.