I went to college in Minnesota at a little liberal arts campus on a hill. If you’ve ever heard of St. Olaf College, it’s because you’re a huge fan of choral music, The Golden Girls, or Scandinavia. I heartily recommend St. Olaf for many reasons, including the atmosphere, collegiality, approach to academics, music, and travel opportunities. One of the best parts about going to school there, though, was January term.
January in Minnesota is punishing. It’s easy to forget about the rest of the world and about how it feels to be warm. I think that’s why they instituted Interim break.
For the month of January, everyone takes only one class. Often off-campus, international, or experiential in nature, these classes are a whirlwind of fun, adventure, and intensive learning. I spent one interim in China and Japan, one building the set and working the light board for the theater department, one discovering medieval women of Europe, and one practicing public speaking.
Trying Interim Break for Homeschool
This year, we decided to try interim for homeschool! We’re already big on project-based learning, but we wanted to take time off our other pursuits to focus on one thing that made us excited. In the case of younger kids–as you’ll see below–this ended up being a few things.
It has a feeling of targeted unschooling and is a great way to get into project-based or learner-led schooling, because it’s a trial run. One month. If you’re worried about someone ‘getting behind’ or the lack of structure making you mad, it’s nice to put an end date on it. It works especially well in January because it’s tacked on to winter break.
Instead of revving up again on the same ideas you were after for the fall, you can take a detour.
Make Goals
Because people tend to accomplish more and feel better about their work when they plan and have goals, we spent some time over the winter break deciding what we wanted to spend our time on and then making goals.
Then we wrote them on a big poster and check them off as we go, or write our accomplishments. We also like to list the books we read.
My 7 year old’s goals are to:
- Learn the rest of the piano exercises in his pink book
- Read all the Stick Cat and Stick Dog books
- Learn two songs on the ukulele
My 10-year-old’s goals are to:
- Learn 3 piano songs
- Needle Felt 3 cool things
- Read two books
My 12-year-old’s goals are:
- Read through all the books from the library on poetry
- Memorize 10 poems
- Write 10 decent poems
My goals are:
- Finish a birth class workbook I’m editing
- Learn Ode to Joy in German
- Read 5 books
Give it a Try!
You don’t have to do it in January! Whenever you need a break from the usual, take 2-6 weeks and do a project or make personal goals to accomplish without having to do other things. No one’s education is ruined by taking a month off of [insert the thing you’re worried about].
Like this kind of approach? Join the mailing list to be notified when I release my new book Real Work for Real Kids: Authentic Learning through Meaningful Projects & Community.
