Great Blue Herons and Summer Break

Have you ever watched a Great Blue Heron take flight? I was on an early morning walk alone the other day, near the river that borders my neighborhood. I saw this Great Blue Heron looking up to the sky. It started to move it’s wings and at first it just kind of hovered over the water, then it slowly started to move forward, it’s wings almost moving like a wave, sucking air underneath them for lift. When it started moving forward, it didn’t fly very high, a few times, it’s wingtips even dipped into the water. Eventually though, it found it’s rhythm and began to fly higher out of sight as it made it’s way down a tree lined corridor up river. Besides being captivated by the majesty of nature, I thought a lot about that bird and how it’s flight felt familiar to me.

Homeschool can feel like that Heron’s take off. At first we hover and then when we want to get somewhere, sometimes it feels like we are moving slowly, making us wonder if we are actually moving at all. And when our wingtips dip back into the water, we begin to wonder if this flight is actually going to happen. But then we begin to settle into a pattern that lifts us higher and takes us further.

People often ask me if we take a summer break. Happy to offer their opinions on the matter, I oblige their curiosity and answer their questions. And yes, in our house, we take a summer break. We also take a winter break and a spring break and a Wednesday break or a Monday morning break if we need it. When we started, I was diligent about keeping a Monday-Friday routine. The problem was, the routine wasn’t giving us much lift. We were hovering but we weren’t moving forward. As time went on and I felt more comfortable with adjusting the schedule as needed, I could feel the enthusiasm for learning coming back for not only my children but myself as well.

I remember worrying that breaks meant that momentum was lost. But momentum isn’t the same as learning. Momentum is like a side effect of movement- it isn’t the initiation of movement. So when we take a break, we are allowing ourselves to pause, rest and then walk more boldly with intention in the direction we want to go. Momentum is wonderful if you are on a swing, never really going anywhere but back and forth. Hovering. Our Heron friend was not going to take it’s grand flight by hovering alone. It is in that space of stopping and starting again that we can decide if the swing was really what we wanted, maybe we wanted the slide or the monkey bars instead?

I don’t know how long a Heron flies before it takes a break. Perhaps this will be an upcoming topic for learning in our house! What I do know is that eventually, it stops and takes a break. And that doesn’t mean it forgets to fly, it just means it is taking a beat to figure out which direction to go next.