March has been such a hard month these past few years! Winter never ends early anymore, we have all the blizzards and grey skies in March now and keeping our motivation in schooling is hard when all we want to do is sleep, drink coffee, and cry over each new foot of snow.

But we’re working through it. We’re midway through Lent – Lent is all about self-discipline and we are building ours together! But “working through it” doesn’t mean we grind all our joy down in the pursuit of a consistent education, so we do take time out to rest and restart.

We try to keep a consistent daily reading schedule: Bible, catechism, history (we’ll be jumping from early American History, which we’ve been slowly working through for the past two years, to Ancient History! I’m excited to see how the books we found work out.), nature, saints, and some small fairy stories. Or if it’s a really lazy day, at least we read the Bible and some fairy tales. The consistent morning reading helps us connect and focus a bit even if the rest of the day is casual.

But in March, we don’t always do focused work everyday. Math, copywork, grammar, etc are subjects we might chose to pass by for the sake of a tromp in the snow, a painting day, or just a slow day of reading and play. These little breaks help so much to keep our motivation up and not fall too deep into the late winter blahs.

Today is one of those slow days.

We read in the morning, and then I left the kids alone to play for a long while. They spent some of the time outside in the snow, some of the time watching Seth build the chimney at my parent’s cabin, and then some time reading together downstairs at their grandparents’ house. Late March is a wonderful time for Seth to get caught up on projects at the vacation cabin, and my parents will be up at Easter to celebrate with us, so the more he can do in Lent, the better!

I like to give the kids a break from schoolwork on days that Seth is working because they love helping him build. They’re learning something tangible and valuable by building or painting with their daddy. And the lazy days help us renew our delight in schooling. It’s lovely to build a schooling schedule around the seasons, letting the slow late-winter times inspire a bit more hygge and a little less industry.

Do you struggle to stay motivated homeschooling, homesteading, or in some other aspect of daily life? How do you deal with burnout in the cold months?