Taking Breaks

Along our homeschooling journey one of the most important things I have learned is the importance of taking breaks when needed. Our style of learning is not fully unschooled-or curriculum based or school at home. If I had to label our teaching it would be an eclectic-online school system. We tend to use both online learning, supplemental learning, and child-interest guided learning.
I have done the plan it all out approach, write down everything we do as we go approach and the general document it by topic approach. In all the years I have been interested in homeschooling (9), from day one of pregnancy... I have tried many methods, searched and read and searched some more and have found a nice mix that works for us. Not one school of thought has been enough, not one method works either. As many say there are as many methods of learning and are all unique as there are children and their ways of learning. Each child is different and as I have learned .. just like us adults we change over time, they also change over time. They mature, develop stronger opinions and wants and also fine tune and toss out different learning styles. One year we are full on computer based, the next may be book learning, the next a variety of the two.
This brings me back to the topic, along this line I have found that when my kids tend to get overwhelmed with a topic no matter how easy it may seem.. it has been vital to give them breaks. To be willing to go back, review and relearn until they are comfortable with the subject. I have also seen them be so bored out of their mind that they fight the learning and when that happens I have to step back and reanalyze the scenario. Is it the topic, the lesson, lack of sleep, lack of food... what is causing them to be defiant at that time. When all the physical needs are met and a break is needed then we take it. I let them not fully guide their learning, but when they are ready to get back to the studies and they had their break, whether it be for the rest of the day or a couple days off... then they seem to be recharged and ready to take it on with full force. It is amazing how effective this has been. They not only swiftly accomplish the task that had seemed so hard before.. they do more than are asked and often intertwine lessons to work together around topics.
At this stage in the game there have been days where I feel like the task master and feel like I am shoving school down their throat... and other days where they ask to do school stuff and make it so easy that I look forward to more and more learning alongside of them. My kids have taught me so much about learning and living life through this adventure that I cannot wait until the teen years when they get deeper into subjects that will effect them later in life. I truly believe that if you instill the want and need of learning and joy of learning in them, then later when it comes to the harder subjects they will be eager to keep going.
We have taken breaks off of the computer and switched to game learning, and then gone back and forth between worksheet learning. Just because they don't like it now, does not mean they will never like it or enjoy this method. So some advice I like to share with new mothers even those who are not homeschooling is to never give up and don't be afraid to go back and try something again. Just as our taste buds change with time, so do our perspectives of learning.