Planning a regular family sabbatical week with school aged kids

Family life is full of so many wonderful experiences and opportunities, but it can also be exhausting and overwhelming! 

Taking regular breaks as a family is wise and it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive.

So, here’s how we plan regular ‘family sabbatical’ or ‘Sabbath’ weeks with school age kids. 

Why we started taking family sabbatical weeks

As a busy family with seven children aged 2 to almost 18, our life is full of regular commitments and responsibilities. 

Add in homeschooling, full-time work and part-time work, lots of young kids, plus a 50 acre farm, and it’s easy to feel like we don’t have enough time to enjoy family life.

For us, a sabbatical week, which we actually call our ‘Sabbath week’, came about because we we have never been very good at planning regular holidays.

Even when we sit down at the start of the year, it’s rare for us to schedule time away or trips interstate. Most of our breaks from work are spontaneous and we generally use them as a chance to get jobs done at home… not a great way to make memories and have a proper break! 

Practically, Sam’s annual leave has also often been taken to coincide with parental leave when we’ve had a new baby. This has given us an extended break in the newborn stage, but those early weeks are so tiring for the whole family that I think returning to work often feels like a holiday for Sam! 

In recent years, however, we have realised that what we actually want to do it stay home and press ‘pause’ on as much as possible. So the idea of a Sabbath week was born. 

What is a Sabbath week?

A Sabbath week in our family is an intentional, planned break in the middle of a normally scheduled school term. 

It is a time when we don’t do normal school days, we cancel as many non-essential things as possible and only commit to the bare basics. 

We don’t fill the time catching up with friends – the focus is on our family relationships and spending time with one another. 

We also REST! We are more relaxed with our daily routine but we still all go to bed as early as possible. 

We prioritise fun activities and things that we like doing all together. We don’t try to do any big projects inside or outside… it really is a time to recoup and be refreshed. 

When and how often do we take Sabbath weeks?

The timing of our Sabbath weeks is almost always in term time. We often incorporate a Public holiday so we can use less annual leave. The reason we use term time is because school holidays already provide a natural break from most extra curricular activities. Too often, school holidays are also filled up with social outings and catching up with friends. 

We decide when to take a break by looking at a term view in the diary. We aim for 2-3 times a year as a sabbatical week and we pitch for close to the middle of term. In Australia, each of our 4 school terms ranges from 9 to 11 weeks. This gives us a breather from routine without disrupting the rhythm and flow of our school term too much. 

To sum up, we take breaks most terms for up to a week, often including a Public holiday and we use the week for quality time as a family. 

So, what do we do to make these weeks work well for us? Here are a few top tips! 

How to plan a successful Sabbath week

Firstly, our entire family is on board with our sabbaticals. As a sidenote, whenever we suggest and start to implement a new family tradition, we’ve found it’s been more successful when we give good reasons and take time to explain why we want to try it. 

We chat together about everyone’s expectations and we remind the kids that we’ll be spending more time at home (which almost all family members think is a good idea!)

From a homeschooling perspective, I try to make sure the children have worked well leading up to our Sabbath week so they don’t lose too much momentum when they get back into school work. 

I also avoid Sabbath weeks if we have a field trip planned. We really do prioritise staying home! 

Another hint is to ‘zone in’ on a few of our children’s favourite things to do. We want to create lasting memories, so setting aside time to fill each of their love tanks is a good idea to help them feel connected and loved. 

These special weeks can also be a good time to do one or two new things or day trips that we know we’ll all enjoy. We keep it simple – maybe a picnic at a new park or a family walk in a different area. 

Some personal thoughts

Our Sabbath weeks are now something we all look forward to. They give us a good reason to slow down and focus on what really matters. Life flies by at an astonishing pace and this is one small way we can be intentional about stepping back and just enjoying our family life. 

In fact, I think they’ve become one of my favourite family traditions. 

But this doesn’t mean I’ve always found them easy. I’ve had to step out of my comfort zone and lean into how important they are. It’s taken time to realise that life will get back to normal super quickly afterwards!

Also, I’m a busy, organised person. This means I can often have a hard time ignoring the to-do list and the piles of clutter to be sorted. I’m naturally efficient, too, so adjusting to a slower pace where less is ‘achieved’ has been part of the learning curve.

Sometimes, my biggest challenge is just choosing to get off the hamster wheels. In fact, I’ve discovered that our family sabbatical week is sometimes the only way I can stop for a few days without tackling all the extra household tasks!

Practical hints to make Sabbath week run smoothly

Switching off from all the regular activities may sound like heaven to some people! However, if you’re more like me, you’ll want to have a planning process to help you prepare!

Here are a few things that I try to employ to make our sabbaticals truly refreshing and relaxing:

• I keep family dinner meals as simple and easy as possible. Now’s the perfect time to pull out a freezer meal, ‘cook once and eat twice’, or have breakfast for dinner! It’s one less thing to organise and I love not spending as much time in the kitchen! 
• Remember to keep some balance – a whole day or TV can make our kiddies unsettled, snitchy and grumpy! So while we definitely all love snuggling on the couch in front of All Creatures Great and Small, we keep TV time limited and alternate it with outside time and plenty of physical activity.
• Some regular household tasks will still need doing (unless I’m going to spend the rest of the month catching up on washing!) but I definitely keep them to a minimum. Sabbath week is NOT the time to wash all the bedding and towels! 
• Deep cleaning is off-limits! It’s tempting to think that a week off school is a great time to get some of the tasks done that I’m always procrastinating. But, while window washing is satisfying, it’s also tiring! Sabbath weeks are set aside to rest our bodies and minds, not to reset the house…
• It’s ok to tackle some ‘normal’ jobs! For example, our van has been in a dire state so today Sam and I took an hour or so to thoroughly clean it out. This may sound like a strange decision in a ‘week off’ but it was actually great to know it’s done, plus it will make the coming car trips so much more pleasant! It brought us joy to do, so it was a perfect job to tackle! 

Lastly, Sam and I make sure we are clear with our expectations and communication before Sabbath week. We have very different personalities and it’s vital that we’re on the same page so neither of us feels frustrated or disappointed. 

Why we love our regular family sabbatical weeks

Planning our family sabbatical week always feels exciting. 

I think this is because we think outside the box of a normal break. The purpose and goal of the week is to enjoy life… and so we do! 

One of the best things is that a step away from normal responsibilities and commitments gives us time to dream and to be creative. It’s a chance to walk the fence lines of our property and work out what we could do where. It’s a time to make decisions about where to plant trees that will grow enormous in the coming years. 

Sabbath weeks give us the perspective we can so often lose in the routine and monotony of daily rhythms. They are a much needed swing towards ‘life’ in the pendulum of the elusive work-life balance. 

If it’s been a long time since your family took a break to just ‘be’, can I encourage you to try a Sabbath week? 

And I’d love to hear your thoughts if you do something similar!