Homeschooling During the Holidays: How to Do Less and Enjoy More Family Time
The holiday season is just around the corner. Can you believe we are almost at the end of another year? It is definitely my favorite season. I love to put up all my fall decorations in October and leave them up until the day after Thanksgiving. Then it’s officially time for Christmas! A week after Christmas, we are celebrating the new year. There is so much fun to be had and memories to be made. However, if you are new to homeschooling, and you are wondering how to make all this work during the holiday season, I got you!
First, I want to remind you that it’s okay to slow down for a little bit of time. It’s okay to do the bare minimum if you want to. And, yes, it’s even okay to put the books away and take a break. One of the greatest blessings of homeschooling is having the freedom to adjust your schedule to fit your family.
Take a Look Into The Future
I want you to think ahead about 20 years from now. I am getting teary-eyed as I write this, because I know how important it is, so please take it seriously. Think ahead 20 or maybe 30 years from now. You are sitting around the table at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Your children are there and maybe a few grand-children. What memories are they talking about? What things from their childhood do they always come back to when you are all gathered together? What do you want them to remember most about their family and childhood?
You see, if they are homeschooled, they are with you all the time. Their homeschool life and childhood are not separate. It’s all one life to them. They don’t have a school time somewhere else that is separate from their family time. So what do you want them to remember out of all of it?
Do you want them to remember all the schoolwork they had to do all the time? Will they remember a mom always stressed out, because there was so much to do? Do you want them to remember never slowing down and having fun? This may sound a little harsh, but taking a little time to reflect on the future will help you be a better parent in the present.
Maybe this little exercise just helps to remind you how blessed you are to be able to homeschool your children. God is so good!!
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Homeschooling During the Holiday Season: How I Did It.
Now that you have thought about the future a little bit, let’s turn back to the present time. I would like to let you know how I did things in my home and maybe that will help you come up with some ideas for your home.
I tended to switch things up during the holiday season when I was homeschooling my children. I didn’t do the same exact thing every year, but we never did full days of school the week of Thanksgiving or the week before Christmas. We almost always took off the whole week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Sometimes, I would do “light” homeschooling between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sometimes it would only have been for the 2 weeks leading up to Christmas. Sometimes it would be the whole 4 weeks. That means for almost 4 weeks, our homeschool days would consist of only half days. Now that doesn’t mean we did school for 4 hours a day every day. We did school for as long as it took. LOL!
Sometimes we may have only done our morning routine of bible, prayer, and singing along with a math lesson. Some days we might have done science. Some days we might have only done bible and a read-a-loud book together. Although, I must admit, we probably always had a read-a-loud going and we always read our bible and prayed together every day. The bible and prayer time was something we did every day regardless of school.
I always tried to find some fun printables or unit studies to tie in the holiday with our school work as well.
So, you can see what I mean when I said it took as long as it took. Whatever was on the schedule for that day got done whether it was 20 minutes or 3 hours. It wasn’t every subject every day and it wasn’t a full schedule.
Sometimes we only took off the week before Christmas until the first weekday after New Year’s Day. So, that would be a total of 2 weeks off. Sometimes we took more days off with no school work.
So, what did all the kids do if they weren’t engaged in schoolwork during this time? They found things to do. Mostly, they played outside in the fresh air. They went fishing and exploring. We went for walks. We decorated the house. We baked cookies and went shopping. You see, education doesn’t only happen when children have their noses in schoolbooks. It happens when they are living life as well.
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Some Recommendations for Homeschooling During the Holidays
Ease out and then ease back in. I think this is the best way to get into the holiday season and then get back into a regular homeschool routine after the holidays.
Cut down on schoolwork before the holidays and make the homeschool days shorter. This gives you and your family some more down time. It’s time you can use to have some fun together, go shopping, or do some things you normally wouldn’t have time to do on regular, full school days.
Making Christmas ornaments counts as art class. Memorizing a poem about being thankful counts as English. Reading aloud A Christmas Carol is literature. Are you getting the picture?
You get to pick what you do everyday or what subjects you want to continue doing and what subjects you want to cut out each day. I think this can really help you and your children start to feel more relaxed and less stressed about schoolwork as you transition into the holidays.
You also get to choose how many days you want to go “light” on schoolwork. I suggest at least a week before the holiday. You can start it much earlier than that, especially if you plan on having days when you are not doing any schoolwork leading up to the holiday.
I also recommend that you let your children see the modified schedule you have, so they still know what is expected each day.
Now, after the holiday, I would suggest doing the “light” schedule again for a week. This is a good way to ease back into full school days. It gives everyone time to get back into a simpler routine before the more rigid schedule starts again.
Memories Matter More Than Lesson Plans
20 years from now, your children probably won’t remember whether you finished every math lesson or completed every assignment before Christmas break. But they may remember the afternoons spent baking cookies together, the family traditions, the laughter, and the time you made for one another. Those are the moments that last.
The holidays will come and go, and before you know it, your children will be grown. Don’t let the pressure to keep up with your homeschool schedule steal the joy of the season. Slow down, make memories, and enjoy the little moments together. The books and lessons can wait. Your children are only little once, and the time you spend together is something you will never regret.
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Wishing you all the best in your homeschool journey!
~Mary
“…And the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning.” ~Prov. 16:31
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