Can you believe it’s December already?! Time seems to move faster and faster with each passing year. This 2007 season marks my 14th Holiday Season as a homeschooling Mom. During that 14 years our holidays have run the gamut from calm and peaceful to crazy and ‘Mom’s having a melt-down’ hectic. Ultimately I have learned that the Christmas season is a unique, God given opportunity for the homeschooling family. If we take advantage of it we will reap many academic, spiritual and ‘real-life’ blessings that don’t come our way everyday.
If you are currently going through the ‘pulling your hair out’ or ‘having a melt-down’ experience, there is hope! You can transform your holiday season into a peaceful yet purposeful season. It will require a little uninterrupted Mom time. This can be tricky, but with a little effort you can make it happen. Have older kids watch the young ones, assign silent reading or room cleaning chores with the understanding that you are not to be disturbed until the timer dings. If your children are all very young it might mean nap time or quiet time with a stack of picture books. Sitting the little tykes in front of a good video is also an option – this is important and it will be worth it.
Now, let’s take a breather and re-evaluate! When your home is stressed things aren’t working!! To fix it requires studying the situation and making some changes. So grab a cup of tea (or your favorite beverage), some paper, a pencil and your calendar and then sit down where you can do some good thinking. Ask your heavenly Father to guide and bless you through this process. Do a few deep breathing exercises. Now you’re ready.
To study the current situation, establish your school days and your break days on the calendar (use pencil for now as these may change). Next, on a piece of paper, list the school subjects or assignments you are trying to cover during your chosen school days. Then, list each holiday activity, project or event that you plan to do or participate in during this holiday season, whether on school days or break days, with the estimated time required for each. For our purposes you will want to include packing and travel plans if you are making a trip, as well as Christmas shopping or writing a family news letter. You have just created what we will call your “to do” list. Now look at your calendar and your “to do” list. Does it look like you can fit it all in? Note that some of your projects may be spread out over a number of days. If it looks like the two will work together with out any trouble, assign your assignments, projects and activities a day and time and write them in with pencil. Then your good to go! If, on the other hand, it looks like you’re in for days of a headaches, knots in your stomach, hyper-ventilating or heart palpitations, you have a problem. It’s called overcommitment; trying to do too much; overestimating your ability in the time available.
Good news! This is fixable! The answer is simple. You either need more time or less to do. Since God has already set our time as 24 hours in each day, so the only option left is planning less to do in the time allotted. Simple, right? But I didn’t say easy. Cutting down on our list of things to do can be difficult. But one of the blessings of homeschooling is that you are in charge and your ultimate authority is the Lord. So with His help you can do this. Below I have listed some tips to keep in mind as you are down sizing your “to do” list. As you read through these, mark out less beneficial items on your “to do” list with confidence and conviction.
Tip #1: As a homeschooler you get to choose when to take your breaks. You might get more bang for your time buck by spending any where from a whole month to one week focusing exclusively on holiday items. Bring the books back out after the new year. Or maybe you need to switch to light duty schooling and fill in the extra time with holiday items.
Tip #2: Remember that there are only so many hours in each day. For each item you add to the day, one item must go!! If you add a cookie decorating project you must take out one school item of similar time value. Even on your break days don’t over estimate how much you can accomplish in the time you have been given.
Tip #3: Pare down your holiday list. Look at each item and ask yourself - “Is this item something I really want to do?” If the answer is yes, leave it on the list. If the answer is no, ask yourself - “Why am I doing it?” If the answer isn’t a good one, then mark it off your list. “Is this item a realistic activity or project for our family at this time?” (If your kids are at the age where you can’t go to the bathroom without a flock of children joining you, this probably isn’t the year to take on a project that requires your undivided attention or the children’s ability to monitor themselves for any length of time.) If not, you can always reserve it for the future.
Tip #4: Prioritize the items on your holiday list by using #1 for the most important, #2 for the second most important, and so on. Be willing to let the least important items go or put them on a list for next year.
Tip #5: Consider the ‘instead’ principles. Instead of doing a worksheet on measurements we will use measuring cups and spoons to actually measure ingredients as we make Christmas cookies. Instead of doing a math page we will calculate the mileage from our house to grandma’s house, determine how many gallons of gas this will take and the cost. To incorporate geography we will us a map to plan our stops to fuel up, get food, or stay in a motel. Instead of writing a paragraph for our language arts assignment we will each write a portion of our holiday letter to send to family and friends. For art have the children help with Christmas wrapping, from decorating your own paper, to putting on the ribbons, bows and name tags. For listening comprehension to oral reading skill and literature there are many classic picture books and great works that we can all take turns reading together. There are endless possibilities.
Tip #6: Don’t forget that this season presents a wonderful opportunity to teach some life altering lessons of the heart that will far out weigh any academic lessons they might learn in the next 3 or 4 weeks. Wow, when you look at it that way, the education your providing your kids, without the books, is the best education possible. This is educating the whole child!
Tip #7: Stay flexible! Keep tabs on the tone of your home and make changes as needed. Remember, your working for a peaceful, Christ centered, holiday season.
Tip #8: Assign older children to teach younger children while you take care of other things. For example – older child reads to younger child, older child explains math to younger child. This is a good time to stretch upper elementary and middle school skills by having them work on their own in an area, like math, reading the lesson and doing the assignment with out you. Check their work later to see how they did.
Tip #9: If you have high schoolers they may not feel comfortable taking time off from school at this point – they are after all on a time schedule. Be sensitive to this fact and allow them to determine their schedules as much as possible. But, you can let them know that you will not be available to assist them from this date to this date. So if they think they will need help they can talk to you before or after that time. This helps them practice planning ahead, being an independent learner, and scheduling. If they get stuck, they can put it away until after the new year, when you will help them figure it out. They won’t get too far behind; and you can quickly get back on track.
Now that you have down-sized your ‘to do’ list, your ready to line out the date and time for each assignment, project and event on your calendar (in pencil to allow for flexibility). You can begin implementing this schedule tomorrow. Now you’re ready to relax and enjoy your family during this holiday season. Remember Mom, you set the tone for the home. If you are stressed, the home will be stressed. If you are at peace; enjoying the season, your home will be at peace; enjoy the season.
May God bless you and your home with a
Wondrous Christmas & and
Sammie Russell - TCHSG Coordinating Team Member
