Should you homeschool through the holidays? It is one of the greatest things about homeschooling–the choice to choose when we will be having school. If you are blessed with lots of family and holiday festivities to attend, it may be wise to take a step back and enjoy a bit of an extended break. If you are like me, however, the holiday season might mean that your husband has to work extended hours. Since everyone is wrapping up their activities for the holidays, you may find yourself with a little extra time on your hands. Sure, there is plenty to do. But homeschooling through the holidays can make the time more enjoyable and LESS stressful, if you plan accordingly. Here are some tips:
- Don’t try to do business as usual. Take a break from the mundane. You deserve it for making it this far! Plus, it can help you fight the winter blues. Focus instead on the festiveness of the season and have fun. You should still focus on the areas where your child needs the most work (usually reading and math). You can do an abbreviated study in these subjects and then skip ahead to the fun stuff. Or incorporate holiday reading and even holiday math when appropriate. I’ve heard that Jotham’s Journey: A Storybook for Advent
is a fantastic chapter book for this time of year. We like to start the holiday season by making a paper chain to count the days until Christmas. We make a pattern with the chain and use it for counting as well. Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers are full of festive ideas.
- Choose your favorite Christmas stories or topics. They could be your favorite Christmas stories or cultural studies holidays and traditions around the world. I decided what we were going to focus on this year by dividing our books into categories and seeing what the library had to supplement. Just make sure that you aren’t trying to do too much. Be realistic about how much time you have. Once you have your topics nailed down, don’t forget to check out Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers once again!
- This is the perfect time of year to incorporate music. You can study Christmas carols or practice a little quiet listening. This is the perfect time to study Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker or Handel’s Messiah.
- It’s also the perfect time for Christmas art. You can put the crafts to good use by making them double as Christmas presents for family and friends. We try to have our kids make something for family members each year instead of just buying store-bought gifts from them. It is a special keepsake for the family and the kids are more invested than they would be if we just gave them money to buy something at the store. It’s usually cheaper too!
- Christmas is a great time for science! It sounds strange, I know. There are several Christmas science experiments that you could try with candy canes or other Christmasy items. You could even do Christmas nature studies about pine cones, poinsettias, evergreens, and winter. There is even Frankincense essential oil that you could research and test. There are DIY Christmas gifts that you can make with Frankincense essential oil too.
- Christmas baking counts as Home Economics, math, and science! Let them help you grocery shop and you have an added math lesson. You could do gingerbread house geometry and sugar cookie art as well. No matter what you are cooking, the children are measuring and learning life skills. Plus it helps you get the baking done during school hours!
- Writing is always fun at Christmas. If you don’t do letters to Santa, your children can help write a family Christmas letter. Thank you notes are a big hit after they receive gifts too. Short poems are fun this time of year too. Acrostics with Christmas words are super easy and fun.
- Most importantly, learn the true meaning of Christmas. There are so many things you can do for advent during your Christmas School journey. Pick your favorite advent to follow and start your homeschool day with what is most important.
You have a certain number of school days that you must do each year. Why not make some of them festive? Enjoy the time with your family and make memories that will last. Happy Christmas Schooling!
Do you homeschool through the holidays? If so, what do you like to study?
I LOVE these ideas!! So far I’m only in my second year of homeschooling, but so far we’ve kept trucking more or less as usual. Mentally though, I consider anything we accomplish from Thanksgiving til New Years as EXTRA, but shhh, don’t tell the kiddos! Now that I think about it, I should make that my resolution, to view the whole year that way…..we’re still learning a ton, but I’m way less stress about it lol! Other than the addition of an advent scripture study, the only thing I’d say is different about this time of year in our homeschool, is that we put extra emphasis on cooking lessons 🙂 Next year I’ll definitely have to put some of your ideas to good use….thank you for sharing these!
Cookie recently posted…Lessons Learned over My First Year of Homeschooling: Daily Routine & Schedules
Thank you. I am working hard to be more laid back in my approach too!
PS, your blog title is awesome btw!!
Thank you!
Christmas music and Christmas baking! Definitely fitting those in!
Alonda recently posted…The Loveless Church
These are some great ideas! I love the idea of listening to the music of the Nutcracker. I am taking her to the Nutcracker next week, she will open a book about it the day before. We have started doing an advent book a day for the entire month which means she opens a new or previously loved Christmas/Winter themed book every day. her reading is such that she can read many of them on her own now, so we can use them for reading or literature. Counting down the days has led to discussion of time, so we’re working on understanding seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and year. Not sure where that falls in grades, but her concept of time is still pretty fluid, so we’re just introducing the concepts, but that helps her start to understand what 24 days is. Plus we can do subtraction with the countdown and history with the birth of Christ! We will probably take time off during her dad’s leave from the Army to enjoy family time, but we will do school almost everyday until then. We even “school” on the weekends sometimes. Daddy loves to do science with her, but isn’t home most days, so he will throw in a lesson on the weekends. We add in a few reading practice or spelling lessons, maybe a math game and there was school. I’m sure it will get more complicated once she hits actual grades. But for Kindergarten, we’re enjoying the laid back approach.
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Those are great ideas! We usually take off some between Christmas day and New Years Eve, but I like to do one day of New Years Eve school and we talk about the concept of time. We also count down New Years around the world in different countries and look at different traditions. It’s a lot of fun. Enjoy your time with your husband!
So many great ideas. I don’t homeschool but I am a teacher, so this really appeals to my sense of learning! It’s good for my children too to learn in these ways even though they attend school. Thank you!
Helen recently posted…Reasons the Son of God Came
I taught in public schools for 10 years. When I started teaching, we had the freedom to do a lot of similar things. By the time I quit, we weren’t allowed to do the holidays anymore, which was very disappointing. But you are right. All parents can do these kinds of things!
Mom homeschooled and we did school through the holidays. But we were also done for the year my late April most times too 🙂 We thought it crazy to hear of kids going to school in May!
Kendra @ A Proverbs 31 Wife recently posted…Peppermint Hot Chocolate Recipe
That’s pretty much what we do. We want to leave wiggle room for unexpected things that come up too.
it’s an individual decision – what works for one may not necessarily work for another
andi recently posted…What’s In This Sunday’s Coupon Inserts?
Very true. It can even change from year to year. Hope you are enjoying your holidays!
While I don’t homeschool, I am intentional about my time with my kids, and I try to make our fun time also “educational”. My kids love baking this time of the year, it’s amazing how many lessons are tucked into baking!
Marissa
Yes! My oldest daughter loves to bake. I’m secretly hoping she will turn into a master chef junior! So much of what I write about (if not all) can really apply to all parents, not just homeschoolers. All parents are teachers!
As a public school mom I LOVE when my homeschool mom friends take a break so we all can spend some time together during the season:)
Brianna recently posted…Joy in 100 Words: Week One
I agree with that! Everyone needs a few days off. Before we moved, I use to drag my kids to my girls lunch once a month because I still needed my girl friends!
What great tips for those celebrating the upcoming holidays, and wishing to slow it down a bit.
Deborah recently posted…Dehydrating Oranges
We’ve been thinking about homeschooling as our oldest is getting to that age. This is really helpful to think through!
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We are going to be homeschooling through the holidays, only because we took a couple weeks off earlier in the school year. But it will definitely be more relaxed. Thanks for the great ideas!
Miranda recently posted…Review of The BEST Baby Sling Carrier
Love these ideas! Thanks for sharing. I’ll have to keep these in mind for the future when I have kids 🙂
Anna Harris recently posted…Holiday Sneak Peek
I love these tips! Gleaning everything I can about homeschooling while Caleb’s still too young is definitely something I’m passionate about! Soon enough I’ll be in the midst of it and I’d like to enter prepared! 🙂
Susannah recently posted…Please Say You’ll Come Over!
I love all of your tips for home schooling through Christmas! They are great:) Thanks for sharing!
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