Homeschooling During the Holidays

Rebecca Liao Monday November 07 2022

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The countdowns have begun with the holiday wreaths, recipes, and events all around us.  In all of the hustle and hype, how can you get those carefully planned homeschooling lessons done and still have room for the extra “everything” that the holidays bring?

I found that regardless of how desperately I wanted to get that math lesson or read-aloud finished before the holiday break, it just didn’t happen.  Not because I did not plan or hope or try really hard, but because special things that come only once a year bumped my plans down the priority list.

It’s easy to end up feeling overwhelmed or anxious trying to juggle what feels like two separate sets of goals: enjoying the holidays and getting schooling done.

Over the next few weeks, I will offer some detailed ideas about how to make the holidays memorable AND still know that real learning and schooling are taking place.

But the first step is to think about the big picture with these suggestions:

  1. Plan some time to rest and enjoy. Look at your time between now and the start of the new year and schedule some days that you will not be working on any lessons or checking off the “school boxes.” Go ahead…it is healthy and needed from the busy fall you have had.
  1. Now go back and add a few more days than what you think you need. I have yet to schedule time off when at the end I did not say, “Boy, I wish I had just another day or two.”  Just schedule them now to give yourself and your family some added margin for the unplanned things that will happen. Unplanned things, both good and not so good, will happen.
  1. Enjoy every minute of each of those days with no sense of guilt, no feelings of lack of accomplishment, and a large dose of freedom and thankfulness. I am sorry I did not follow this advice when I was a younger homeschooling mom.  I spent too much time being serious and not just loving and living in the moment. Your kids will thank you for your true joy in just “being” and not “doing”.