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I LOVE the Holidays. Bring on Bing Crosby, crafts, decor, and all the treats and goodies. If I could- honestly, I’d skip school for the entire month of December. But, that’s hardly practical. With BookShark, I’m able to simplify our homeschool routine so that school doesn’t take up all of our time. However, we’re still learning.
BookShark’s 4 day a week schedule makes fitting in Holiday field trips, shopping trips, and cookie baking possible. We’re able to still do our main curriculum and keep learning- even when all I really want to do is stay in my pj’s next to a fire, drinking cocoa and jamming to Holiday tunes.
For the month of December, I cut out a lot of our extra work. I do a lot less workbooks and stick to our read alouds, crafts, and hands-on activities. I also try to fit in more service projects- volunteering, baking cookies for friends, etc.
This year, we’ll do school (our more simplified version) for the first 2 weeks of December. Then, we’ll take a 3 week break. A MUCH NEEDED break. I don’t worry about falling behind- because we can catch up when we’re snowed in, in January. It’s easy to catch up when you fall a little behind with that built in extra day. It really takes a lot of the stress away!
I also like to add in some more relevant crafts and library trips where we can load up on more books about what we’re learning in our curriculum. For example, right now we’re learning about knights. So we’ve been looking at books about castles and the middle ages. Making it a little unit study of sorts.
The most important thing about doing homeschool during the holiday season- is to not stress. If you fall a little behind, you can catch up later. Holiday parties and plans will get in the way of your normal routine- just don’t let it ruin your fun. Enjoy this season, and enjoy the extra time spent with family and friends. School is important- but one of the beauties of homeschooling is getting to make your schedule work for your family. I remind myself that over and over. You don’t have to be on a school’s schedule- YOU ARE THE BOSS!
Go Ahead and Clear the Schedule
What are some fun traditions and things that you get to do this time of year, that you wouldn’t get to if you were in public school? We have lots of family baking days and Holiday movie-thons. And we get to do LOTS more traveling around- which also holds lots of learning opportunities.
How do you homeschool during the Holiday season?
