How to Keep Your Sanity While Homeschooling This Holiday Season

Learn how I maintain my sanity during the extremely busy holiday season by prioritizing and switching around our school work so that we can still go to the fun extra holiday activities without any of the kids forgetting their basic math skills by January.

This morning, I received an invite to a homeschool orchestra concert that several of my kids’ friends are involved with. In that same week, we also have a drama performance and dance recital that my kids are in–which means extra dress rehearsals for both.

That in itself is pretty busy, and then when you add in all of the Christmas parties (one for each activity that the kids are in), December birthday parties, visits to family, holiday baking and crafting, it can be hard to fit in your regular day to day school work.

So, how do we get it all done?

We don’t.

Here’s what we do instead of regular school at Christmastime

Make a List and Prioritize:

I love to make lists. Sometimes I just make a list so that I can cross things off I have already finished. (Is that just me?)

But during this season, I know it is necessary to make a list of the things that must be completed in order to maintain a baseline of sanity.

So, I prioritize my list starting with the things I absolutely have to do and ending with the things I would like to do but don’t have to do.

I realize that if I do everything I have to do, I just won’t have time to do everything I want to do.

Also, I ask each of my kids (around the first part of November) what is the most important “tradition or activity” that they want to do this holiday season and I add those Christmas activities to the top of the list.

They often pick these things:

• Going to watch the Christmas Tractor Parade
• Having an Advent Calendar
• Hosting a cookie decorating party with friends
• Having a cheesy Christmas movie night
• Decorating their great-granny’s house for Christmas with their cousins
• Attending a local Christmas production (usually A Christmas Carol, a Christmas concert of their favorite artist, or the Nutcracker ballet)

The prioritized list allows me to focus my attention first to the most important traditions that mean Christmas to my kids.

Take a Break from Traditional School:

We take a break from all regular schoolwork for about two weeks, usually the week before and the week after Christmas, so it roughly coincides with the local schools.

This also helps us with our 4-H activities that are scheduled around the school calendar.

(As a side note, did you know that if you put all of your kids in 4-H instead of separate sports, you’ll have fewer obligations? It’s really great!! You can learn more about why we choose 4-H as a family here.)

But, we don’t stop learning during these two weeks.

Make Your Activities Into a Learning Experience:

There is an opportunity to learn in most activities if you choose to make it a priority for your family.

We could go to that orchestra concert, listen quietly, and go home and move on with our life.

Or, we could find out what they will be playing and learn about that composer before going to listen to the concert.

We also might do an orchestra lapbook before going.

Even going to look at Christmas lights could be a learning experience.

You could have one of your preteens or teens look at maps before you go to map your route or they could learn about all the programming that goes into the musical synchronized light displays.

As you go through the next month of busyness, keep in mind what is really important and don’t worry about the rest.

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