The busy holiday season is quickly approaching. For all moms this can be a stressful time. I’ve found that adding homeschooling into the mix makes it an even busier and more stressful time. But it doesn’t have to be.

The year we began homeschooling, I was rough on myself as a teacher, and on Isabelle as a student. I still held on to that public-school mentality that school breaks should only come at specific, set times.  I quickly realized that not veering from our regular school course was really going to hinder my Christmas preparations. I vowed that I would manage to get everything done and that our homeschooling would not suffer as a result. And I think I nearly lost my mind in the process.

Since that fateful first year, I’ve learned to cut us all a little slack during the holiday season. I’ve also embraced all of the little learning opportunities these preparation times present.

I haven’t yet decided on when we will break from school this year. As the events get closer, I feel comfortable enough to make a last minute decision.

As I mentioned above, just because we stop doing formal schoolwork does not mean that the learning stops. There are so many fun and educational ways for the kids to be involved. Some things that we’ve done in the past, or that we plan to do this year include:

• The classic paper-chain. This is a great one, especially for my 3 and 4 year old who have been working on counting, colors, and the concept of time. Plus it is a fun project that all 4 of the kids can work on together.
• An advent calendar. I am hoping we will work together to make our own this year. When I was a little girl, my mom made an advent calendar with her mom’s group one year. Each day was marked by a little paper pouch that when opened contained a bible verse and a little goodie. I would love to make something similar this year.
• Cookie baking. All of my children already love to join in the fun of kitchen work on a regular basis, but there is just something magical about baking Christmas cookies with a lit tree, snow falling, and Christmas music playing. I make sure I involve the kids every possible way I can. Whether it’s rolling or shaping dough, spreading frosting, sprinkling sugar, or unwrapping candy wrappers, they all can help in some way. And the learning opportunities during baking are endless!
• Meal planning. For years Isabelle has been a wonderful helper when it comes to planning special meals. She loves to look through cookbooks and pick out recipes that sound good to her. She writes them down and then we go through her list together. This gives me an opportunity to go over which foods do or do not go together, structuring cooking times in a way that makes the most sense, and financial ramifications of certain recipes or ingredients.
• Shopping for gifts. My kids, like most, love shopping for gifts and helping to pick out presents for other people. Sometimes they even come up with gifts that I never would have thought of.
• Wrapping gifts. I always like to include my kids in the gift wrapping work as much as possible. They may not be able to wrap a gift on their own but they can choose which paper to use for each person, hold corners, hand tape, and make gift tags.
• Making ornaments. This is one of our favorite Christmas time activities. We usually spend a few days devoted to various craft projects for the kids and ornaments are one of their favorite things to make. We do the simple Star of David yarn and popsicle stick ornaments, cardboard disks that can be painted and colored, gingerbread men, and salt dough ornaments to paint.
• Movie and cocoa. This is another favorite in our house. Some days we just ditch all work - school and house - to curl up on the couch together and drink hot cocoa and watch old Christmas.

Whatever you do with your kids during the holidays, I just want to remind you that it’s okay to take a break from school for a while and enjoy the season together. Learning doesn’t stop just because the books are closed. And if necessary, there will be plenty of days ahead to make up for missed school time.

That definitely works for our family, how about yours? Do you have any special traditions that include the whole family and mean a break from homeschooling? How do you handle the holiday season in your homeschool?

Find more WFMW over at Rocks In My Dryer.

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