Why We Don’t Homeschool Through the Holidays
Has anyone around here noticed that the holiday season kicks the BUSY level up a notch or three?
Yeah, here too.
About three years ago, I decided that I had stressed and survived my way through the holidays for the last time.
Back then, I had four young children and was expecting baby number five… which, of course, meant that life was about to get even busier.
So I made that decision to switch to Year Round Homeschooling, and take a lengthy, leisurely break at the holidays.
I say “lengthy,” because we take a break that spans from Thanksgiving week until the first of the New Year (about six weeks).
I say “leisurely,” because… well, I don’t know why I say that. Nothing is particularly leisurely about the holiday season! 😉
We do have a lot more time to enjoy this season when we’re not so busy keeping up with our homeschool schedule, and in that sense, it is a leisurely break.
If we want to spend an afternoon baking cookies, we do.
If we need to spend a morning shopping for gifts or wrapping presents or simply decorating our house for Christmas, we do.
In order to create margin in our yearly schedule for a long holiday break, we do school throughout the summer.
I don’t necessarily enjoy hitting the books while everyone else is enjoying free time, but it’s a worthy sacrifice, let me tell you!
I schedule at least eight weeks of school during the summer months, and that gives us plenty of wiggle room in our schedule for a break at the end of the year.
Do we still do educational activities during the holidays?
Absolutely!
It’s a great time to engage in extra curricular activities, such as
- Christmas plays at church,
- DIY projects (a.k.a. homemade gifts!),
- field trips to live Nativities
- or holiday concerns
- or Christmas dramas,
- visiting shut ins from our church family
- or taking homemade cards to the nursing home.
The opportunities for learning and serving abound at Christmas time, and it’s nice to be able to step away from the “formal” learning mode and simply enjoy and savor this beautiful season of giving.
Year round homeschooling affords our family the flexibility to structure our school year around a model that works well with our family and ministry life.
These days, life is as busy as ever; but I have a lot more time to push back from the demands of formal schooling and savor this season a little more deeply.
If you’d like to read more about year round homeschooling, please check out Sarah’s post, The Benefits of Homeschooling Year Round, or read my article over at my blog, Homeschooling Year Round: Don’t You Need a Break?
Very interesting. I like the idea. The only thing that has ever held me back is that we love our summers. We participate in mission trips and church camps. I wonder if there is a way to organize year round even with a summer break.
We too school year round for a more flexible schedule! We do more of a 5 weeks on, 1 week off schedule except we take an additional 3 weeks in December, 2 weeks around Easter, and 5 weeks during July.
That’s almost exactly how I have our schedule. About 6 weeks on, then a week off. Thanksgiving thru New Years off.
I’m taking 3 weeks off this month for the holidays! It allows more time for activities without too much busy stress!
We do exactly the same thing!
Our homeschool year is July 1st-May 31st. Summer vacation for month of June! Thanksgiving break November 25th-29th.
We got in our 90 days for this fall semester, and will are off December 18th-January 3rd. Thank you for your post!