Tensions can run high during the holidays. Between cooking fabulous meals, baking holiday treats, booking tickets, scheduling grocery shopping, visiting with relatives, and — oh right, HOMESCHOOLING — it can feel a tad overwhelming.
Your kids want to do all the holiday things… but you know what also sounds good? A hot bath and 5 seconds to yourself to relax. Honestly, we would probably happily compromise for a single piece of chocolate without our kids wanting to know where theirs is. You know how it is. By mid-December, many of us are exhausted and wondering how to avoid stress and feeling “Grinchy” during the holidays.
5 Ideas for Minimizing Holiday Homeschool Stress
At their roots, the holidays are still a wonderful season and we want to enjoy them in spite of the crazy schedule. They only come around once a year and are truly the most magical time of the year, even with all the breathless running about and endless to-do lists. Here are a few simple ways to take a breather and truly feel the holiday spirit and cheer with a stress-free homeschool.
- Invite the grandparents to take your kids out! Okay, so the grandparents are visiting and the kids are going stir crazy. They want to go out and have fun, but you still have a million and one things to take care of. Ask the grandparents if they’d like to take the kids to enjoy some of those holiday festivities, like seeing the reindeer!
- Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. At first, this may sound like more work, but I promise it will pay off in the end. Take a look at your to-do list and organize it into the highest priority versus lowest priority, and perhaps even into a schedule of what must be done today. This will help you feel like you can stop and rest!
- Work educational aspects into daily activities. If you find yourself short on time to go over the lessons themselves, invite your kids to participate in daily activities with learning moments. For example, have them help out with baking in the kitchen and work on math with the fractions in recipes!
- Take a day off. No lessons, no planning, no organizing. Just take a day off to be together and do whatever the family would like! Try to avoid expectations of what to do with your day, just spend it as quality time together.
- Enjoy that bath! I know it may seem impossible, but scheduling time to actually take a bath and allow yourself to fully relax (and that also means NOT mentally going over tasks in your head) will help you feel more energized and prepared for everything else. You can’t pour from an empty cup! Whether it’s a bath, a walk or run, or even some retail therapy (the gift shopping needs doing anyway, right?), make it happen.
Plan A Different Holiday Homeschool Schedule
One of the best aspects of homeschooling is your ability as a parent to adapt it to your lifestyle. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: make your curriculum work for you, not you for it! One of the major points of homeschooling is for it to support your own, personal, unique lifestyle. Every homeschooling family is different and has different needs and activities during the holiday season. Let’s chat about how to make this season a little less stressful.
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Holiday Resources for Children with Special Needs
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- 5 Ways to Embrace the Holidays with Simplicity
Other Great Holiday Homeschool Resources
While you are taking a more relaxed homeschool schedule from these tips for the holidays, here are five of our favorite resources! These work well in a relaxed schedule, help give your children something to do while you are busy, and are a great option for ensuring the learning doesn’t stop. A more relaxed homeschool schedule doesn’t have to mean a lack of homeschooling, just a different kind of learning! Enjoy!
