homeschooling holiday break

Last year I had the great idea to take the month of December off from homeschooling.  OK, so technically it wasn’t my idea personally.  I had seen several homeschool bloggers talk about how they took the month of December off, and I thought that it made a lot of sense.  Granted, last year Emma was not doing nearly as much in school as she is this year, but it was still a really great time for our family.


This year I decided to do the same thing.  Actually, it started the day before Thanksgiving.


The freedom that homeschooling gives us as a family is one of the biggest reasons we decided to homeschool.  We have chosen to homeschool all year ’round, so that when we want to take a longish break, we are able to.  


Now, this does not mean that we stop learning, it just means that we change up what we are doing.  Instead of spending time in our school room, we do a lot of baking and crafts.  Emma is writing us all little notes every day, and compiling lists for Santa Claus.  This time is allowing us to sit back a little bit more, read some books that are not in our regular curriculum, and spend time together as a family.


I absolutely love this break though.  The Christmas season is my absolute favorite part of the year (despite the cold!) and being able to back off from school and spend a little more time thinking about why we have this very special holiday is a good idea in my book.


In preparing for this time we had a very busy November.  I had certain places I wanted to be in Emma’s math and reading, as well as some history I wanted to finish up before the break.  With the promise of a long break, and everything else the holidays bring, Emma was incredibly diligent and worked hard to get it all done.  We were down to the wire after a long November of colds passing between the kids every few days, but we did make it!


This long break also allows me the opportunity to get all of my ducks in a row for the new year.  I find that with each change of season or calendar year, I get excited to start anew.  I am able to switch up routines, and make loose plans for the coming months.  I find that concentrating on three month increments works really well for us.  It gives us the time to study things that are of interest to the kids at this moment.  It is also easier to wrap my head around a few months rather than an entire year.  Obviously when the kids are older it will be easier to do more long term planning, but for now this is working.  


After all the holidays, it will be nice to get back into a normal school routine, for me and the kids.  Do you take a longer break during the holidays?  


linking up at hip homeschool hop and one project at a time