Did you ever homeschool during a holiday and feel guilty? How about needing the holidays to “make up” material yet to be covered? We did all the above during this past Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Who says you can’t use the time to catch up or work ahead with some subjects? Some folks may think this is year-round homeschooling. But we think of it as only making the best use of our time during the long holidays we have.
Focus on a Few Subjects
This holiday season we were home and had some extra time, so we spent it on subjects we felt required more practice. We are learning Mandarin Chinese, and the Chinese characters or words are basically pictures that you have to memorize. It has felt far more challenging to pick up than English. The extra three weeks gave us time to catch up to where we should be, and we didn’t need to rush.
We also kept doing math to keep our pace up. The combination of working through the winter break and the past summer allows us to move faster through the materials. That’s not to say we are rushing. We are merely using the time to scale the load and balance it throughout the year.
More Reading Time for Fun
I don’t know if every homeschooled kid loves reading, but ours sure does! My son would read all morning if he had the chance, but normally we have to keep our tight work and homeschool schedule flowing. However, during the holidays, we do get a chance to visit the library and stock up on lots of books. We can check out 30 books per time and that goes quickly!
We encourage him to read as much as possible, especially during the holidays. He can prepare a book to go with him while he is waiting at a restaurant, or when he’s waiting around at football. We firmly believe that our son’s reading level is higher than his grade level (we checked using a widely available test online) because we let him read for pleasure—and the holiday season is perfect for that.
Relaxed Holiday Homeschooling
Just because we continue to work during the holidays doesn’t mean we keep the intensity up as well! My wife and I are much busier with our home business during the holidays. So we are happy that we can maintain some lighter homeschooling during this busy time.
Once again, the flexibility of homeschooling is so helpful. Since you can choose the intensity of your subjects, the self-paced nature just makes so much sense to us. Our son gets to rest and still learns at a pace that he barely notices or grumbles. He’s used to this lifestyle and enjoys it.
Summer Break Homeschooling Plans
During our summer, we plan to also do some homeschooling to review certain subjects. Our son does football camp for two months, which takes most of the time. But we try to do a few lessons in the evening to stay fresh in math. We find that since we have done this for a few summers already, we can stay ahead of our curriculum and not fall behind.
We also do a fun co-op during the summer with others. That’s spent on outdoor science projects and can include swimming, camping, and park time.
Overall, we homeschool when we can, and make up time for when we are doing other family activities or working in the family business. This strategy has worked well for us since we began homeschooling, so we plan to keep it going!
—Robert
Photo credit: Cover image, iStock. Following images courtesy of author.