Christmas is a special time for us. We do celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ on December 25th, and we get together with family and friends to eat, laugh, and remember all the good things He has given us each year. But we don't take more than a day or two off of school during this time. Here are our reasons why...
1. Kids thrive on routine. Our kids start to misbehave and develop lazy habits if they aren't doing school. They just have too much time, that gets filled up with junk, and the structure of even our "flexible" homeschool schedule gives them a sense of purpose and boundaries. I just don't like how our house becomes without that comfy feeling of "do your school before TV" and other such platitudes.
2. Kids forget stuff fast. Do you know what happens when we go 4 days between the first time we carry the one in addition and the second time we carry a one in addition? We have the exact same experience both times. When we wait too long between introducing a new skill and practicing it, so much is lost to reteaching. Taking time off for the holiday makes the last week or so before the holiday pretty much worthless, and I value our time as a family too much to toss away acquired skills.
3. School time is family time. I don't know how your homeschool is run, but the time we spend discussing important moments in history or how a plant carries food through its stem is time that I really, truly treasure. I wouldn't trade that time with my kids for anything in the world.
Because our school time takes so much work to happen, and it is such a big part of our mission as a family, I can't think of any instance where we would voluntarily go to long without doing it. We've had to take months off for sickness, the birth of a baby, and moving. All of those times justified stepping back and focusing on more important priorities. But to just say that this week is special and stop doing school on purpose? That's not like us.
In fact, Christ is such a big part of our homeschool that I can think of no better time to teach the kids than the holiday; the birth of our Savior requires only that we accept Him, love Him with all our mind, body, and soul, and love our neighbors as ourselves. I think that homeschool fits into that calling quite nicely. Don't you?
1. Kids thrive on routine. Our kids start to misbehave and develop lazy habits if they aren't doing school. They just have too much time, that gets filled up with junk, and the structure of even our "flexible" homeschool schedule gives them a sense of purpose and boundaries. I just don't like how our house becomes without that comfy feeling of "do your school before TV" and other such platitudes.
2. Kids forget stuff fast. Do you know what happens when we go 4 days between the first time we carry the one in addition and the second time we carry a one in addition? We have the exact same experience both times. When we wait too long between introducing a new skill and practicing it, so much is lost to reteaching. Taking time off for the holiday makes the last week or so before the holiday pretty much worthless, and I value our time as a family too much to toss away acquired skills.
3. School time is family time. I don't know how your homeschool is run, but the time we spend discussing important moments in history or how a plant carries food through its stem is time that I really, truly treasure. I wouldn't trade that time with my kids for anything in the world.
Because our school time takes so much work to happen, and it is such a big part of our mission as a family, I can't think of any instance where we would voluntarily go to long without doing it. We've had to take months off for sickness, the birth of a baby, and moving. All of those times justified stepping back and focusing on more important priorities. But to just say that this week is special and stop doing school on purpose? That's not like us.
In fact, Christ is such a big part of our homeschool that I can think of no better time to teach the kids than the holiday; the birth of our Savior requires only that we accept Him, love Him with all our mind, body, and soul, and love our neighbors as ourselves. I think that homeschool fits into that calling quite nicely. Don't you?
My kiddos aren't willing to forego school either. It may not look the same as any other week, but there is always something going on in the learning capacity! We had a lot of family read aloud time this year with a sick Enginerd daddy in the house.
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