Thread: Weekly Poll: How much "schooling" do you get done in Nov and Dec?

Well I am the first to say, that November and December are the HARDEST times of the year for us to get in a whole day of schooling. I do think that we are building life skills, with money management, shopping for both gifts and food, hand and eye coordination with wrapping and the full body workout that comes with lifting all those decorations up and down from their year long storage! Not to mention the near death experiences with spiders who made their homes all around my decorations (they are stored in the garage up high perfect for them!) and being the guinea pig for your mother-in-law's or best friend newest food creations

As far as English, math, history and science go we really fall a little behind in those. But that is one of the reasons I LOVE HOMESCHOOLING! There is nothing to make up just start right back where you left off, right? So I would say we get about 50% of what I think we should be doing during these months, how about you?

I took two weeks off completely in Dec. last year. We've been so laid back this year so far that I don't feel at all like we 'need' the vacation but most likely we will still do at least a week off. Otherwise I just keep on doing what we've been doing. We don't really have a lot of holiday obligations so while I'm still busier it's not horribly crazy.

We stick to our usual schedule, pretty much. Our holiday activities are on weekends, so school days are the same as the other times of the year. We take four days off at Thanksgiving and a week between Christmas and New Years. We took a longer break last Christmas but it was really hard to get back into the routine in January. I also want to be able to take a week off every six weeks so we don't get burnt out but can still finish up by the end of June.

He he he... Schedule?

I go year round, just to play catch up with the days/weeks we take off all year. We live an hour from grocery, so that's a once a week all day affair. THen there's dh's family two hours that-a-way. And the moving... twice in a year. I take the holiday itself off, but htat's about it.

I wish we could do something in the car, since we're in it so much. But I get car sick, and ds passes out when the engine turns over

My kids actually get bored if we take too many days off. We typically take the day before Thanksgiving/Christmas, the holiday, and the day after off, but that's about it. Either way, we don't worry too much about it, as they school a bit in the summer too.

Right now we are working on a more relaxed schedule, so I'm pushing less to make sure everything gets done. We have a lot going on right now anyway so we are doing school when we can.

Last year we took all of December off due to vacations, but I definitely won't repeat that. This year we'll be moving just days before Christmas so we'll probably have to take a week or two off around that time as we get settled in. But in general I feel like we aren't where we "should" be at this point in the year, so I really want to minimize taking too many days off "just because". Like Hampchick, we don't have many specific holiday obligations so the holidays themselves don't really affect our daily routines. Anxiety levels do go up for DS, though, even though we are low key about it; I'm seriously dreading how the added stress of moving right in the middle of the holiday season will affect him.

Last year we mostly stayed on track during that time. I made the decision this year to school right up to Christmas Eve Eve then take off all of the actual Christmas season instead of trying to be off ahead of time. Pre-Christmas is just stressful no matter one. It can be good, happy stress, but still. Post-Christmas, 12 Days of time is chill. I'm trying to put all my chill time in one spot.

For the past few years, our schooling has kind of naturally picked up around this time. The weather starts getting worse, so the kids are more up for indoor activities. The holidays mean they're more interested in creating stuff (for the past two days, DS has been utterly absorbed in creating Thanksgiving cards for everyone). Also, I start thinking "Gee, we're really getting on into the year. Perhaps we should be doing a bit more"

Most likely a normal schedule until about the second week of December and then we're going to work on this wishlist of activities:

Take apart box - old phone, camera, calculator, door knobs, etc. (I buy some of the stuff at Goodwill. Boys love taking apart things and learn how they work.)
Write/produce a podcast - like an old-time radio play.
Learn about John Williams.
Learn about Hernando de Soto and his time here in the southern Appalachians
Continue to write in nature journals
Watch some movies in Spanish

And whatever else they want to do.