To School or to Christmas SchoolWe are in the midst of dilemma. We used to take a break from our regular studies from Thanksgiving – New Year. During this time we would do a bit of math and phonics if any students were learning to read. This worked well for a Pastor/Chaplain family.
Christmas School is school centered around, well, CHRISTMAS. ::snort:: We have had time to read great books, do Advent studies and devotionals, make gifts to pass out to staff, service personnel, and friends, and enjoy the season. Our favorite writing assignment has been to take a photo a day of something Christmassy and write about that item. Last year we began a lap book on the symbols of Christmas (we would have finished if I’d figured out how to put the folder extension thingabobs together….so we have a lovely lap basket of Christmas booklets). We take lots of time to leisurely shop for gifts – we are a LARGE family and even though we only give one gift per person it takes a bit of juggling to get everyone out shopping when the others aren’t going to see what is being purchased.
Our older students decided five years back that they prefer staying with a “normal” schedule rather than schooling year round. I understand. The ministries, sports etc that they are involved in all revolve around the “normal” school schedule. There is also less of a tendency to get behind on academics if Mom can’t say “Ah, we’ll take this week off – we school year round”. ::blush::
BUT I really like homeschooling year round BETTER. We would school 9 weeks and take a week off. We would take a big chunk off during this season as I noted, and we would begin our new school years in January (which come to think of it was the biggest issue for the high school students). The youngers didn’t need so much review at the start of each year. We were able to explore areas of interest and still finish a “typical” course of study. I just don’t know how to do THAT with the youngers and still stay “normal” with the olders.
We use TOG and we LIKE being on the same week of study from k – 11th grade. I’m open to hear what some of you think or have done…..especially if you are a year round homeschooler, or a reformed year round homeschooler, who understands what this rambling post is about. ::snort::
The question to answer before tomorrow is “Will I throw out TOG and do Christmas school with the littles and let the two older get ahead of us by a few weeks?” I’m sure we could catch up with them fairly easily by the end of this unit. Could we do that with each unit? I find that *I* need a week off every 9 weeks to attend appointments, wrap up a unit, catch up portfolios, plan the new unit…. Maybe the youngers and I could take a week off and the older two could continue on. Surely, we could make up a week in 8 weeks…..
And what will I do for Christmas School? We could ditch math, LA, science and simply do TOG and Christmas School (which would include LA). Or we could ditch all but Christmas School and Math. We LOVE TOG and would rather do it and quit all else, but we’ve agreed that math is our focus this year. Ah….good grief. I think too much!
7 comments:
De'Etta, as you well know it's a struggle sometimes trying to mesh all the personalities and preferences of a large family.
This year since I only have one in high school and the rest are littles, I decided to do Advent/Christmas school because *I* wanted to. That and I really felt our new littles would benefit from focusing primarily on what this season is really about. I feel that when we try to do regular school, the meaning of the season isn't our main focus and that's my own fault. :::blush:::
I've also decided for us to do a four day school week. With one day of the week set aside for hands on fun, science experiments, errands, doctor/dental appointments, outside activities. Although I can't do this all the time for the olders, it's working out well with the littles. As active and involved as your family is (meant in a totally good way), your children are benefitting so much from all you do (geocaching, ministry work, playground time with friends,travels, parades, etc.)
Where is your heart leading you, De'Etta? Wear the plan you feel most at peace with.....do it for a week or two and see if it fits. If you feel at peace with it, then that's probably where God is leading you right now. If you feel anxious, then try on a different schooling plan. I'll be praying for you as you discern for suits you and your family best in this season of life.
DeEtta,
I, too, was having this dilemma. But, I was already thinking about what I did with the girls when they were younger that the boys are now missing out on because of jr./Sr. high concerns. So, we are stopping everything but math and Language Arts (this is our catch up year on these subjects) and we are going to do Christmas School. I am still in the planning stages trying to figure out what this looks like. But, my dd's have so many wonderful memories of Christmas school and I want the boys to have fond memories also. I know this doesn't help your decision any, but my vote is for Christmas school!
Michelle - I love you! My very own words are coming back to me via your comment. I took some time in between services today, at services etc....and prayed about this.
I know that for the youngers we are doing Christmas School - because as Gilda says I don't want to miss the experiences the older kids loved when they were little simply because I now have older kids. ::snort::
Beyond that - I'm still praying.
First, we'll make the rest of our appts this week, clean the house, start a couple of service projects....and do math.
Interesting question, De'Etta. I think when my children were younger it didn't feel quite so serious to our school schedule to take a large chunk of time off from regular subjects. Now that they are older (still not in high school but getting close), I'm not as comfortable relaxing our schedule so much.
Of course, I am also afraid we'd just waste the time. We wouldn't do a lot of Christmas things, or at least not purpose-filled ones, but the time would still fly by without organized school either. Sigh.
Right now my living and family rooms are FULL of Christmas bins, the garage is a mess from the Christmas tubs being pulled down and dragged out, and the laundry is piling up.
It's Sunday evening (getting later every minute) and I didn't finish our Christmas decorating, I didn't clean my bedroom (which is a HUGE mess), I haven't made dh's lunch yet, and I didn't plan out school for the week.
I don't think I'm prioritizing my life very well these days. As you say, these comment sections are good therapy sessions. :)
It IS important when they are older to make sure you cover the bases....that could be with traditional, unit studies, un-schooling, year round, 9 month whatever - but they need to get covered.
I think that we could do this with year round...but I WILL admit with our girls - when we were on the Jan - Nov schedule it DID make things like SAT's and such challenging. LOL Also with Bre we kept saying we would take a week off because we schooled year round and ended up getting so slack that we lost almost a year of school. Since then none of the older ones want to try year round again - and frankly - typical is working well for them. LOL
We're still going strong here with school because we can't afford to take much time off from school at this point... Jan-March have become just as busy for us as Nov-Dec the last few years with volleyball and now basketball. We're having to do any fun Christmas school type things in the evenings and on the weekends... and because Dec is a busy year end bookwork time for me we've simply had to cut back what we do.... not the answer you're looking for or that would even fit your family, but even with starting the month out ahead of the game, I'm still falling further and further behind each day.... We will definitely take the entire week off from "school" from the 18th - until the 1st... I imagine we'll get to do quite a few "Christmas school" things that week becase one way or another book work will be done by then!
We're still going strong here with school because we can't afford to take much time off from school at this point... Jan-March have become just as busy for us as Nov-Dec the last few years with volleyball and now basketball. We're having to do any fun Christmas school type things in the evenings and on the weekends... and because Dec is a busy year end bookwork time for me we've simply had to cut back what we do.... not the answer you're looking for or that would even fit your family, but even with starting the month out ahead of the game, I'm still falling further and further behind each day.... We will definitely take the entire week off from "school" from the 18th - until the 1st... I imagine we'll get to do quite a few "Christmas school" things that week becase one way or another book work will be done by then!
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