Second Wind
I like the way New Year’s Day is in the middle of the school year for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. We start school in September with sharpened pencils and good intentions. We march through the fall with enthusiasm, taking nature walks, cracking open brand new books and reading them, organizing a teatime or two, and savoring the first breath of winter with a roaring fire and a good read aloud.
But as the holiday crush draws near, the routines we’ve carefully cultivated quickly slip to the side in favor of counting silverware for the hoard of family that descends on Thanksgiving. Or suddenly we have to buy new coats and see the dentist and purchase plane tickets. Or the catalogs stream in begging us to take advantage of sales and we page through them instead of reading history or preparing science experiments.
By the time December comes and goes, we feel so out of kilter in terms of a homeschool lifestyle, sometimes we wonder if we can recover!
And that’s why the New Year is such a welcome sight! It promises that we can reboot the system and begin again.
Rebooting Tips:
- Clear the Coffee Table. Remove any holiday decor and put out a new book or game to enjoy.
- Plan a Brainstorming Teatime. Find out what your kids would love to do – what books they’d like to read, places they’d like to go, topics they’d like to study
- Complete one project by the end of January. Pick something really fun like dissecting owl pellets, or making a lap book, or sewing a doll’s quilt. Do that project you put off in the fall, now.
- Buy Firewood and Tea. Time to make a cozy spot for reading and being together.
Remember, you can start over in January. Tackle the tough subjects with new energy, make time for writing, and above all, pick a project that requires your full attention so that your kids know they’ve got you back after all the holiday preparation and socializing.
