Homeschooling During the Christmas Season (When You’re Overwhelmed) | 4 Simple Habits

I used to get so overwhelmed [music] homeschooling through the Christmas season. As moms, we have so much [music] on our plates. Keeping up with meals and laundry, homeschooling, getting ready for [music] Christmas, ordering gifts. And I always thought it was me that I just wasn't good at managing it all until I learned a few simple habits that completely changed my perspective and brought peace to our home. A [music] peaceful Christmas starts with an ordered home. This is such a special time of year as we focus on the birth of Christ. I've learned through experience that my attitude and approach towards Christmas transfers down to my kids. It's what they take away. And I don't want them to have a mom who is constantly stressed, moving non-stop, going from one thing to the next. I don't want our home atmosphere to be so chaotic that the true meaning of Christmas is lost in all the mix. We are still homeschooling in the month of December. I know some families who readjust their days throughout the year, so they can take off the whole month of September, which is also a great option, but our family, since we do a lot of homesteading during the summer, we have animals here on our property, that's just not as feasible for us. So, to get our days in, we keep homeschooling through December, but it looks a lot different. We're definitely doing a lighter version of everything as we go through our normal routine. One of the first habits I've learned is one of the most important at Christmas is to keep up with the daily home chores that we are used to doing throughout the year. And this takes on a little bit more priority in December. If you're familiar with my four-step routine, we do morning time. First, second is chores and clean up. Third is independent work. We break for lunch and going outside. And the last thing we do in the afternoon is read aloud together. So, the second part of our day when we're doing chores, we focus on more this time of year. The reason I do this is because during this season, everything is more. The clutter is more. You're bringing more into the house. Kids are ordering gifts. We have older kids and they do a name exchange. So, they're buying gifts for each other in addition to the gifts that my husband and I are getting for all the kids. And it adds up. There are more activities. Even though we try to limit how busy we are during this time of year, everything is more and it shows in our home. Keeping up with the housework, I've learned for our family of 12 is the difference between peace and chaos. If our home is in order, everything seems easier. And the opposite is also true. If I walk into a room and there are piles of clutter everywhere, it's like I can't think as clearly. If our home is a mess, it seems like anything I try to do in preparation for Christmas is chaotic and I can't gather my thoughts. So, I've learned over time that this is so important. And if you're new here, hi, my name is Sher. I'm a Christian homeschooling mom to 10 kids. Married to my high school sweetheart Nelson. We've been married for 25 years and I love encouraging other moms here on my YouTube channel and on the blog rlifehomeschooling.com. So, in keeping up with our regular housework, I don't make any special announcement to the kids cuz this is already a part of our daily routine that I'm always doing. But I do give them a little heads up and say, "Guys, I'm going to be checking more closely because inevitably we're starting from a place in December. We're usually a little behind. Things just are messier just from the nature of the season." And so that's something I did this morning. I told the kids, "We're going to be focusing on this. I'm going to be checking a little bit more closely." That was the case this morning. And to be quite honest, my kids weren't happy about it. I was not their best friend this morning. Um, they wanted to quickly get through their chores and get right to the easier work of sitting down and doing some of their schoolwork, at least the parts that they enjoy. No one wants to do the messy job of bringing order to something that is falling apart. But I've learned that it's just so important to keep doing this when things get a little behind. If you let things go too far, then it just feels impossible to bring it back. And that's why I was checking a little bit more closely today. When we get push back from our kids, I think sometimes as moms, we feel like we must be doing something wrong. Why is this so hard? But the truth is, kids don't like to do hard things a lot of times. It's human nature. I don't like to do hard things. I don't like exercising. I have to force myself to exercise. But it's so good for me. And when I'm done, I'm happy about myself. I feel better. And that's exactly what it is with the housework. Starting a Monday morning and getting their bedrooms back in order is just not fun. taking a little bit more time to clean out the bathroom. They each have different zones in our house for our chores. It's It's not something that's pleasurable, but when we're finished, everyone is so much more peaceful and happy. There's less sibling arguments when our home is in order. So, it's worth any push back, I feel like, to just make this a priority in your homeschool, part of your day during this season. It's one of the easiest things to let slide, but one of the most important to keep. That's what you're aiming for. Okay. So, for this, this is one K. The same thing, you're going to combine like terms on each side. All right? So, The easiest thing I think is to bring this over. The second habit for me is to write everything down. The mental load on moms is so heavy that for me when I write it down on paper, it takes it off of my mind, but it always helps me to get more done. I almost always get done the things I have written down. >> Why don't you save this? Save that. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Here's your see how long till this chapter is. Okay. So, tomorrow or the next day we come back, you can do this page, that page, >> and this one. >> Okay. So, I know a lot of people like to keep notes on their phone and maybe that works better for you. I personally love paper and pencil and I even believe there really is something to handwriting something out. It um gets it off your mind but it also keeps it there in a way that is not burdensome. At least to me when I put a note in my phone sometimes I put it there and it's like gone forever. But when I write it in my planner my planner is always in front of me. It's usually on the island where I can clearly see everything. It's like I've put it in a place where I know I can pick it up. It's not going to be forgotten, but it's not pressing on my mind at the moment. And I write everything down this time of year. Even the little tiny things. Whatever is weighing on me, I write it down so that it's one less thing I have to think about. >> [crying] >> But I need this on top. [gasps] The ang [screaming] >> I make a habit of writing down even the simplest things like by the tree. When I write it down that day, it happens that day or the next day. decorating with the kids, hang lights outside, make cookies together, things that people may not even think of writing on their checklist or on their notes, but I write it down so it's not on my mind. It's off of my mind until it's time to focus on that one thing. Today I had some leftover chicken noodle soup which I just dumped into a pot, added some more broth because it seems to absorb a lot of the broth overnight when it's in the fridge. And this made lunch much simpler. It's always nice when we have leftovers. Writing everything down for me has helped me so that when we're finished with school, when I get that first moment to tackle some of these things, I know exactly where to start. I don't have to think about it. I'm not sitting there for 10 minutes just reviewing all those things that have been in my mind all day. It's all there in front of me and I can just get started on it. Another thing I've learned with writing things down is not to put too much down than I can realistically accomplish, but just to get my thoughts out about [music] what I know I can tackle that day. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> A third habit that's made a huge difference for me is to delegate. As soon as you can delegate some of your Christmas responsibilities to your kids. Kids love to be a part of the work we're doing at Christmas. They love wrapping gifts. They love making cookies. And when you have young kids, sometimes this is harder. But as soon as they're old enough to be able to attempt any of it on their own, delegate whatever you can. One job that became increasingly overwhelming for me through the years was making our yearly Christmas calendars. We make a calendar that has all the pictures. I do it through Snap Snapfish and uh we give one to my parents and one to my husband's parents. It's such a nice way to keep track of our photos and the grandparents love it as a gift, but it just started to become something that seemed like such a huge project until I realized my girls really wanted to do it. This was fun for them. So about three or four years ago, I got on Snapfish. I showed them exactly how to find the pictures on my phone, put them into an album, take the album, upload it to Snapfish, put it into the calendar format, and just gave them a few directions. And yes, the first time when I looked at it, it wasn't exactly how I wanted it, and I had to put them beside me and just show them little things that I would change. But they learned quickly how to do it well. And then the next year, I hardly had to help at all. They did it all. When I reviewed the calendar, there were only maybe one or two little things that I changed and it was done. They love doing it and it helped me so much. One fun thing the kids like doing are these Christmas mad libs. These are on the blog. I think there are about 10 sheets of MADL libs and they just go back and forth asking each other all these different parts of speech and filling them in. I put it in a slip cover so that um they can use a dry erase marker and then reuse the sheet after they're done. These are on the blog and I'll also link them below for you. But it's just I like whenever I can find something that the kids will do together that I hear them laughing and joking and it just keeps them busy for a while and they're learning something at the same time whether or not they realize it. There are other things I delegate. For example, making Christmas cookies, sometimes making dinner. I have older girls who love to cook, so this is just easy for us. But even the younger kids, they all love wrapping gifts, and I let them do it. So, of course, when my seven-year-old wraps a gift, it's not very nice, and it's probably something a lot of people wouldn't put under their tree, but I let him do it. And then, I've just noticed my kids get better and better at wrapping gifts. And I guess we've just become more laidback. We love the fullness of our home. And when I see a gift wrapped by my child under the tree and I know how proud they are that they were able to do it. U that's just matters more to me. May it be as you have said. What's that animal? >> Horsey. >> It's a donkey. >> Donkey. >> And this is Joseph. And that's Mary from Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judea to pay his taxes. pay. >> Yeah. >> In his father. >> I have a lot of great picture books that I've collected over the years to read to our kids, but I especially like to read the true story of Christmas to my youngest kids because I think it can get lost on them with everything else going on with the decorations, with the gift giving, and I want them to understand the simple story of Christ's birth. Lastly, one of the most important habits that I have learned to help prevent overwhelm this time of year is to keep my mind stayed on Christ. This morning, I was reading from Isaiah, the verse that says, "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you." What is my mind stayed on? What am I focusing on? One of my heroes of the faith is George Mueller. And he said something. I'm probably not saying it exactly how he said it, but whatever is bothering you, whatever is on your mind, speak to the Lord about it. Bring it to him. Staying in God's word keeps my mind focused on the big picture. I don't lose myself to my emotions because I can reflect on God's faithfulness. I can remember that this busyiness of December [music] is just a season. It passes quickly. And ultimately what brings honor [music] to the Lord and what will be the most lasting thing we can give our kids is being that role model of a mom who takes time at Christmas to truly pause [music] and wonder at the birth of our savior. I hope these simple habits can help bring peace to your home this Christmas. I'll see you next week.