No matter how you cut it, December is just BUSY. In the span of a month, we've got two trips out-of-state to visit family, a church Christmas cantata, a piano recital for Big Brother, and are hosting a hymn sing evening at our house... plus the normal Christmas bustle of cards, shopping, wrapping, decorating, bundling the children in 500 layers every day to play outside, and eating ungodly amounts of sugar. Add in all the everyday mom stuff AND a smattering of school, and wow! Life can quickly become a bit - or a lot - crazy.
All of this is fun and good... except for two things.
1) We have learned that our family is much happier when our life is not crazy. Our children are happier and better behaved when their days are not packed to the brim - and when they have a good chunk of quiet days at home to offset the "busy times." I also am happier and better behaved... I mean, I like being home too! I crave those slow and unhurried times at home when we can take our time and just enjoy being together.
2) There is a Reason for this season, and we need intentional time and space in our days to remember it. Despite our firm belief that the story of Christ's coming to earth is the most important part of this season, it's just too easy for January to roll around and with it the realization that we never actually spent much time remembering the message that's at the heart of it all! We were too busy celebrating Christmas to remember Christ. And maybe we've realized in past Decembers that our children spent more time thinking about and opening presents than they did learning about the Greatest Gift? (guilty!)
So. With these ideas in mind, I've tried to be more careful with our time this year. I've said no to some good & fun activities that would have made our schedule just too hectic. We started out the month with several rounds of viruses which was difficult, but also a blessing in disguise as it forced us to take some of that quiet time that we all needed. We've also cut back on our school work for the month, in order to have time for some of the special activities and traditions that make this month unique.
What Has Stayed the Same: We still start with Morning Time each day which includes Bible story, memory verses, and usually a picture book or two. Big Brother also does his piano practice each day and we will try to be consistent with that until his recital.
What Has Changed: Instead of having Big Brother do his normal schedule of school work for the week, he is doing just two subjects each day - one of his choice, and one of mine. It's been a good balance for the last three weeks as it has allowed us more time during the day for other activities, but we are also keeping up with the subjects enough so that he's not completely forgetting everything. Also, to be perfectly honest, there's been a handful of days where we haven't done a single "school" subject - and I'm quite okay with that.
So what are we filling that extra time with? In between sickness and inevitable busyness we've been able to make candles, decorate a gingerbread house, paint Christmas tree pictures, bake & decorate cookies, decorate our real Christmas tree, play outside, read piles of books, play games together, and cut out paper snowflakes. They've helped me with chores and spent hours building intricate Lego creations. We're checking out all the Christmas picture books that our library owns and hoping to read them by the end of the month. We've read the story of Jesus' birth in picture books and in the living Word of God, and had many opportunities to think and talk about it.
None of these activities are "academic," but they're all very important; and I'm convinced there's a whole lot of learning going on each and every day. Our math and phonics progress has slowed considerably, but I don't regret it at all! We'll have plenty of time for math and phonics in January. For now, I want time to enjoy the season and the Savior.
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