What does your December look like?

[txmommyofboys]

A month off? A week off? Work thru holidays?

[SunnyDays]

We're doing three weeks of school in between Thanksgiving and Christmas... we'll take about two and a half weeks off for Christmas and New Year's. The days we are in session, it's a bit lighter than normal.... we're doing the basics and a couple of fun holiday theme days.

[Joshin]

We school our normal schedule through the 21st, then we take off two weeks for the holidays and resume on January 7th.

[5LittleMonkeys]

We were going to work a full schedule until the 17th, but I just declared light days from now until then. We will still count them as school days since we'll still get in plenty of learning, but there are just so many things we want to do leading up to the holidays and I know if we continue on full schedule until the 17th we will end up spending from then until Christmas feeling rushed. I want to enjoy the holidays with my kids while they are still young.

 

So, light days from now until the 17th and then off completely until after New Year's.

[fraidycat]

School as normal until the family gets here, then DH is taking time off from after Christmas through the first week of January, so we'll probably start back up in the second week of the new year.

[Tita Gidge]

We take the month off as part of our winter break.

 

No formal work is assigned, but the kids sometimes take it upon themselves to work through the break. I have one who couldn't wait another minute (much less month) to learn cursive, so she's working through winter break to learn the art of cursive :)

[Joyofsixreboot]

We'll stop after the 21 st and pick up on the 2nd or 3rd.

[Donna]

We'll stop after the 21 st and pick up on the 2nd or 3rd.

 

 

This is my plan. We'll see how it turns out in reality.

[Luckymama]

We follow dd17's high school schedule. She now has a teachers' day off on Friday the 21st-----so we'll be off then until Jan 2!

 

 

[prairiegirl]

We are working until next week--the 14th--then are off until the 7th of Jan.

[mlktwins]

We are working until next week--the 14th--then are off until the 7th of Jan.

 

I think we are doing this as well! May go back on the 2nd, but will probably end up the 7th.

 

We are on target for all our subjects except 2, so we may have to finish those up during this time, but will be VERY light work.

[txmommyofboys]

We are working thru the holidays for the most part. We might take a total of a week off. I am having surgery in Febuary so we will have 2-3 weeks of then.

[texasmama]

We take a two week break from curriculum during the last two weeks of December.

[txmommyofboys]

We take a two week break from curriculum during the last two weeks of December.

 

What part of Texas are you in? DFW here :)

I have to say I am loving our "winter" weather lol! Capris and tank tops!

[Parrothead]

I had planned for us to be off on the 19th and return on the 2nd. Now with dh home and recuperating (and in the way) we are doing very light school until he goes back to work on the 17th.

 

One might as well say we are taking all of December off.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

We are taking off Friday the 21st (doing wintery crafts and stuff, eating fun foods), but continuing our 7 day schedule otherwise.

[MiniBlondes]

We are schooling regularly through the 21st and then breaking until the 7th.

[texasmama]

 

What part of Texas are you in? DFW here :)

I have to say I am loving our "winter" weather lol! Capris and tank tops!

 

Well, howdy neighbor! Stop on over for coffee sometime. :)

[MissKNG]

The week of Christmas is off for sure. And possibly the Friday and/or Thursdsy prior to Christmas week, depending on how I feel!

 

[luvnlattes]

We're taking a week-and-a-half to two weeks off but I haven't decided on the exact dates yet. It will depend on whether I feel behind or not as the holiday get closer. :tongue_smilie:

[LearningMomm]

We are basically taking December off with the exception of Writing and Grammar for the oldest and any math ds7 wants to do.

[athena1277]

We'll stop after the 21 st and pick up on the 2nd or 3rd.

 

This is what we are doing. I would love to take a day or 2 off to do some fun Christmasy stuff, but we ended up taking 2 weeks off for Thanksgiving due to illness and have missed a lot of days due to other things this fall. I'm trying not to get farther behind so it does not cut into summer break. I need summer break!

[elegantlion]

We'll school until the 20th, have a field trip on the 21st, and then off for 2 weeks.

[alisoncooks]

We're schooling lightly up until the 21st (which is when we leave for our holiday travels). Then we'll be taking a solid break until New Years.

[sassenach]

This year we're not taking much time off. We had a really late start to our school year, so we have less margin than usual. We're working right up till the 21st and I hope to start up again on the 2nd.

[Lady Florida.]

For the first time ever, I'm following our local PS schedule, which means our break starts on the 17th and school resumes Jan. 8th. However, if ds doesn't finish his FLVS class before break, he'll be working through the holidays.

[Dmmetler]

December is actually easier to get "School" accomplished in than November was-November had a bunch of "during the day" stuff, but in December, the daytime stuff has mostly stopped, and while nights/weekends are busy, it usually doesn't affect daytime much until right before Christmas. So this week and next week, we're doing pretty typical school stuff and trying to finish up a couple of things before traveling for the holidays themselves. I'm enjoying it.

[redsquirrel]

We school our normal schedule through the 21st, then we take off two weeks for the holidays and resume on January 7th.

 

Same for us.

 

Then we work right through until June.

[Mélie]

We're moving in less than two weeks, so we've started packing and school has turned into workbooks and lots of reading. My younger son is going to start public kindergarten on January 3rd, so I'll start back with my older son around then.

[Hoot]

Our co-op is off for the entire month of December so our work load is drastically reduced. We'll be working at home though and just taking off completely during Christmas week.

 

We've got lots of fun stuff planned though so it's not all work and no play. Next week we'll be taking a bus trip to New York to go to the Central Park Zoo and the American Museum of Natural History.

[Guest]

Yeah, with an upcoming move and other stuff, our December is pretty shot. Unfortunately.

[ladydusk]

We do a lot more projects: gifts, decorations, cookies, candy, etc.

 

We do a lot more field trips: Children's Museums (Indy & COSI, maybe The Works), Local Historical Village, First Friday in our town, Christmas tree farm, etc.

 

Concerts for Choir and Piano are done.

 

Circle Time changes: We work on Advent & Christmas Hymns (Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus; O Come, O Come Emmanuel, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, Silent Night; Joy to the World!; While By Their Sheep; We Three Kings). We work on the Christmas story from Luke 2 for Bible memory. We're learning a Christmas poem (the one from Wind in the Willows). We're reading from Jotham's Journey, The Family Messiah Advent Reader, Rembrandt: The Christmas Story.

 

We read Christmas-related family read alouds. In the past we've read A Christmas Carol, L'Engle's The Twenty Four Days Before Christmas (every year), and this year The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. We're going to read Opal Wheeler's book on Tchaikovsky & the Nutcracker because my mom is going to take the girls to The Nutcracker this year.

 

In the past I've tried to do a Jesse Tree, but we never quite finished it. I love the idea, though. This year we added taking a picture every day of a Christmassy event and the children write a sentence (or I write a sentence and they illustrate) about it. I got that idea here and loved it.

 

I'm going to try to do some science in the form of Advent Nature Study from here. We have some Christmassy pattern block pages we'll do one day. We don't do much formal math, science, writing, history, or grammar, but it sure is fun and those are kind of mixed in here and there :)

[laughing lioness]

SAT's last week. Poetry Outloud tonight. Lego League qualifiers Sat. I start reviews for TOS crew (WOOT) this week. I feel worn out and burned out. I asked the kids how they'd feel if we took the next couple of weeks off and worked on the house? They cheered. the only prob is that my writing class has a research paper going on now and 3 of the moms insist the kids can't get it done b4 Xmas.....(waaa). I really want to quit this class. Which is weird. I LOVE teaching writing. I LOVE these kids. But Tuesday find us in town for about 12-13 hours- 2 meals out of the house on a budget- it's not pretty and ds 18 and dd9 have very little to do on those days--- we all HATE tuesdays.

 

And we have very little $ for presents. Not that much of a biggie - but our older 2 dd's won't be here for Xmas. I've beeen in a BIG HUGE slump. WAAAAAA. I want my people. I want $. And I want a closet.

 

(sorry, I'm really trying hard NOT to have this on-going pity party, but it's not taking).

[laughing lioness]

We do a lot more projects: gifts, decorations, cookies, candy, etc.

 

We do a lot more field trips: Children's Museums (Indy & COSI, maybe The Works), Local Historical Village, First Friday in our town, Christmas tree farm, etc.

 

Concerts for Choir and Piano are done.

 

Circle Time changes: We work on Advent & Christmas Hymns (Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus; O Come, O Come Emmanuel, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, Silent Night; Joy to the World!; While By Their Sheep; We Three Kings). We work on the Christmas story from Luke 2 for Bible memory. We're learning a Christmas poem (the one from Wind in the Willows). We're reading from Jotham's Journey, The Family Messiah Advent Reader, Rembrandt: The Christmas Story.

 

We read Christmas-related family read alouds. In the past we've read A Christmas Carol, L'Engle's The Twenty Four Days Before Christmas (every year), and this year The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. We're going to read Opal Wheeler's book on Tchaikovsky & the Nutcracker because my mom is going to take the girls to The Nutcracker this year.

 

In the past I've tried to do a Jesse Tree, but we never quite finished it. I love the idea, though. This year we added taking a picture every day of a Christmassy event and the children write a sentence (or I write a sentence and they illustrate) about it. I got that idea here and loved it.

 

I'm going to try to do some science in the form of Advent Nature Study from here. We have some Christmassy pattern block pages we'll do one day. We don't do much formal math, science, writing, history, or grammar, but it sure is fun and those are kind of mixed in here and there :)

 

 

Dawn, you rock. I'm going to copy your month, k?

[whitestavern]

Haven't yet decided if we will do a full week the week prior to Christmas, but I know we're not going back til January 7.

[wisdomandpeace]

We school for a portion of the summer so that we can take all of December off.

[Aurelia]

Off and on, and recently more off than on. I think we'll continue as normal until the actual week of Christmas, much to DD's dismay.

[ladydusk]

 

Dawn, you rock. I'm going to copy your month, k?

 

Thanks, Lisa! You made my day!

[happypamama]

This year, we are doing regular math for the two big kids, and they're both reading daily. (DS1 is reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and DD and I, who have been reading Little Women together, just finished L'Engle's The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas; she's probably either going to read Christmas With Anne or Louisa May Alcott's Christmas short stories next.) I also checked out a ridiculous number of Christmas books to read together (both picture and chapter), and I hope to do some activities/crafts based on the books or general Christmas themes. We've been doing picture study at dinner, based on Christmas themes, and that's really nice because DH can be involved too. I really like this (scroll down to the list) list from Elizabeth Foss (http://www.elizabeth...ybook-year.html), for incorporating narrations/writing into picture books, and I want to use Christmas themed books to challenge at least my older child to expand her writing/narrating repertoire. My second grader has really been enjoying WWE2 this year, and since it's a good fit for him, I am hoping to do some similar exercises based on the Christmas books. So, covering the major subjects but in a different way (and putting Latin, French, and other extras on hold for a bit). And of course, there is Christmas music, decorating, baking, parties, and all of the usual holiday craziness. :)

 

ETA: We do school year-round, but taking off completely between Thanksgiving and New Year's would be too much unstructured time for my kids. We were on vacation for a full week at Thanksgiving, as in, we actually went away; there wasn't "book learning" in that time, but we did some really great field trips. DH will have some time off around Christmas, so we'll take off then completely, maybe through New Year's, but if everyone starts getting bored or anything, I'll add math or history or something.

 

Looking at all of that, I guess I'd say that my main goal is to keep some structured formal education going, but there's so much extra stuff that we want/need to do, so I don't want us stressed out or burdened. And I really want to draw attention to the wealth of special literature, music, art, etc. that Christmas brings. (And there is always a big need to enjoy our own baby, as we ponder the birth of The Baby.)

 

Oh, and this year, we're also trying to read at least the first part of The Hobbit as a family, as we're planning a family movie outing. DH read it to the big two kids a few years ago, but DS1 was only 4 then, and DS2 (now 4) has never heard the story but is a big fan of the LOTR movies and is looking forward to the movie. I figured he ought to have at least some idea of the story first. In addition to that, we also have Tabitha's Travels and A Christmas Carol going (and Farmer Boy in the car, LOL), but some of those may extend past Christmas.

 

Love the look of the nature study book too -- might have to try that next year. Thanks for sharing it!

[swellmomma]

kids church/youth group/bible study just ended for the holidays(start again jan 10th). Dance and cadets have another week to go. School will go until teh 21st. Then they get until the new year off(the teens are gone for 5 days of that to their dad's). Jan 1 we start a week of school lite, and then the next week back fully into the swing of school and extra currics

[Elfknitter.#]

I'm hoping we'll have the few things I'm aiming for them to finish off done by the 20th if not sooner. Tentatively, I'm looking to start on Jan 7. However, we also need to move and are currently in process of locating a place. So we might be off for longer.

[sandst]

We will stop on the 21st an resume on the 7th of January

[mazakaal]

The original plan was to school until 21st December and then start back up on 7th January. Then we thought about a trip back to the States after Christmas, so we wouldn't start up again until around 15th January. As it turns out we can't afford to all go back to the States, so dh will probably fly back with our oldest on New Year's Day or New Year's Eve. Since we have to take a couple of days off next week to go to London to get dd's passport renewed (and squeeze in a visit to the British Museum :D) and since dh will be away and we don't have family nearby, we'll probably start back with schoolwork when dh flies out.

 

So, long story short, Christmas break will probably (but everything is always subject to change in our family) be 22nd Dec - 30th or 31st Dec.

[momofkhm]

A month off? A week off? Work thru holidays?

 

 

We take the whole week of Thanksgiving off. Then 3 weeks of normal school. Then this year is 3 weeks off for Christmas and vacation. We're fitting a trip between Christmas and when the dual enrolled kid have to go back to class.

[Robyn]

We'll work up until the 21st, then take two weeks off. My oldest might do a little work on his outsourced classes the second week, but I'm not going to make him. I know I can use a break.

[Mom22ns]

We're schooling hot and heavy trying to finish some things up before Dec 20th. Then we have a 2 week break planned, but ds is probably going to have two subjects he will continue to work on.

[KRG]

We started early this year so we could take the whole month off. It was hard to stay in routine last December. All we wanted to do was Christmas stuff so that's when we made the decision to start back early. So far we are enjoying it! It has been a very long semester! We will probably start back January 2nd and ease back into it and pick up full force the following week.