by Anna Reynolds January 7, 2024 The New Year can be a good time to reassess the homeschool year. Are the materials and co-ops picked out for the fall serving the students and family? Are certain sports and extracurricular activities taking up too much time and expense or no longer adding value? When answering these questions, one of the most important steps is taking the time to rest and reset.
Assess where you are and start your homeschool refreshed in 2024! Leila Lawler, mother of seven homeschool graduates and the writer behind “Auntie Leila” of the blog Like Mother Like Daughter, has practical tips that can help you retool for the new year. Kendra Tierney, the homeschooling mom behind Catholic All Year, also has many practical tips.
Even though we are now past the 12-Days of Christmas, it is not too late to enjoy some of the many activities that you hoped to do during that time with your homeschooled children. Did you have that gingerbread house contest? How about ice skating trips, and hot cocoa evenings?
So why squeeze a few extra fun activities before kicking it into high gear again? Parents are not only teachers; they are still parents. When Mom or Dad are feeling squeezed for time and exhausted after the holidays, the family suffers. When you are also a homeschooling parent, anxiety about school performance and checking off the curriculum requirements can strain the marriage relationship.
Bonnie Landry, an experienced homeschool mom who hosts the podcast Make Joy Normal: Cozy Homeschooling, talks about the benefits of “deschooling.” What is usually meant by this term is a period of unstructured time to help children adjust from being in a school environment to homeschooling. After the external structure of a classroom and going at the pace of the whole class, it can be difficult to calibrate expectations for schooling at home and successfully managing day-to-day tasks without friction.
For children recovering from viral illness and the December sugar and activity overload, a period of deschooling can also be a great benefit. Taking a break from regularly expected work, like math worksheets and spelling tests can help parents ease back into schooling. Easing back in with family read aloud times, cooking experiments, and sing-a-longs are all good and educational fun. Learning does not stop, but we can reset from the homeschool tasks and curricula that might come to feel like a daily grind.
After deschooling and merrymaking can be a good time to think back to September and October (before everyone was sick and busy) and assess the course load for the current year. Are there programs that are not a good fit for individual children? Is an online course at a pace that the child cannot keep up with? Are the evening activities disrupting family time in a way you want to reexamine? The beauty of homeschooling is, of course, that you do not have to stick with a program or co-op just because you started it back in September. You can change materials mid-way through the year if you think it would be a better fit. On the other hand, the simple act of taking a break may renew everyone’s interest and enthusiasm so you start the New Year with the same materials but with a new perspective. As we celebrate the birth of Christ, let the joy of that season find expression in our homes. Whether that means taking a break or trying something new, the arrival of the New Year is a great time to think about the second half of the homeschool year. It’s not just another to-do on the task list but an opportunity for growth in our children and our families.