Call me crazy, but I’m a bit glad the holiday season in the US is finally over. Even though we don’t really celebrate the holidays, there are extra days off for Hubby, days off for our homeschool co-op, stores are closing, sales only include things with Santas and snowmen, and all the other reasons why everyone is effected by the holiday season. As I’ve stated before I’m the Queen of Inconsistency, though not proud of it, and the holiday season throws me off!
In a homeschool, we really need to have some sort of routine, and all these exceptions to our routine make it not a routine anymore. I usually don’t like to give a full week off for Christmas because I don’t want it to seem we are celebrating, but it seemed fitting to take off a full week in the middle of the year, and to start a new week as it normally starts – on Monday. With everything else moving and changing around us, we needed some time to get our bearings back.
Sometimes when the kids get older, I think we take routines for granted. Our older children are so adaptable, we may get into the “routine of exceptions” instead. When naptime doesn’t dictate our day it’s easy to move lunch, double up on math today because we skipped it yesterday, and because everything is so mixed up we end up dropping the ball completely on something else but don’t realize it for a week or more!
A lack of routine can beget chaos. Every family’s routine can be different, but we should have a general idea of what to expect each day when we wake up. When each day is different, the body doesn’t feel the sense of relaxing work and peace. Yes, when a routine is set it is fun to do something different, but the routine needs to be set first.
I’m reminding myself of all of this before I’m reminding anyone else. Insha’Allah we’ll be getting a routine back on Monday… after standardized testing (another exception, hehe).
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