Ending the Year with a Fizzle

Today I wanted our last day of school to end with a celebratory note--kind of like what kids do in school: making cards, decorating cookies, partying and such. I had a picture in my mind of children busying themselves with icing and sprinkles, while the radio blares out bouncy Christmas tunes. Well, as anyone would expect, it did not work out that way.

I started the day by lecturing Chee about idling during his breakfast (hence his long drawn-out school days two weeks in a row). I threatened to cut down his food portions unless he learns to finish his meal within half an hour. The Christmas cards and the thank-you notes turned into tedious hand-writing exercises. I gave them stickers to decorate the cards but cared too much about the aesthetics to let them have fun.

After lunch we rushed to their haircut appointment only to wait there for half and hour due to the pre-Christmas surge of beauty-seekers. Luckily we all brought books to read. Afterwards we stopped to pick up some last-minute presents. When we got home, it was well past four--too late for making cookies.

Well, school is over. That's that. Does it count that I had intended it to be a fun day? Can I help the fact that I'm such a control freak and have to have everything perfect? How could I know I was allocating eight-hours' worth of activities within a four-hour period? In the end, it was not a perfect day, just another unremarkable school day. As usual, many things fell off the list.

Oh well, we'll make up the fun somehow over the Christmas break. We'll make plenty of cookies and paint lots of pictures and bring out the sleeping bags and fall asleep listening to music or telling stories. Am I dreaming again? Am I over-planning, trying to fit one month's worth of expectations into two weeks? Wouldn't it be great to have 48 hours in a day, or an extra free day in each week? I am hopeless!

School in December

Is that an oxymoron? Can anyone really do any serious schooling between Thanksgiving and Christmas? I find this to be a limbo period that can be difficult to focus in, especially for me. My mind is scattered among other things: three birthdays, holiday decorations and Christmas cards, family get-togethers, vacation plans, presents, and those ubiquitous ant trails that always show up at this time of year. Yes, life is too crazy for me to think about a full day of course load. So instead of killing myself with work or torturing myself with guilt, I just drop my expectations for the month. It was not a conscious decision, but it just sort of worked out this way.

The boys still work through their math and language assignments. However, I do other subjects only on an "if time permits" basis, which means, on most days they don't happen. I used to feel bad about not sticking to a schedule, I don't any more.

December is a stressful time. Why put more stress on ourselves and our children? Instead of doing lots of regular work, we take field trips, learn to paint, and get together with friends. We do community projects, write thank-you notes, and listen to audio books that Mom enjoys. This is the "Be Good to Mom" month because, everyone knows, she deserves a little break. I call it free learning, because we are still learning, just in an unstructured way.

This Friday is our last day of class before the Christmas break. I'm looking forward to a period of complete rest from any kind of schooling. However, when we're done resting, we will come back with a bang.