Revelry + Renewal: Four Ways to Stay Balanced Through the Holidays as a Homeschooler

EP242:  Discover four simple ways to bring more balance, calm, and connection to your homeschool during the holiday season. Learn how to simplify traditions, preview plans, maintain gentle rhythms, and support your child through the seasonal swirl. Plus, hear how Handwork + Stories can help your family enjoy meaningful, low-stress learning all December long. 

Join the Inspired at Home community https://artofhomeschooling.com/inspiredathome 

Find the Show Notes here  https://artofhomeschooling.com/episode242/

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Purpose
• 1:11 Why Holidays Overwhelm Kids
• 1:44 Tip 1: Preview Plans
• 3:14 Tip 2: Simplify Traditions
• 4:34 Tip 3: Keep A Gentle Rhythm
• 5:38 Tip 4: Prioritize Connection
• 6:36 Bonus: Be Gentle With Yourself
• 8:44 Community Invitation And Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:09

You're listening to the Art of Homeschooling podcast, where we help parents cultivate creativity and connection at home. I'm your host, Jean Miller, and here on this podcast, you'll find stories and inspiration to bring you the confidence you need to make homeschooling work for your family. Let's begin. The holiday season can be beautiful and heart filling, but it can also feel overwhelming and downright exhausting for both children and adults. If you've noticed your kiddos getting a little extra wiggly or moody or having extra meltdowns, you're not imagining it. This time of year could be a lot. There's just so much activity, anticipation, and extra everything. So today I want to share four simple grounding practices to help you find a bit more balance, to soften the stress, savor the joy, and build in space to decompress after the holidays, too. Think of this as your holiday homeschool survival kit, minus the duct tape and glitter explosion or whatever might come with a survival kit. So here we go. Tip number one, preview plans and expectations. Kids really do best when they know what to expect. Honestly, so do we. And one of the easiest ways to keep things calm is to preview plans ahead of time with our children. You might try a short family meeting on Sunday afternoons or evenings. Just 10 minutes can really help so you can preview what's coming in the week ahead. Then each night, give your kiddos a simple heads up about the next day. Something like we'll have pancakes for breakfast, an hour or so of playtime, and then we'll all get ready to go to grandma's house where we'll spend the afternoon. It can be as simple as that, and it's amazing how much anxiety melts away when the unknown becomes known. Tip number two, simplify your family traditions. Now, we all love the traditions, and oftentimes they build up through the years. And so I just want to remind all of us that too many actually defeats the whole idea of doing something special. So here is my tip for you. Talk to your children. You might find some surprises here. I suggest you ask your children which traditions matter most to them. Parents tell me that they're often surprised by what they hear. Kids rarely pick the complicated, time-intensive things. Instead, they tend to cherish the simple sensory moments like lighting a candle, baking a certain cookie recipe, playing a favorite game as a family, or reading the same story every Christmas Eve or winter solstice. Let your children's answers guide your energy. Traditions don't need to be elaborate to be meaningful, and we don't need many, many, many of them. They just need to be loved. Tip number three: maintain your daily rhythm as best you can. Yes, I know it's the holidays, and rhythm can feel like a distant dream, but anchor points still matter and they can be really helpful through the holiday season. Meal times, bed times, and quiet pockets of time during the day for just a little bit of downtime. Here's my general rule of thumb. If you have a busy, stimulating day, like a party, an outing, a big family gathering, then the next day becomes a slower rhythm day, like full of lots of free play, lots of rest time, maybe a walk or a hike outdoors. Maybe everyone stays in their pajamas until noon or all day. No judgment in here. These gentle guardrails can help prevent meltdowns, both your kiddos and yours. All right, tip number four: prioritize connection above everything else. You hear me say it often to focus on connection rather than perfection. This is really the heart of it all. When our kiddos seem off, clingy, cranky, wild, overwhelmed, it's usually a sign that they need connection, not correction. That could look like snuggling up with a story, inviting them to help you stir the soup, just slowing down and being present with them for a little snuggle. Remember, children pick up on our energy. And when we ground ourselves, then they can find their calm center too. It's basically like emotional Wi-Fi, right? They connect to whatever signal we're sending out. And now I have a bonus tip for you. Be gentle with yourself. We juggle so much as homeschooling parents. We're responsible for the learning, the household, the activity calendar, and navigating the container for all the emotions going on in our families. And we need some downtime too. So I want you to think of when during the holiday season you could take some time for yourself. Even if it's just going on a walk alone, taking a few minutes to meditate each day, or starting off with movement in the mornings, even 10 minutes can make a big difference to the rest of your day. I encourage you to be intentional about setting aside some time just for you to fill up your cup because you deserve it. Here's a loving reminder. The holidays are meant to be enjoyed, right? Not conquered. Simple is better. Truly, simple is better. And your children will remember how they felt. Not whether the decorations were perfect or the cookies were iced with geometric precision worthy of a baking show or how many special activities you did. So give yourself permission to ease up a little bit, to choose rest over pressure and focus on making memories. All right, here's a quick little recap of our four tips. These are the four ways to stay balanced through the holidays in the midst of all the revelry and finding ways to bring in some renewal for yourself. So here we go. Tip number one, preview plans with your kiddos. Number two, simplify traditions. Number three, maintain rhythm. Number four, prioritize connection. And the bonus tip, be gentle with yourself. Before we wrap up, I want to remind you that it's not too late to join us inside the Inspired at Home community for handwork and stories. Every December, this warm and welcoming circle of homeschooling parents leans into a beautifully simplified lesson rhythm, pairing a wonderful family read aloud with a handwork or a craft project. It's honestly one of the coziest times of our year together inside the membership. Whether you want to keep learning going in the weeks leading up to the holidays, or you need meaningful low pressure activities for that quiet week after the holidays, Handwork and Stories gives you inspiration, connection, and a simple plan you can use right away. We'd love to have you join us and you can go to artofomeschooling.com slash inspired at home for all the details. And wherever you are on your homeschooling journey, I'd love to help you create a homeschool life that's simple, inspiring, and doable. Wishing you a peaceful season filled with warm moments, deep breaths, and sweet memories. From my family to yours, happy holidays, my dear homeschooling friend. That's all for today, my friend. But here's what I want you to remember. Rather than perfection, let's focus on connection. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you on the next episode of the Art of Homeschooling podcast.