Almost Unschooling Grama

Confession: Grampa Tom is a Scrooge.  OK, I can't blame him. He grew up in a large farm family. My father-in-love was a fantastic worker but had no business sense. They lived hand to mouth and every penny earned from the farm usually went out the door as soon as it came in at harvest. By December, money was always tight and the pressure to provide gifts for 9 kids always caused a lot of fights between his parents. Not only that, but many of those kids had December birthdays. Christmas for my husband was always a time of great stress.  On the contrary, Christmas in my family was always a joyous occasion that my upper-middle-class parents were comfortably able to afford. My expectations and my husband's dread of the season created some stress between us in the beginning, but when we went through the farm depression of the early 80s, things got serious. My overwhelming desire to give came into full clash with his insistence that we absolutely could not afford Christmas. ...

Give your children the opportunity to experience the joy of giving! Start a tradition of giving by challenging them to do an act of kindness every day in December up to Christmas. Brainstorm with them some of the things they could do and then have a time at the end of each day to share what they have done and how it made them feel.  Here's some ideas to get you going!  1. Unroll the toilet paper in a public restroom a little way. Then roll it back up with a dollar bill so the next person who comes in will find it. 2. Go for a walk and pick up litter. 3. Message someone. Tell them how much you appreciate them. 4. Take cookies or bread to a neighbor. 5. Give good toys to a toy drive. 6. Write encouraging notes on sticky notes and leave them around town. 7. Do a chore for someone. 8. Roll down your window and yell "Thank you" to road construction workers. 9. Take the neighbor's garbage can back to the house after the tru...

In our first year of homeschooling, I took my cues from the only type of schooling I had ever known and let my kids have the summer off. The next year, I was quite irritated to find that the first 2 months of the curriculum I had bought were basically a review of what my kids had learned in the last year. Then, I found out why. They had forgotten nearly everything! I decided that wasn't happening again. I set my sights on 4 days a week with mini 1 to 2 week vacations as we needed them.  It worked fabulously! In our third year, the kids were so far ahead in November, I decided to put aside everything but reading spelling and math drills until Christmas so we could concentrate on creating handmade gifts for everyone on our lists!  I could not have anticipated the results!  We learned to sew, paint, and craft and had all sorts of fun, but that wasn't the best part.  My children were so excited about the gifts they were creating that they pretty much forgo...