When the kids were young, we took off the week of Thanksgiving. I knew we would not get very much accomplished that week, especially since I baked on Wednesday; I still do. It has always been a busy week because I still have to go grocery shopping. I’m usually one of those crazies out on Tuesday before Thanksgiving, in the grocery stores.

This year was no different. I am always surprised how packed the stores are and then I remember that Thanksgiving is in 2 days. Why does it surprise me every year, I wonder and yet it does.

The kids helped me get ready for Thanksgiving. They helped me clean up the house and bake my pies and pumpkin bars. They have always been a lot of help. As a homeschool mom, it was necessary to get them to help keep the house tidy and clean. If I didn’t get them to help I would have probably gone nuts; well the technical term would have been “burned out.” By having weeks where they were still learning things and just leaving the heavy/ more intense study for other weeks, I was able to have weeks that were easier and thus allow me some breathing space and no burn out.

Weeks like this are valuable to a child’s education. In times like these they learned about skills that they would need to use the rest of their lives. They may not need to know the names of the bones in the body or how to solve for “x” or the name of some battle but they will need to know how to clean their home, buy and cook food, and how to find the best buy for an item to be purchased. These are things learned while doing the normal every day activities together.

After the children had basic reading down, they helped while grocery shopping by reading the list to me. This gave them reading practice for the day. It has become such a way of life that I wonder how my errand days will look in the future without one of my children carrying the list and answering my questions, like “What else do we need?” You see, this isn’t a question that they have to figure out for themselves, they just have to read the list that I made. They were also responsible for crossing off the items after they had been placed in the cart.

From this week through the end of the year, it can be very busy. For their schooling during this time, they did lots of life skills. We also talked about the holidays, traditions, what others believe, and such. It was also a time for them to catch up on any work they’d left unfinished during the previous month. We would do artsy things from time to time and read holiday books. I taught my children that one is never done learning, both in words and modeling it for them. Kids will learn more from watching what you do than from listening to what you say to do. Thus it is extremely important to not let your words and actions be contrary to one another.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!!

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº