5 Tips for a Stress-Free Run-Up to Christmas

During the eleven years that we lived in Russia we had to work hard to make Christmas special, since the 25^th December was an ordinary working day. Yet in many ways it was very freeing to avoid all the materialistic hype and to be able to focus instead on developing our own meaningful, family traditions. Our first Christmas back in this country was a bit of a shock and ended up being rather stressful! Since then, we’ve been more intentional about what we say yes to, and how we celebrate as a family. Here are some things we’ve learnt:

1)      Set your priorities

Take some time to think what is most important to you at Christmas time. Is it being with wider family? Giving gifts to people in need? Serving your church or community? Offering hospitality? Choose one or two things. 

2)      Don’t be afraid to cut back

With your priorities in mind, think where you can cut back on extra, unnecessary tasks or obligations that just end up causing stress. Do you need to send out all those Christmas cards? Do you need to host that drinks party? Could you agree with your family to send fewer presents this year or do a ‘secret Santa’ instead?

3)      Plan ahead

Start making a plan now: when you need to start writing cards, who you’re buying presents for, when you’re going to fill your shoebox for Samaritan’s Purse, when you’re going to put up your decorations, what your menu plan is for Christmas Day itself…. If you get this all down in writing in good time then it’s much less likely to sneak up on you and cause you stress at the last minute. You can also see at a glance if you’ve just got too much going on and you need to say no to something.

4)      Focus on Jesus

Now that you’ve taken care of the usual Christmas obligations, take time to think about how you can focus on the real meaning of Christmas this year. Can you make the nativity scene the central Christmas decoration in your living room instead of the tree? Do you have an advent wreath and advent candles? Is there a special devotional you can follow throughout advent? Are there special crafts you can do with your kids* or books you can read?

5)      Enjoy

It’s such a shame that Jesus’s birthday celebrations end up causing us so much stress! Think how you can enjoy the season instead, for example by playing special Christmas music, lighting candles, using advent calendars to increase the anticipation, attending carol services. What is it about the Christmas season that you particularly love?

Wishing you all a peaceful, joyful, stress-free run up to Christmas!

*Recommended resource for families: truthinthetinsel.com

Blog at Home Mom - Book Review

When Christin Slade asked if anyone would like a free copy of her new ebook Blog at Home Mom: Balancing Blogging and Motherhoodin return for reviewing it on their blog, I jumped at the chance. Not only because it was a subject that really interested me, but also because I know Christin a little already from her blog Joyful Mothering, and I love her writing. I know that she has lots of experience and wisdom to offer.

Her new ebook didn't disappoint. She writes in her introduction: "Pursuing our passions doesn’t mean you sacrifice less as a wife or mother, it simply means you focus more on all the different facets."

In the ensuing chapters she covers topics such as setting goals and having a plan, organising your days, prioritising, and how to avoid sloppy days. And these aren't just ways to organise your writing and blogging. In each chapter Christin discusses how to set goals for your blog and for your children; how to organise your blogging schedule and how to organise your children's time. Throughout the book she weaves a careful balance between our responsibilities to our families and our homes and our desire to spend time on our computers developing our calling and gifting as writers. The final two chapters focus on caring for your marriage and caring for your spiritual walk, which are so important if we want to live a happy, balanced, intentional life.

Christin is well-connected in the blogging world, and I love that each chapter ends with some words of wisdom and insight from fellow bloggers on each topic.

If you're a Blog at Home Mom then I encourage you to buy this book, and as a bonus, all the profits from sales of the book go towards the Slade's Adoption Fund, as they try to raise $2500 to bring their two daughters home from Ghana.

Abide in Him!

Disclaimer: this post contains affiliate links

How We Plan Our Days

I don't know about you but I'm forever tweaking our daily schedule. I love having set routines and predictability, but life just isn't like that. Interruptions happen, guests arrive, children get sick, classes get cancelled....However, it doesn't mean to say that we shouldn't try to establish some order and 'normality' to our days. I believe that kids thrive on routine and feel safe with predictable schedules. As homeschooling mums it also helps us to feel like we're ticking all the right boxes and being diligent in our job.

In the early days of homeschooling I spent hours on the internet reading and researching how other mothers ordered their days. I don't want to pretend that I've got it down pat and that mine is the perfect schedule by any means, but just in case it might be helpful to a few people out there then I thought it was about time I shared my daily timetable with you all.

My eldest is 8 and is in Year 2 of the Ambleside Online curriculum, which I love. My second daughter is 5. She's in a kind of kindergarten year, but listens in to a lot of what the eldest is doing. My son is 3, and mostly hangs around the schoolroom playing with his trains or his cars, although recently we've started looking at some letters together.

The times below are very loose and flexible. Usually, when we've finished one activity we just move onto the other, but it helps me to keep track of where I think we should be.

8.45am Family Bible Time (using a Children's Bible), prayer and Scripture Memory
9.00am Phonics (during this hour I also have the weekly composer music playing in the background if it's not too distracting)
9.15am Maths
9.45am Reading
10.00am Copywork
10.15am Snack time in the living room while I read the daily poetry selection and we recite one of the poems we've been learning. We also drill our weekly 'Times Table'.
10.45am Literature (one of the weekly reading selections followed by narration)
11.15am French (Tues, Thurs), Russian (Mon,), Artist Appreciation (Wed), Book of Centuries (Fri)
11.30am Reading time with my 3-year old while my girls practise piano.
11.45am Outdoor time - usually a walk around the village. This can include a 'nature walk' on one day.
12.30pm Lunch preparation time while kids play
1.00pm Lunch
2.00pm Quiet Half Hour
2.30pm Bible reading (Ambleside selection), followed by Monthly Hymn and Folk Song
2.45pm Mission (Mon), Mapwork (Tues), Astronomy (Thurs), Character (Fri)
3.00pm Literature (another of the weekly reading selections followed by narration)
3.30pm Snack
3.45pm Nature topic and nature notebook (Mon), Handicrafts (Fri)
4.30pm Free time

 On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons the girls have a dance class in town, and on Wednesdays I have a nanny come so that I can have an afternoon off. During that time Sophie (8) has a half an hour Russian lesson with the nanny. I'll also need to tweak the timetable when we work out the new schedule for art classes in town, which the girls used to go to twice a week. Unfortunately things keep changing here!

I hope that's helpful for some. Every family is different, so you need to find what works for you, and as I say, my schedule is forever changing because....well....life happens! Also, I often drop some of the 'extras' if we're having a busy period, like the Astronomy, Mission, Mapwork, Character and Book of Centuries.



In my next post I'll talk through some of my curriculum choices for the individual subjects.



Qu: I'd love to hear how you plan your days! Please feel free to give a quick outline or link to a relevant blog post in the comments below.

Abide in Him!



P.s. I just wanted to clarify again that this is my ideal schedule that we're working towards at the moment, and it doesn't always happen! In fact, the morning I posted this we had some unexpected guests and that was it - the schedule went to pot for the day. Also, this is a winter schedule, since we can't get outside much at the moment and it's nice to have something to fill the whole day. Once the weather gets better we'll be scheduling much more outdoor time. So please don't feel like I'm some superhero mom - very far from it!

Photo credit: freedigitalphotos.net/ Stuart Miles

Starting A New School Year

Here in Russia the first day of school, September 1st, is a special holiday. It's an especially important day for those just starting school in Year 1, aged 7. Sophie and I went along to watch one of her best Russian friends attend her 'Первый Звoнок' or 'First Ring (of the school bell)'. The children were dressed immaculately, the girls with large, white hair decorations, the boys in their new suits, and all clasping bouquets of flowers ready to present to their new teacher. There was dancing and singing, and poems about the new school year read out by the older pupils. There were speeches and awards, balloons and banners.....

Our first day of the school year didn't go off with quite as much ceremony! Perhaps next year we should dress up, dance and sing and read poems. We should invite friends and I'll get my husband to buy a big bouquet of flowers that the children can present to me at an opportune moment!

Sophie has just started Year 2 of the Ambleside Online curriculum we follow. In Russia she would be just starting Year 1 if she'd gone to Russian school, and in England she would be going into Year 3. All a bit confusing! However, we love homeschooling, and we're really enjoying our AO curriculum.

Our first week of school was delayed until 10th September because of having recently moved back to Russia and needing to unpack and sort ourselves out. The week before I'd shut myself away in my husband's office for a whole day to plan the term ahead. Amy in Peru has written some really helpful blog posts here about how to have a homeschool planning day once a term. It's a day I really enjoy, actually, and is so helpful in ensuring that the next 12 weeks go smoothly without too much extra work on my part getting materials together.

Charis is starting a kind of Kindergarten year, which means I try to get her to stay at the table once a day at least long enough to do a little maths and beginning reading. However, she's joining in quite willingly with our folk song (Gypsy Rover) and hymn (For All The Saints) for the month, as well as many of the literature readings. She was entranced by the story of 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona' that we read from the Lambs' 'Tales from Shakespeare'!

This year Sophie will be continuing with her art classes in town once a week, and both Sophie and Charis will be doing dance classes twice a week together. Unfortunately our Russian nanny, who was providing some Russian language input for the children once a week, is leaving town. We've yet to find a replacement that will help boost Charis and Nathaniel's Russian, but Sophie is having a 30 minute lesson once a week with a friend from Church.

I have to admit, I love the start of the new school year! I love the fresh, new exercise books, the brand new pencils and pencil cases, the excitement of starting new books. I really enjoyed going around the shop buying all the equipment Sophie would need for her art class this year. I also love this time of year, when the weather's warm and sunny but not too hot, the apples are ripe on the trees and the leaves are beginning to turn golden. 

Here's to fresh starts, and a wonderful start to the new school year for all of you too!

Abide in Him!

Time for Reflection

Happy New Year! 

If you're anything like me then January 1st brings an opportunity to reflect on the past year and re-evaluate your priorities and goals and perhaps to set plans for the coming year. I've never been very good at keeping New Year's Resolutions, but I believe it is helpful to take a moment to reflect and to take stock at where you're at to make sure you're still on the path you want to be on and, just as importantly, that you're moving forward.

Have you read 'Holiness' by J.C. Ryle? It's an excellent book that, even though it was written over a century ago, still is very applicable to today. In fact it's often funny to read what he says about his culture and realise that not much has changed in all that time. Anyway, Bishop Ryle has much to say about growing in holiness, and here's a prayer we can use to reflect on how we're doing spiritually from year to year. I hope you find it useful...

Prayer for Growth

1) An increase in humility - that I would feel my own sinfulness and unworthiness more every year.

2) An increase in faith and love towards the Lord Jesus Christ - that I may find more in Christ to rest upon every year and rejoice more that I have such a Savious.

3) An increase in holiness of life and conversation - that I may get more dominion over sin, the world and the devil every year.

4) An increased spirituality of taste and mind - that I may take more interest in spiritual things every year.

5) An increase in charity - that I may be more full of love every year, love to Christians and to all people.

6) An increase in zeal and diligence in trying to do good to souls - that I may take a greater interest in the salvation of sinners every year.

Here's another helpful resource, from Ann Dunagan of Harvest Ministry, that helps us evaluate and plan strategically at the start of the new year.

Wishing you all a very joyful and fruitful 2012!