Sometimes when guests grace our doorways around Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, we also find ourselves receiving unwanted holiday visitors like stress, exhaustion and disorganization.
With the shopping, gift-wrapping, decorating, extra cooking, family obligations, and special holiday events, it can be hard to keep a healthy balance.
Then, when our children get overstimulated, it adds to the holiday stress. With plenty of excitement, access to sugary foods, and regular schedules going out the window, less than desirable behaviors may surface.
Add in homeschooling for one or more kids and you wonder where the “joyful season” went!
Why not give yourself some early Christmas gifts this season:
1) Plan to simplify and budget gift-giving
2) Take care of yourself by getting enough sleep!
3) Curb excessive eating or drinking
4) Say “no” to invitations when you feel overextended and try to maintain regular schedules
5) Use behavior and chore charts. They can lessen your burden and help kids stay on track. Want to know how?
Incentive Charts Ease Holiday Stress
There is no escaping the fact that you will have extra holiday obligations on top of regular family chores.
Well, don’t forget to put the kids to work! Have a conversation with your children and explain why you need extra help at this special time of the year. You can even make it fun for everyone!
This will also be useful in teaching your kids time management and helping them to appreciate it more when people go to extra effort to plan special events they’re involved in.
Most of us have memories of daily chore lists. You may already be using them, but specially designed chore charts can put a fresh face on the effort.
Latitudes.org has suggestions for age-appropriate chores to consider. Use colorful holiday stickers to mark progress or let your child decorate the sheets. Just pick one or more free chore charts, download, print, and go!
You can adapt tasks to focus on the holidays, like helping with decorating, making name tags for packages, or gift-wrapping.
Be sure to set any perfectionism aside! It doesn’t matter if the tape is exactly straight on a wrapped gift if you’ve made special memories wrapping gifts together as a family.
These holiday tasks will be fun to mix in with the regular chores.
Be sure most of the chore items are easily completed so children get a sense of satisfaction without too much effort.
Children enjoy a pat on the back for tasks that they are routinely doing as much as you do! Then add in one or two special extra chores that will make your life easier.
Rewards or incentives don’t have to be expensive. In fact, they don’t have to cost anything. The goal is to make it motivating to the child.
Charts Can Make a Difference for Your Kids’ Behavior
Sometimes an incentive chart is just what is needed to keep things running smoothly at home. You can easily adapt one to fit your needs.
Whether you want to focus on sticking to routines, eating healthy foods, listening to advice, taking vitamins, or being gentle with the new baby, you can finetune the chart to fit your needs.
What Do You Wish Was Done Differently Last Year?
Make a list of some things about last year’s Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays that may not have gone exactly the way you wanted them to and take practical steps to make the days go more smoothly.
For instance, if kids got antsy because the Thanksgiving meal was a bit late, write down some dishes that you can prep the day before—or even days before and freeze—to keep waiting time down to minimum.
Or if the Christmas season brought you unexpected drop-in guests last year when you hadn’t gone grocery shopping for the week yet and you didn’t have anything to serve them, keep some appetizers in the freezer just in case.
With just a little bit of forward thinking, you can make this the least stressful holiday season yet!
Check out more great resources at HomeEducator.com!
Sometimes when guests grace our doorways around Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, we also find ourselves receiving unwanted holiday visitors like stress, exhaustion and disorganization.
With the shopping, gift-wrapping, decorating, extra cooking, family obligations, and special holiday events, it can be hard to keep a healthy balance.
Then, when our children get overstimulated, it adds to the holiday stress. With plenty of excitement, access to sugary foods, and regular schedules going out the window, less than desirable behaviors may surface.
Add in homeschooling for one or more kids and you wonder where the “joyful season” went!
Why not give yourself some early Christmas gifts this season:
1) Plan to simplify and budget gift-giving
2) Take care of yourself by getting enough sleep!
3) Curb excessive eating or drinking
4) Say “no” to invitations when you feel overextended and try to maintain regular schedules
5) Use behavior and chore charts. They can lessen your burden and help kids stay on track. Want to know how?
Incentive Charts Ease Holiday Stress
There is no escaping the fact that you will have extra holiday obligations on top of regular family chores.
Well, don’t forget to put the kids to work! Have a conversation with your children and explain why you need extra help at this special time of the year. You can even make it fun for everyone!
This will also be useful in teaching your kids time management and helping them to appreciate it more when people go to extra effort to plan special events they’re involved in.
Most of us have memories of daily chore lists. You may already be using them, but specially designed chore charts can put a fresh face on the effort.
Latitudes.org has suggestions for age-appropriate chores to consider. Use colorful holiday stickers to mark progress or let your child decorate the sheets. Just pick one or more free chore charts, download, print, and go!
You can adapt tasks to focus on the holidays, like helping with decorating, making name tags for packages, or gift-wrapping.
Be sure to set any perfectionism aside! It doesn’t matter if the tape is exactly straight on a wrapped gift if you’ve made special memories wrapping gifts together as a family.
These holiday tasks will be fun to mix in with the regular chores.
Be sure most of the chore items are easily completed so children get a sense of satisfaction without too much effort.
Children enjoy a pat on the back for tasks that they are routinely doing as much as you do! Then add in one or two special extra chores that will make your life easier.
Rewards or incentives don’t have to be expensive. In fact, they don’t have to cost anything. The goal is to make it motivating to the child.
Charts Can Make a Difference for Your Kids’ Behavior
Sometimes an incentive chart is just what is needed to keep things running smoothly at home. You can easily adapt one to fit your needs.
Whether you want to focus on sticking to routines, eating healthy foods, listening to advice, taking vitamins, or being gentle with the new baby, you can finetune the chart to fit your needs.
What Do You Wish Was Done Differently Last Year?
Make a list of some things about last year’s Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays that may not have gone exactly the way you wanted them to and take practical steps to make the days go more smoothly.
For instance, if kids got antsy because the Thanksgiving meal was a bit late, write down some dishes that you can prep the day before—or even days before and freeze—to keep waiting time down to minimum.
Or if the Christmas season brought you unexpected drop-in guests last year when you hadn’t gone grocery shopping for the week yet and you didn’t have anything to serve them, keep some appetizers in the freezer just in case.
With just a little bit of forward thinking, you can make this the least stressful holiday season yet!
Check out more great resources at HomeEducator.com!
