Unschooling in December: What Typical Days Really Look Like

 I want you to think about how Decembers in the past have been.

You probably have some things that you'd like to do again, and some things that you really don't wanna repeat. Maybe you enjoy a lot of holiday activities, but you have this little dark cloud over your head thinking, oh man, we're gonna have to catch up later. Or, oh, couldn't I just squeeze in a little lesson planning?

Even though you know your kids are gonna fight it. and you're either gonna feel so depleted from forcing them to do things or yelling at them because it seems like such a little request. And no, I don't have hidden cameras in your [00:01:00] home. I've just been there.

And now my kids are all in their thirties, and it's even clearer to me how unnecessary all those struggles were. They didn't help my kids and it didn't help our connection, and I certainly didn't get to have the Decembers that I visualized. So that's what I want you to do. 

A Little Visualization

I want you to take the next 10 minutes to visualize what this could look like as a family who really embraces unschooling. Resist the urge to visualize the kids eagerly pulling curriculum off the shelves. '

That's not what we're going for. I can talk to you in another podcast about why that plan isn't that great. But let's just visualize unschooling in December.

Imagine a morning in December where you wake up and you have no feeling of dread. No school schedules, no academic checklist. no guilt fueled. We should do more holiday activities, just soft, warm blankets and everybody waking up when their bodies are ready.

Kids drift in one by one. Someone starts making an ornament out of Legos. Another curls up to read under the glow of the tree lights. Someone else wants to do some baking and suddenly you're talking measuring and fractions and which size pan will hold the volume, the temperature of the oven and preheating, and even family traditions.

It's all learning through baking and building without any major orchestration on your part. Just engaging with the kids on what interests them. No rushing, no pressure. Just a natural unschooling morning in December.

Later in the Day

So as the day moves on, learning is everywhere. Kids decorating cookies, there's symmetry and design and chemistry and creativity, rearranging ornaments on the tree, there's patterns and storytelling and cultural traditions. Crafting gifts like include reading directions. Fine motor skills, color mixing.

Watching the Weather Channel gives you geography and science and global awareness. Wrapping the presence, more geometry, problem solving and sequencing, and none of it feels like school. It just feels like living your life. This is unschooling secret. Learning leads through everything. December is no exception, one of the biggest gifts of unschooling is that you get more connection in your day.

Slow conversations, shared projects, snuggles on the couch with hot chocolate. Time to say yes to things that matter. This is the part that builds trust and safety and curiosity, the real foundations for learning. And I really want you to picture this clearly. No catching up, no recreating school. No performing for relatives who have opinions.

No, we should be learning more right now. Because the reality, and you know this, is that even if you set aside your lesson plans, learning doesn't stop in December. In fact, it often expands into areas that don't show up in a curriculum box like generosity or culture, creativity, even hospitality. Planning and problem solving, emotional regulation, family traditions, community involvement.

These are the things your kids are gonna remember. These are the things that shape who they become. These are what really matter. Now, imagine a week with a little margin in it, room to breathe, room to recover. Room to say, we're tired today. Let's stay home.

Rest isn't laziness.

Rest is the soil where curiosity can grow.

Without a rigid plan, kids naturally wander into their own interests. A spontaneous baking experiment or a craft explosion on the dining room table or a movie marathon that leads to deep conversations or a fascination with a country they heard about on a weather report. 

Maybe they're rewatching holiday favorite shows, and diving into character arcs or world building. Maybe they're researching various holiday traditions from around the world. Maybe you're doing that with them.

I have seasonal unschooling guides and the winter guide encourages noticing how seasonal shifts open, new curiosities, snow and light and temperature, nature cycles, and holidays, coziness and environmental changes. kids, always find an angle.

So you can really immerse yourself in the season. 

No difficult steps to add to your plate, but things you wanted to do with the kids, but maybe didn't have time because you were either cranking through those worksheets or feeling guilty about it now and time slipped away. What if you could skip all that? Because kids wonder thrives when you leave space for it.

On to the Busier Households

Okay, so now let's shift the scene because not every family has a quiet December, and truthfully, most of us have some days quiet, some days busy. Let's look at these busy days and see how unschooling friendly these are too. picture, this one kid. Grabs their theater bag and they're off to rehearsal lines, blocking teamwork, costume design, confidence another's in the backyard, practicing soccer kicks physics, persistence, strength, strategy.

Maybe you all head to the craft store to get some supplies for gingerbread houses or to see what's on sale. You could add to your yard decor. Maybe you grab some mad Libs for holidays and you stop by the mall to see the big displays. You make plans to check out the neighborhood lights and see who's gonna win the Christmas vacation award in your neighborhood, or maybe it's a homeschool group outing to the food pantry.

Kids sorting donations, understanding community needs, [00:07:00] talking about empathy and leadership and why service matters. And sometimes one activity sparks another, and that trip to the food pantry can lead to questions The kids will ask, could we do something every month to help people?

Suddenly you're brainstorming together, collecting socks or gloves or coats, creating comfort bags for homeless people, or holiday cards for seniors, or help at the Kitten Rescue House. Before you know it, you have one cause a month to explore and support,and that's social studies and civics. That's purpose and connection. So busy days can be filled with learning. They're unschooling in motion. So now imagine evening and you're settling in and maybe you do a quick walk around the neighborhood to see who added to their outside decorations. And then back home, everyone sinks into the couch and you light a candle or you turn on softer lights.

Maybe somebody flips through the Gratitude Guide for some prompts: 

• What was the best moment of today? 
• Who did you help or who helped you? 
• What surprised you today?
• What felt comforting?

 These quiet moments anchor your family. They help kids develop reflection and empathy and emotional awareness, all without forced journaling or schoolish pressure. So then as you wind down, maybe you flip through the holiday learning guide, not for lessons, but just as a reminder that baking today was math and science and culture.

And the decorating involved geometry and physics and patterns. The shopping trip was budgeting and reading and critical thinking. The crafting was art, literacy, design, and problem solving. The family connections involved, geography and communication and psychology. Everything you feared wasn't enough, was already happening in plain sight.

December doesn't hide learning. It reveals it If you know how to look and you're learning how to look,

so remember, some days are calm and cozy. Some days are busy and full, some days fall apart because somebody is sick or tired or overstimulated. Some days shift because of weather or inspiration or mood, but every day in an unschooling family is tuned into the actual humans who live there, not someone else's schedule, not someone else's expectations, not some abstract idea of what learning should look like.

This is the heart of unschooling: responsive, real life learning.
No matter this season.

So if today's conversation helped you picture a December that feels calmer and more connected, and a lot less pressure filled, and you'd love a little support that could make that your reality, I put everything you need in one place.

4 Fabulous Resources

My Holiday Unschooling bundle brings together.

Four fabulous resources to help you move through the holidays with ease without stressing about doing enough. You can get these individually, you can get all of them if you're in the membership group, or you can buy this discounted bundle.

• Holiday Learning
  It has the holiday learning guide for a clear, reassuring breakdown of all the subject areas that are weaving through typical holiday activities.
  
  
• Coping with Critics
  Perfect for quieting that "Are they learning?" worry. It has Coping with the Critics, Getting through the GetTogethers. It's brand new this year and I pulled it from my Creating Confidence Membership Group. This workbook helps you anticipate tricky family gatherings. Plan solutions and use practical scripts to stay calm and confident. It includes affirmation cards that you can keep in your pocket or on your phone.

• Seasonal Guide: Winter
  Then the seasonal guide, the seasonal end schooling guide for winter is 71 pages, and that's included in this bundle too. It's got awesome winter ideas, also broken down by familiar subjects so that you can see the learning everywhere. 12 weeks of journal pages after the fact recording sheets, memes and humor, and everything from an unschooling perspective.
  
  
• New Year's Workbook
  And then lastly, the New Year's workbook is your retro planner recorder of how the year went.
  You can look back on the progress and the growth. The moments that shaped your year. Month-by-month Journaling aligns beautifully with unschooling and becomes a keepsake that you'll wanna do every year.

So if you'd love December to feel lighter and more intentional. More aligned with the kids you have this bundle will support you every step of the way. So I'll put the link in the show notes. Thanks for listening to the podcast. Then let me know if it helped you picture December in a way that feels doable, filled with activities that fit your family.

Also, this is day one of my seven day free holiday [00:12:00] challenge, and if you'd like a week of quick reminders in your inbox, be sure to hop on my email list. I'll put the link for that too below. I have a lot of good ideas to help you with unschooling in December.

All you have to do is sign up and I'll be checking in with you daily for a week. So enjoy the kids happy unschooling, and we'll talk again soon.