Hi ,

The winter solstice was the other day, Christmas is tomorrow and Kwanzaa starts the day after, and Hanukkah ended a couple days ago, too. Whatever holidays you celebrate, this time of year can be hectic, overwhelming, exciting, super fun, and tempers can fray, too.

Sometimes, I find it best to just take a day off. Especially at this time of year, my kids aren't always able to focus on studies. We're not always emotionally resilient enough to play competitive games. What's the solution?

Ditching formal academics or competitive games for FUN and COOPERATION. My family loves our cooperative games (especially with two kids just entering puberty and me into perimenopause!), and we turn to them over and over again. However, we don't just grab any old cooperative game. We ask ourselves: "What are we up for today?" Can we handle one of our harder cooperative games? Are we going to be frustrated by a game that we've only won when we cheated? Do we need an easier cooperative game to gently exercise our minds and reconnect as a family?

Other days, we pile on my big bed and have a movie marathon. Especially this time of year, with so many favorite movies that we ONLY watch this time of year, movie days are really fun, relaxing, and help bring us closer together.

At the end of the day, the most important thing is our mental and emotional health. The academics will always be there, and honestly, most days I wouldn't be upset if my kids stayed with us an extra few years. This means we don't have to feel pressured to learn everything by 18. (Not to mention that that's not even possible!) My kids have time, and so do yours!

So don't be afraid to take a break, or even lots of breaks, or really long breaks.

Have you heard about the time we took two or three YEARS off?!? It was right at the beginning of the pandemic, our new neighbors sued us for a significant chunk of our land and were overall very stressful to live next to, and my kids were pretty little. I couldn't handle anything more than just surviving, so that's what we did. My kids played all day, every day. This helped their social and emotional development, and they actually came out of that time period better for the long break. When we started back up again, they quickly "caught up" with everything except writing.

So, if you're worried about taking a break, this is me encouraging and reassuring you that your kids will be okay. Until next time,

Happy Gaming!

~Ashley

Gypsy Gameschooler

Gameschooling on a Budget