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The beauty of homeschool is that when your best-laid plans don’t end up aligning with reality, you can still make it work. Enter one of my kids’ favorite traditions to save the day: Christmas family movie night!
Today was just one of those days. We didn’t have the time or energy to do our scheduled Advent calendar activity, but that doesn’t mean we called it a bust!
On Thursdays we usually go to the library. Also, our planned Advent activity had to do with a charity we signed up to contribute to through our church. However, a dear friend of mine (another homeschool mom, in fact!) was available to get together at a local park so we changed our schedule around a little bit in order to make it work.
Friendships Are an Important Part of Homeschool
The flexibility is one of my favorite parts of the Ron Paul Curriculum. Our kids were able to play outside on a beautiful day for four hours while we moms had a chance to talk. We can go to the library and catch up on our curriculum tomorrow, no problem.
It is so wonderful to see my children forging relationships with other children, and I hope these friendships last for years to come. They even had a “picnic” with their snacks, it was very sweet.
It is also good for me to have that time to talk to another adult, especially one who refreshes my soul the way that this friend does. She’s one of the reasons that I am still sane.
I sincerely hope that you have at least one friend like this! If you don’t, please reach out! Being a homeschool mom can feel isolating sometimes, but you are not alone. We’re out here!
How We Made it Work
Since it would have been a lot to try to do the charity activity today after we got home from the park, we opted for a low-key Christmas family movie night instead.
The animated Grinch movie from 2018 is on Netflix now ,and we didn’t get to see it last Christmas so that’s tonight’s pick. We still have a week before the charity deadline.
Movie Night Caramel Popcorn
We always have popcorn for our family movie nights and sometimes I make “caramel popcorn.” It’s super easy.
I start by making half of the sauce from my sweet-and-salty bark recipe. Melt one stick of butter and 1 cup of light brown sugar in a sauce-pan and boil while stirring, until the brown sugar and butter combine. Then I drizzle it onto some popped popcorn and salt to taste. Let it cool off for a few minutes after you drizzle the caramel because it is hot!