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Christmas and Epiphany Resources for the Autistic Homeschooler



Around this time of year, sometimes a month or two earlier, one tends to run across resource lists or resource guides for celebrating holidays in a particular fashion. At least two of my neighbors had Christmas trees up a full month ago, and many others tossed carved or whole pumpkins to the curb starting in late September. I'm a more church-year kind of girl, and decided to use an older sense of "resource" for this post. There are zero specific product recommendations (at least those that require purchase). I hope you enjoy the ideas!

Cross-posted to my Substack.

Atmosphere of the Home

If you scan this post, you might notice that I took a line from Charlotte Mason in designing my headings. In our household, we've started home education before finding out we were autistic and also well before Child gets old enough to "attend" school. I'm also a second-generation homeschooler, with at least 2 family members likely on the spectrum, so I have some experiential credentials in the post's topic.

How is the Christmas and Epiphany atmosphere different (if at all) from the rest of the year, for us? Our house is almost always quiet, both from a visual and auditory perspective. That is, there is no gratuitous noise or impractical decoration. ("Practical" includes "having a concrete purpose" so the icons and crosses around our house serve to teach and remind, for example.) While I don't change liturgical decorations on the walls, I do wait to put up the Christmas tree until at earliest the day before the First Sunday of Advent. It will stay up until Epiphany or later.



We also shift the playlists on repeat (for Child to memorize and us to refresh our memories) to better match the church season, focusing on Anglican, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic hymns appearing in multiple hymnals--the best of the best, with the best available settings. From the Lutheran side, this means a lot of recordings from Higher Things conferences. Check them out--you won't be disappointed!

A final aspect of the visual atmosphere is the use of as much natural light as possible. In early winter, there isn't a lot of that coming from the sun, so I focus on incandescent bulbs in lamps with shades and the gas fireplace. Fluorescents aren't fun for anybody's eyes.

Disciplines and Habits

This season, from a family perspective, we've been adapting to Younger Child who won't quite be crawling age by Christmas (thankfully!) and the voracious literary and musical appetites of Older Child. Among other things, gentleness with objects that belong to someone else is an ongoing habit that we are training.

Having routines is a mainstay of habit training. One wintertime routine for the whole family is the short version of one of the Daily Offices from the 2019 Book of Common Prayer. This occurs at a shared mealtime, either lunch or dinner. Another routine, for the readers in the family, is use of the weekly and/or daily lectionaries. These sets of Scriptural texts are designed to fit fairly well with the church year.



Finally, to prepare my mind for the season, extending through Epiphany, I have been reading Athanasius' On the Incarnation. You can read or listen to it for free here. The paperback edition we have is the one including the introduction written by C. S. Lewis. If you're looking for a rationale for reading older books, start there.

Lifestyle of the Home

From a life/lifestyle perspective, not a lot changes over the course of the church year, but more so the calendar year. So, for winter aspects, we spend time outside in the snow and ice, and occasionally in blowing snowstorms if Elder Child insists upon it; baking and cooking together for repetitive hot dinners; and talking by the fireplace as both children play in the evenings.

During this season, the Bibliovore and I are both continuing our discussions on implementing the good advice found in The Benedict Option. The central question has been how we build community that will function as a small, truly Christian society. More to come in my forthcoming book . . .

What does this all mean for you if you're an autistic homeschooler, with or without autistic children? Embrace your underdeveloped limbic system and celebrate seasons with traditions, routines, and features that support your strengths and don't overstimulate for the purpose of blending in with neurotypical culture. Lean into libraries, both in your home, community, and online. Build a community to be a bucket against the flood of (liquid) modernity.

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