When we lived in Illinois (i.e. near relatives), we often had Thanksgiving dinner at our house. I know it’s not a big deal—after all, someone has to do it—but when you have several children who do not leave the house to go to school each day, it’s not that simple. And if you prefer that pretty much everything be homemade, like I do, it becomes a project.

Women who work full-time can take personal time off to do the shopping and cooking before the relatives arrive, and even most stay-at-home moms send their kids off to school each day, so they can shop and cook in peace.

But those of us who homeschool have to accept that we can make Thanksgiving dinner, but it will take a fair amount of planning. One good thing about all of this is that we do have children to help us. The older they are, the more help they can be.

It looks like this year, there will be only six of us at our house for Thanksgiving dinner. My daughter and her boyfriend plan to come up our way, while our son and his wife (ten hours from here) will be with her folks, who live in the same city. I have to admit that I do miss the old days, crazy as it got sometimes, when all of our kids lived at home and I had a big family Thanksgiving to prepare.

Back when I was in the midst of the fray, lol, I set up a plan so I could manage all the work involved in getting ready for Thanksgiving. You’ll find the details in the feature article of this month’s “Imperfect Homeschooler” newsletter. It’s called “A Simple Homeschool Thanksgiving.”

(You’ll find the November issue here. Get your free subscription here.)