It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! Busiest??? Yes! But absolutely wonderful. This time of year our thoughts start to turn to coming inside, cozying up with family, and celebrating the holidays. Starting about mid-November every year, we press pause on many of our regular curriculums and start celebrating with Christmas school.
Christmas school still contains a lot of our regular elements, but in a different, festive manner. Each year our plan changes to include fun holiday books and projects I've discovered through the year. And revisiting some of our favorites.
*Morning Basket--
--Christmas Devotional--starting in December, we'll be laying aside our regular Bible curriculum and picking up Not Consumed's Uncovering Mercies at the Manger. We did the Easter study this past spring and it spurred on some beautiful conversation. So I'm excited to delve into this one. I purchased the teen level for all three of us to do together.
--Christmas Scripture Memory--We'll also be memorizing a passage from the Christmas story in Luke as our memory work for the holidays. We love the memory box system and memorizing part of the story allows us to keep Christmas in our hearts all year.
--Christmas Around the World book reading--I have several Christmas Around the World books that we'll be reading from during morning time. It's always great to learn about celebrations in other countries and spend some time praying for the people there.
*Read Alouds--
I have two read alouds that we'll be read from for sure and possibly a third. These are the same books I've included in our December celebrations for years and we continue to enjoy these timeless tales.
--A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
*Christmas Carol Study
--Hymn too (folks and hymns)-- I have a Christmas carol study in my Google drive that's sat there for years waiting to be used. I'm hoping to utilize it as a fun way to study music this year. We'll also continue our Charlotte Mason music study with seasonal selections in hymns and folk songs.
*Christmas Musical Study
Also as part of our music study, we're going to be lightly touching on 2-3 musicals over the holidays, talking about different styles of music and how to incorporate them into productions. I'm going to be using Music in Our Homeschool's Mini Christmas Musical unit and studying Elf the Musical, White Christmas, and possibly A Christmas Carol.
*Language Arts--
--A Christmas Carol-- We've been working hard on our regular curriculum so we're taking a short break in December to read A Christmas Carol and complete a unit study on this classic. This book is the perfect way to introduce Charles Dickens. Dickens' work is a lot to tackle and starting with this one gives my kids a chance to wrap their brains around his style with a lighter topic than some of his other works.
*Handicrafts--
--Teacher Ornament Project--every year the kids pick out a homemade ornament project from pinterest. They create a handful for their teacher and directors from trampoline, choir, etc. These are usually simple, inexpensive projects, but take a little time and show care for those that are investing their time into the kids. A little way of saying thank you!
--Dot snowflake ornaments--if time allows, I found some cute snowflake ornaments for us to create together as we listen to our composer, read alouds, or during family movie night.
Do you celebrate with Christmas schooling?
What resources are you checking out this year?
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