What do I wish every year for December?…to slow down and have more time to just enjoy the season!
More time for crafts, baking, painting, reading, and doing things we enjoy! Being tied to a curriculum, I feel like we don’t have time to enjoy all these other things I want to do.
I tried to think about what has been bringing us the most joy the past few months in our homeschool. 1) We have enjoyed lighting a candle every morning, wrapping up in blankets on the couch and reading. 2) We have loved calming activities and listening to music. Paint by number, diamond art, dot art, and puzzles. 3) We have loved adding more painting in, thanks to @andrea.nelson.art!
So those things are all my top priority this season and doing any holiday curriculums that have a “schedule,” or something we need to do daily, just doesn’t sound fun right now. With all four of my kids in the Nutcracker this year, and late nights at the theater, we need extra slow during the day as well!
Here is what we are planning for Christmas school this year!
Advent Read Aloud
We are starting a new tradition! This year we will be reading Jotham’s Journey by Arnold Ytreeide and will continue each year after with the next Advent storybooks in the series!
These books are divided into short chapters for each day of Advent and guides you on what advent candle to light each day while you read.
We will cozy up on the couch each morning, light the advent candle and read a short chapter.
This first story is about Jotham (a ten-year-old boy) who searches across Israel for his missing family. He has quite the adventure facing thieves and robbers, but also friendly wise men and shepherds, until at last he finds his way to his family and the newborn Savior born in Bethlehem. I’ve heard such great things about this book and think my kids will love it!
It will be exciting to continue the series in the following years, each relating to the nativity story through a child’s point of view.
Tabitha’s Travels, Bartholomew’s Passage, Ishtar’s Odyssey
I also purchased a new advent nativity candle holder to use with our study! We have one for our kitchen, but I wanted another for our living room where we read and that had short, wider candles. These are easier for the kids to help light and doesn’t make a melted mess. This one is so beautiful!
Unearthing Wonder- All Creation Waits
I have had this study from The Peaceful Press on my list for a few years and think it’s finally the perfect time for it!
For every other subject I usually plan based off my older kids, so I thought it would be nice to choose something geared toward the interests of my youngest, but something we would all enjoy too. He loves learning about animals right now so we will be reading about one per day from All Creation Waits by Gayle Boss.
This book offers 25 daily reflections, each revealing a different animal and the miraculous ways they adapt to the dark and cold of winter, meditating on the themes of waiting, survival, and hope.
You can read this book on its own without the guide Unearthing Wonder, but I really love the commentary included in the guide that correlates with each animal. There are hands-on activities and scripture provided for each animal as well. We will probably be skipping many of the activities but will be coloring one animal each day from the templates provided in the guide. I decided to string them together to hang in our schoolroom or you can make them into ornaments to hang on a tree.
We love the DK Anthology reference books (they are so beautiful!) and I just discovered they came out with a Christmas one recently! My kids love looking through these books all the time!
This book shares a wide selection of Christmas nature/animals and facts with beautiful photographs. Things like holly, mistletoe, evergreen trees, reindeer, donkeys, camels, and more!
I thought they could take turns picking a page to read about and then we would look for a painting to do on the topic. We will see if @andrea.nelson.art, @artforkidshub, or @rebelunicorncrafts has something we can create. If we only do a few, or only get to it here and there, that is totally fine. It is something extra and we can continue it in future years.
*Our favorite paints and watercolor books are in HERE!
And that’s it!! 😆 Very simple this year!
We will just be reading from these two books each day, leaving lots of extra time to do any crafts, puzzles, painting, etc. that we want or have time for.
While I read, my kids love to keep their hands busy so one of our favorite things from last year is an advent puzzle! Each day you get one small box and complete that section of the puzzle. This will be great for them to complete while I’m reading our Advent stories each morning.
Some other activities we love:
Reading
Each month my older kids are assigned a chapter book to read for literature. We have an independent reading time for 30 minutes every afternoon and that is usually when they read these. At the end of the month they complete a fun book report on it. For December they will be reading these books:
2nd grader- The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls: The King is Born by M.J. Thomas
4th grader- Tree Street Kids: Jack and the Red Giant by Amanda Cleary Eastep
6th grader- Winterfrost by Michelle Houts
6th grader (additional book for fun)- Let It Glow by Marissa Meyer
For all our favorite Christmas picture books and more chapter books, check them out HERE!
If you’re looking for a simple tradition to continue each year with your kids The 25 Days of Christ is a great one! Each day provides a daily devotional of the life of Jesus and coordinating ornament to add to your Christmas tree! My kids love pulling out the ornament each day!
Grab it at this link and use code LINDSAYSMITH for 20% off!
I hope this post was helpful in sharing some simple ideas of how we will be celebrating this holiday season. I can’t wait to slow down and have most of our days open to relax and enjoy all the fun Christmas activities we want to do. I pray you all have a peaceful and meaningful Christmas season together. These are the days we cherish the most!
– Lindsay
Be sure to follow along my Instagram as I share our daily life & lessons throughout December!
For all Christmas resources and curriculums we have used over the years, check out my latest post:
Also updated are my gift guides for kids!
