December is such a fun month for homeschool, we like to change things up a little bit and do some Christmas-themed things. This year I didn't use a specific themed curriculum like I have in the past - but we added in some fun projects like writing a Christmas story with illustrations, painting the Nativity story on canvases, making snow-slime, playing in the snow, and a handful of other special things.
One of the kids favorites was making nativities out of different items. Pictured below is a Nativity made out of rocks (left) and a nativity made out of chocolate chip pancakes (right).
Not pictured is Lydia's "Christmas School". Each day she would gather a few snacks and call the kids to "school" in her closet where they would sit with a stuffed animal on their lap while she taught them. It was darling and they all loved it. They are such great siblings.
We also were able to squeeze in a handful of fun field trips! (This year has been SO full of field trips, in part, I think we are making up for lost time last year during Covid. Whatever it is, it's been fabulous because I love having that piece of our homeschool.)
Christkindlemarkt (German Christmas Market)
The kids saved up money so they could buy something at this market, which is both good for financial skill foundational learning and is also hard because things are expensive and there were tears. It all worked out though and Lydia came home with a hand-blown glass ornament and Austin came home with a bag of candied popcorn. There were Christmas stories and people dressed up and gnomes who would come serenade you with music. And we can't forget the fresh donuts.
Christmas Around the World @ BYU
Brooke arranged for us to be able to get tickets to a daytime performance of Christmas Around the World with the BYU Folk Dancing Team. It was a fun production and neat to learn about some different traditions and to see some fun dancing. We adapted the Scandinavian tradition of lighting four candles in advent (faith, hope, love, peace)
In a stroke of genuis, we told the kids that they could race to see who could get home, eat lunch, and clean their house the quickest. And that the winners would win, and everyone could eat a special snack and play some games. It worked like a charm and Brooke and I ended up with clean rooms and the kids played outside the rest of the afternoon after eating peppermint granola bars and drinking apple cider.
(A quick side note: for Science we wrapped up our electricity unit and the girls got to ride in a Tesla. They learned about how the battery is charged and how it is different than a regular car because of the different power source. Then they got to go for a ride! It was a last minute addition to the lesson, but ended up being so fun for them. (Not Christmas School related, ha)
Snow Days
Sometimes the best part of homeschooling is being able to say "Snow Day!" It's cold all winter long, but it's rare enough to get a good dumping of snow that when it happens, it's so fun to be able to enjoy it. One morning we went sledding after finishing our regular homeschool and another morning we bagged school for the whole day and let the kids play in the front yards and build the neatest snow fort. As always, I love having a little sledding hill right in the backyard. It's perfect for some self-guided fun.
Snow Day 2
I had a meeting at the Church late at night. When I drove to the Stake Center at 8:30 it was warm and not a storm in sight. By 10:30 when I was leaving it was a full-blown blizzard outside. I wasn't sure that I would make it home safely. Thankfully I did - and then I proceeded to decide that we wouldn't go anywhere for the rest of the winter.
(Lucy found her swimming suit and insisted on wearing it. Ha.)
Lydia's Piano Recital
Lydia has been doing so well with her Piano Lessons and was excited to have an in-person recital again this year. She learned the song "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and performed it beautifully for the crowd. Lydia takes lessons from the amazing Stephanie Lewis who told me when we started lessons with her that "I may not make your children turn into concert pianists, but I will help them LOVE to play the piano." That much has been true and I'm so grateful. Lydia's closest friends take lessons from her and so her Christmas recital ended up being extra fun. (Also, can I just say that I love that Lydia can take piano lessons at 10:30 on a Tuesday morning and can walk herself to lessons. It makes all the difference!)
Candlelight Christmas @ This is the Place
The Youngs invited us to go with them to the night-time celebration of Candlelight Christmas, a pioneer-centered Christmas Celebration at This is the Place park. I'm usually a pansy about going places in the cold after dark - but turns out my kids are getting bigger and it was more fun than disaster. We drank wassail and ate gingerbread cookies. We made candles out of beeswax (that we then used for our Scandinavian advent mentioned above, faith, hope, love, peace). We walked around to see all of the different things there were to see, storytelling, carolers, and crafts. We learned the Virginia Reel and danced it together and it was probably our favorite part of the whole night. We loved it so much!
We schooled for the first couple of weeks and are taking the rest of December off of school! Everyone is excited for the break!
Our little beeswax candle advent: Faith, Hope, Love, Peace.
