December Homeschool

 We have had a great month of homeschooling. I always love December because there are so many magical things going on, but this year we did a better job of keeping our regular rhythm which helped us all enjoy the season even a little bit more. 

Austin and Caleb are both doing so well and I've loved doing homeschool with both of them this year. I am typically able to homeschool them both at the same time, just moving back and forth between them. We do science together, but they are both in their own levels of math and LA. Even so, it's been a good thing to have them both doing full homeschool this year. I've loved it. 

Lydia is doing much more independent work, but I still help and guide her as needed. She has a lot more going on (coops, sewing class, art class, etc...) but here are a few things she's been working on this month. (In addition to making almost every person that she knows a custom, hand-made Christmas present.) 

Sewing matching Christmas pajama pants for her and Lucy. 

Her final project for her art class: Rugby (her "best friend") 

Making a gingerbread house from scratch (including melted hard-candy stained glass window). 


Lydia's Gingerbread house inspired all the kids to want to make gingerbread houses. I was helping Cal and Sue go through their storage room and they had a bunch of expired food, so we brought it home and used hot glue to create out own gingerbread houses. (It made me laugh, and it certainly wasn't the most glamourous gingerbread village ever, but it was a good use of expired food and the kids had a lot of fun with it.) 




We had a "Christmas around the World" homeschool celebration. Everyone brought something to teach and to share about a Christmas/winter holidays around the world. We ate yummy food. Did some Christmas traditional dances, played with candles in the dark, and enjoyed a fun Christmas celebration.  
(See Matt and Brooklyn here? They were in town for Christmas and we loved having them join us!) 

We always love going to the Christkindlemarkt. Songs, Food, Festive Gnomes. What more could you ask for? 






Jenna invited us to come to a movie in perry with her and we did without knowing much about it. It was Rise of the Guardians and it has turned into one of our favorite holiday movies! So darling and we loved seeing it at the theater with the Haderlies. 

This winter has been especially fun because of how much we've been able to get out into the mountains. We joined a Nature Group that meets on Wednesdays and we've started going with them to some fun spots. The snow has been incredible and it's been a winter adventure wonderland. 
All of these pictures were at the Roadhouse Picnic Area close to Tibble Fork. We loved it so much that we had to go back! 

First adventure:

And then Part 2. It felt so magical! 






We've had a great homeschool month and are looking forward to Christmas Break! 

December Wrap-Up

Just a few other things from this month that need a place to live here on the blog:  

Aunt Amy babysitting our kids while David and I were on a date. She's the best.

Lucy has been asking me to draw stick figure pictures during sacrament meeting. Her favorites tend to be me and her and Lydia or Aunt Jenna, Camille, Sadie, Molly, and Lucy. 

Caleb fell asleep drawing the other night and when we came in he was half off the bed with a pile of papers and markers around him. It made us smile. 

Lydia and one of her friends figured out how to use our magic track pieces to create a costume for Caleb. 


We went ice skating with the Youngs and the Wardells and we had a great time. Ice skating is one of the things that Austin most wanted to do over the Christmas break and I'm glad that it worked out. I'm grateful for good friends to do fun things with.