Christmas School

This year I've decided to spend the month of December focusing almost completely on Christ's birth. This year in particular I feel the need to focus on what's truly important during this season. We've completed two days of "Christmas school" and so far it's been fabulous. Yesterday was one of those dream homeschooling days where the school day flew by, the kids were into everything and much was accomplished in a relaxed and fun atmosphere. Maybe every day is like this in your homeschool?? LOL

We are using an eclectic mix of resources for our Christmas study. I'm using "Celebrating the Savior" by Notgrass and the Christmas unit in Bob Jones Bible Truths 6 as a springboard for what we're learning. The Notgrass book includes writing assignments, some grammar, historical background on Christmas traditions, Christmas Carols and cultural information about how Christmas is celebrated in various countries. Also, I am reading aloud "The Christmas Mystery" by Jostein Gardner which has allowed us to easily add in some elements of geography since the story takes place in Europe. I plan on getting out our "Geography Songs" cd from Audio Memory and having them learn the locations of each country in Europe using the map with the songs (they already know the names, but not the exact locations). Anne has come up with the idea of her and Peter writing a Christmas story which they will read to our family on Christmas Eve. Both kids are very secretive about the plot and contents of their stories. I'm excited to see hear the final products! Once I add in a few hands-on projects, Christmas Mad Libs (for fun), a field trip or two, Astronomy and math, we have a full schedule. I've been pleased with the amount of review and new learning that I can easily include using these resources. Yesterday I gave Peter a review spelling quiz while we were working in the Notgrass book and he wasn't even aware of it. Yes, I can be very tricky!