I love everything about the holiday season from the hot cider and pumpkin pie to the warm fireplaces and cozy blankets! Thanksgiving and Christmas don’t have to be a reason to bring learning to a screeching halt, though. In fact, this time of year provides an opportunity to take advantage of the excitement and engage our children with games and activities that are not only fun – but can teach something wonderful about our history and the birth of our Savior, too!
Nature Study Through the Holidays: Advent: “Advent is a weekly focus on various parts of the Christmas story during the month leading up to Christmas. For each of these weeks, we have provided you with Scripture references, nature study activities and full-color notebooking pages. Through nature study, our hope is that you will grow closer to the Lord and His perfect gift, Jesus, this Christmas season.”
Kendra:
30 Days Of Thanks & Giving for the month of November: A free resource with crafts, games & educational resources for an entire 30 days as we give thanks during the month of November.
Thanksgiving Craft ideas: A collection of ideas & fun around the web.
New Year’s Eve Fun: & more New Year’s Eve Fun: A family tradition of keeping ourselves busy as we count our way down to the new year. So much fun that even Nana asks about it each year!
Fun Holidays Around The Year: An idea created as a way to keep in touch with my niece from afar one year. Resources for well known, & obscure holidays, year round complete with craft ideas, book choices, & a whole lot of links!
Christmas: Fun ideas & traditions to keep our focus on Jesus during that busy time of year when we can often lose sight of the reason we choose to celebrate His birth.
Christmas Advent Calendar How to make your own Advent Calendar stuffed with legos, jokes, & Bible readings for the month ahead. Includes links to free printables!
Edible Nativity: A fun tradition our family started when our children were very young. We’ve dubbed it the Nativity Box which is stuffed full f homemade cookies and sweets, each representing a part in the Nativity Story. Complete with Free printable. More info and recipes on our blog here: http://blog.
Free Christmas Lapbook: A lapbook that goes alongside the Amanda Bennet Christmas Unit Study, another lovely way to keep our focus on Jesus through the busy holiday season ahead.
Christmas: Free Names Of Jesus Garland, makes a beautiful Christmas decoration & gift.
Scented Homemade Ornaments, a tradition we’ve been doing for the past 12 years. Handprint ornaments make lovely gifts, or gift toppers & grandparents tend to make sure you’re planning to make them each year for them.
30 Fun ideas to fill an advent calendar with as you keep the focus on giving and loving through the holiday season.
Tricia:Thanksgiving Homeschool Celebration – A captive audience. That’s what you have in family and friends on Thanksgiving. Each year at this time we share what we call a unit celebration of our homeschool. Basically, we show off the best of our school work and projects while the side dishes are still warming in the oven. This four-year tradition is rooted in our Tapestry of Grace studies. But, we not only share what we have learned about history, our children also might
Three Gifts for Christmas – Since early in our parenting, we have given three gifts to each of our children, just as the wise men brought three gifts to Jesus. Still, I could get overwhelmed with all the gift lists, the “I wants”. That is until I read about two simple solutions. Guidelines we adopted to keep the focus on Christ and the bank account from going bust.
Do You Homeschool in December? What does Christmas look like at Hodgepodge? In our homeschool? I invite you to come and sit by the fire, enjoy a warm cup of coffee, hot chocolate or tea and put your feet up – for about five minutes. Just five minutes because in December things are changing moment to moment. Like most families, it’s so very busy. Time to head to this practice, get your dress shoes for this performance and, oh dear, another child with a fever. Precisely why…
A Simple Start in Christmas Chalk Pastels – our newest ebook full of art tutorials! With a bonus – FREE – Christmas wreath video tutorial.Jennifer:
Eating the Plates: A Pilgrim Book of Food and Manners – One of my favorite ways to teach is to take a book and put it into action. Last Thanksgiving our family read Eating The Plates: A Pilgrim Book of Food and Manners by Lucille Recht Penner. This book offers so many opportunities for learning…
Shirley:
A Christmas Adventure – Scripture Adventures Review – With inviting shelves tempting our children and the networks screening one fantasy Christmas movie after the next, I feel an overwhelming urge to counteract this consumer mentality with a purposeful and thought out Advent. I want and need Christ to be in this modern aged Christmas. Scripture Adventures has been an answer to this heartfelt desire. …
Shannon:
Christmas Lessons – It’s that “most wonderful time of the year” again! Many homeschool families take the entire month of December off while others continue on with their regular school routine. In years past we have taken a break from our regular studies – even the 3R’s – to focus on some type of Christmas unit. This year, however, because of some unexpected changes in our schedule, we will be sticking with our regular schooling until the week before Christmas.0
Whatever route you choose for your homeschool, there are many enjoyable opportunities for learning through the Christmas season. The following are some simple activities that have become cherished holiday traditions in our home….
Whatever route you choose for your homeschool, there are many enjoyable opportunities for learning through the Christmas season. The following are some simple activities that have become cherished holiday traditions in our home….
Heidi
Our Thankful Tree: I love working on this large visual reminder with my children of all we have to be thankful for… especially before the Christmas season when they can be tempted to make wish lists.
Counting Down the Days: We savor the season and count down the days until Christmas using an advent calendar filled not with gifts but with activities to do together. In this post I share some of the ways I fill the drawers with ideas for family memories.
Learning While Celebrating the Christmas Season: Even when we put aside our regular schoolwork the learning never stops!
StephanieJesse Tree Ornaments and Advent Unit Study Resource: I invite you this Advent to use these unit study ideas and suggestions centered around the Jesse Tree ornaments and devotion. It’s a favorite devotion of mine because it so well prepares our hearts and minds during the Advent season for the coming of our Lord. What better way for kids to learn about Salvation History and the genealogy of Jesus during Advent! More than just the Jesse Tree, it’s a one stop resource for Advent.
Annie Kate
Last Minute Gift Ideas: Here’s a round-up of last minute ideas and resources I put together a year ago. It includes ‘The Perfect Gift for Little Girls’, some freebies, and a some reviews of inspiring books about the holidays. Why this focus on getting the gifts out of the way? Because not stressing about the gifts means you will have more peace and time to focus on the true meaning of Christmas, our Lord Jesus.
Review Team Features
- Our Curriculum Choice Celebrate Winter Pinterest board
- Have you enjoyed this special post from our review authors? Our Curriculum Choice review team features a topic monthly. You can see all that our authors have shared on electives, math, curriculum choices and more under Review Team Features.
What are YOUR favorite resources for celebrating learning through the holidays?
Heather is married and blessed to be called “mom” by 3 awesome boys (and 2 German Shepherds). She blogs about homeschooling, her faith and their family (coffee mug in hand!) at http://www.onfaithandcoffee.com
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