One of my (many) favorite things about homeschool is the freedom it gives us in December. We basically take the whole month off from our regular studies and just enjoy Christmas activities together! Sometimes the activities are spiritual and sometimes secular. They can be super educational, purely fun, and somewhere in between!
I'm sure we'll get up to all kinds of fun this month but here's the start of our plans.
Art projects... We typically make at least one homemade ornament, decoration, or other craft each year. This year we're making a dollhouse miniature scene and then adding our own touches to decorate it for Christmas!
Bedtime History's Christmas podcasts... We love this show anyway but we're especially enjoying the Christmas episodes this December!
Board games... Some are word games, some use counting or money, some require critical thinking, some teach facts, some show geography... And some are just fun 😉 a few favorites: Carcassone, Chess, Family Face-Off, Jumanji, Life, Monopoly, Outburst, Pay Day, Scattegories, Sorry, Ticket to Ride
Christmas cards and hand-written gifts (poems, stories, etc)
Christmas picture books
Cooking and baking, particularly special holiday favorites
Handwriting... This is not a requirement but some of my kids like to do a handwriting page during the read-aloud.
Inquisikids Christmas podcasts... These Christmas Around the World podcast episodes are short, fun, and informative.
Journaling... We enjoy journaling about particularly fun moments. They think they're just doing some writing for school but soneday they'll be thrilled to have a beautiful collection of joyful memories from their childhood.
Local activities and events
Math lessons... once a week to make sure they keep the recent concepts fresh in their minds.
Movies and discussions... Some Christmas movies have more to offer than others.
The Nutcracker- we're going to their first performance and they'll get to enjoy the dancing + live symphony music.
Read-aloud! This year's book is Winterfrost. They're enjoying listening while they color Jan Brett coloring sheets and the random Christmas coloring sheets we get at random places around town.
