Our Christmas School Plans

Last week I shared about all of the books I wanted to read during December. As much as I want to focus on reading lots of good Christmas books, we will also be doing some other fun and simple activities.

First, as I thought about independent reading, I decided that each of my older children would read a different Christmas or Hanukkah book each school day during December.  We have a multitude of great picture books that will be easy for them to read in one day but still provide great reading practice. Over the course of each week, they will choose two that they really enjoy and write a paragraph reviewing the book and telling why they enjoyed it. They will also come up with one or two extra activities that could be used to supplement the books they are writing about (a recipe, a model, a research project, etc). My goal is to publish these on the blog.

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Music and Art Studies

For musical studies, we will be doing a hymn study of O Holy Night (coming soon to the blog) and enjoying a few fun activities to go along with other Christmas Carols from At Home: Where Life Happens. I love that her ideas are fun but simple to implement.  I know my children will love the marshmallow creations to go along with a couple of her song choices.

For art studies, we are going to choose one lesson from our ChalkPastel.com lessons each week. I’m really excited about Away in a Manger. We will also be making a few Christmas crafts and pictures to send to grandparents,aunts, and uncles that live far away. This time of year seems to lend itself to lots of creative activities.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com Resources

I have noticed that my children have been a bit lazy about their handwriting lately, and I wanted to get back to doing copywork to help address it. I found this great set of Christmas poem copywork at Schoolhouse Teachers. I am going to have them complete one poem each school day.  They also have many other resources, lessons, and videos in their Christmas Corner. If we have extra time, we may enjoy some of the videos or other activities that are included in that section.

Bible Resources

Bible study will be an important part of our December studies. We have really enjoyed using the Unwrapping the Greatest Gift advent study in the past. I also really like the free advent printables from Kim at Not Consumed. I am still praying about which study would benefit us as a family this season. I want to keep our focus on the Bible and not get into a system that becomes overwhelming.

This year we will continue with our normal math programs for my two older children (Math For A Living Education and A+ Math) in order to help make up some of the time we missed due to Hurricane Florence. However, my four-year-old will enjoy using pattern blocks and some fun, free Christmas math printables.

Our Goals

My goal is to be able to continue making academic progress while focusing our attention on Christmas. So many things keep us busy this time of year, and we want to minimize the stress of trying to ‘get it all done’ while still incorporating many fun holiday activities. I pray that this plan allows us to enjoy the holiday season, focus on Jesus, and have time for rest and family fun.  Speaking of rest and family fun, I will be sharing later this week about a December challenge that I have given to myself, and I would love to have you join the challenge. I plan to spend time each day focused on being still and being present. I will share my simple (and free) plan for spending time each day with God and my family.

What are you planning to do for school in December? Is it business as usual, or do you change it up for Christmas? I’d love to hear what resources you love to use.

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library, you will get a link and password to the library. We are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you updated on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

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