It's the most wonderful time of the year! As soon as the Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing gets digested, the Christmas lights and trees emerge. Red and green bedeck hallways and stores, Christmas carols fill the air, Starbucks carries its "Winter Warmup" beverage line – it's enough to make you want to… homeschool! Celebrating Christmas with homeschooling can be fun and is a great way to make memories.
Yes, during the month of December, there's no better place to be than in the house of a home educator! This month provides so many opportunities for creative, fun learning as families help children prepare for Christmas. Arts and crafts, special recipes, decorating, singing…it's worth taking a bit of a break from the academic rigor maintained through most of the year in order to enjoy some special Christmas-related activities as a family. To get the most out of the holiday, why not try a special study to prepare for Christmas? Christmas lapbooks, Advent devotionals, unit studies – the possibilities are endless!
Check out some of these wonderful options to celebrate Christmas while homeschooling in December:
- Oklahoma Homeschool offers a free 4-week long Christmas unit study by Cindy Downes. The study, intended for K-5+, includes book, website, and activity suggestions for the four weeks of December.
- Amanda Bennett's Christmas Unit Study comes on a CD-Rom for $12.49. It covers 20 days' worth of information and activities and features a variety of PDF pages and clickable internet links for additional research. Includes assignments for both upper and lower grades, covering subjects such as spelling and vocabulary, geography, history, language arts, social studies, and arts and crafts. More than 100 pages of material, with plenty of fun and educational activities.
- Homeschool in the Woods provides a free online Christmas lesson, with ideas and resources for incorporating the history of Christmas, geography and creative writing, reading, penmanship, math, music, art and drama, and community service. An excellent resource for those who want to put together their own Christmas unit study.
- HomeschoolHelperOnline lists instructions and resources for creating a Christmas Symbols Lapbook. Some of the symbols included are candy canes, Christmas tree, gingerbread, stars, wreaths, angels, and more.
- An Advent coloring book for young children can be found at DLTK's Growing Together. This free resource offers 24 coloring pages from scripture that tell the Christmas story. Each coloring page includes the related biblical passage.
- Check out The Jesse Tree: Christmas Traditions and Resources for Homeschoolers at TheHomeSchoolMom for lots of resources and ideas for making a Jesse tree! This wonderful tradition is not only a fun activity for kids but teaches them the events leading to the birth of Christ at Christmas.
- EasyFunSchool offers a free online unit study of 15 Christmas carols and hymns, by Karen Caroe, entitled Good Christian Men Rejoice. Includes such songs as Silent Night, The First Noel, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and more. Covers subjects such as history, art, English, art, crafts, vocabulary, science, music, and civics.
- Celebrate the Savior unit study by Charlene Notgrass. This 15-lesson study covers bible, history, geography, science, art, poetry, grammar, and music. For ages 7-12, the study teaches the history of Jesus' birth and life, as well as the traditions and legends of Christmas. Children get to complete a baby book for Jesus and a booklet about Christmas traditions around the world. $9.95.
Stay tuned for more Christmas study ideas in Part 2!
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