2020 Christmas Schoolhouse

When I was looking at our upcoming school year this last spring and summer, I decided that I wanted to add some Christmas goodness to our school day in December. And I am SO glad we did!

I have heard of others doing all sorts of things. Some as simple as singing a Christmas song or reading a Christmas picture book together. Others I know take the entire month off of school to do ALL the Christmas things. I knew I didn’t want to take the entire month off but I did want to add a little more.

Discover Christmas

A couple years ago, I purchased this activity book called Discover Christmas. It is by Discover the Scriptures which is a great company and I used a lot of their resources before Come Follow Me came out {although their resources still would make a great supplement to Come Follow Me!}.

I love this program because I feel like it is ALL about focusing on the true meaning of Christmas. It is 100 pages long {we barely scratched the surface, but we will just pick up where we left off next year!} so there is plenty of options.

It is outlined like advent so there are 25 days of activities/lessons. My two favorite things about it were:

• we learned something in each lesson
• there was an activity {either craft or recipe or BOTH!} in each lesson

We only made it to Day 4! But we are in no rush and we loved what we did! We made a count down to Christmas paper chain, learned about where the tradition of the Christmas tree began {any guesses?}, made some rice krispy trees, learned when lights started to be added to trees at Christmas, and why people put ornaments on their trees.

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Nordic Christmas Box

Something completely unexpected was The Good and the Beautiful releasing a Nordic Christmas Box! This company is phenomenal. I can honestly say we have enjoyed everything we’ve used. So when they release something, I have a hard time saying “no” 😉!

This was the first time they have released anything like this and I was so thrilled. We have some “Nordic” heritage and I have always wanted to learn more about how other cultures celebrate Christmas and so this truly was the perfect addition for us.

I felt a little like a crazy person because the company has grown SO MUCH this year {which I am so excited for but it also means I have to be on top of things if I want to grab something!} and when it was released I must have refreshed my page a hundred times before I finally got it added to my cart! BUT we got one and I was so excited!

The box came with three different components. The first was a book called A Grandma for Christmas by Alta Halverson Seymour. This book is a treasure. It is only three chapters long {but is at a fifth grade-ish level} and was truly so sweet. None of us wanted it to end! I so wish they were selling this individually so more people could read it because it is truly a beautiful story.

If the story wasn’t enough – at the back of the book were LOTS of recipes {many of which are referenced in the story} and are traditional Norwegian recipes made at Christmastime. We had BIG plans to make as many as we could. We ended up only making one {BOO doctor’s appointments disrupting our plans} but we loved it nonetheless.

Oh and there are also some crafts in the back as well! So many fun things!

Then there was a stunning book called The Beauty of Norway. This book is a beautiful art book that is just incredible to look at. And if you ask Sarah about her future plans she says she is going to “settle in Norway” now. I love that she says “settle”! Sarah has asked more than once if we can go to Norway on our family trip this year! Probably not, sister! But this country is incredibly beautiful and it is definitely on our list of places we would love to visit and experience someday.

The book is filled with artwork of Norway but also contains some interesting information about the people, culture, and different geographical regions.

The last part that was included in our box was a booklet of Christmas notes. These were so darling and I had high hopes of using them, but we never got around to them. They have been nicely tucked away though and we will use them next year!

Schedule

As I said earlier, everyone has their own way of doing holidays with homeschooling. I didn’t want to pause all of our regular learning, and I also didn’t want to add more time to our day either.

Just for perspective, here is how our day begins. We always start with our “family” subjects. We just find it easier to begin together and then separate rather than trying to bring everyone back {especially when everyone is finishing things at different speeds}. So we begin our day with our study of Come Follow Me, then do our family theme/affirmations/calendar. After this we alternate between science and history. For science and history, I set a timer for an hour and we just get to what we get to. So some lessons get split between two days, some we finish in one, it just depends. These are the only subjects I do that for by the way!

So…I decided to add in our Christmas fun during our science/history time. I still set the timer for an hour, but we started with our Christmas fun and then when we were finished with that any left over time went to science/history. This means that we did a very few lessons in science and history for the month, but I am not worried in the least! We had so much fun and it was kind of great for some variety as well.

Final Thoughts

I would definitely recommend adding in some seasonal/holiday fun into your school days {especially if you are feeling like you are in a rut!}. It can be as easy or elaborate as you want it to be!

If you are looking for some more inspiration – check out these posts from last year:

• SQUILT Music – Christmas Carols: This is a great Christmas curriculum where you get to dive into the history of some of your favorite Christmas carols.
• Peaceful Preschool – Christmas: This is geared towards preschool aged children but there are LOADS of resources that are great for any young children {or I think a lot of big ones too!}.