Planning for the Holidays

I just wanted to write a few things down to organize my thoughts and to get a few links out there just in case it will help someone else.

Thanksgiving

Next week for Thanksgiving, I am thankful that MFW has a special week planned for us. We will read The Thanksgiving Story and our science will focus on pumpkins.

In addition, Senior will be reading Thanksgiving on Thursday and the non-fiction companion. I may also use some of the resources on The First Thanksgiving from Scholastic (we "attended" the virtual field trip this week and really enjoyed it).


For Gator-Tot, we will be using a combination of several great resources from the web. I am so thankful for all the wonderful women that take their time to put together such wonderful printables- they are such a blessing to our family!!

* 1+1+1=1- Thanksgiving Preschool Pack
* 2 Teaching Mommies-Turkey, Pilgrims & Indians, Thanksgiving Tot Book
* Musings of Me- Thanksgiving Printables. Check out the entire blog- she has many more great Thanksgiving resources ;-)

Christmas

Senior

I have been slightly stressed over the fact that I am stepping away from the guidance of My Father's World for the month of December. I want to spend the Advent season focused on our Savior. I can't believe all of the wonderful unit studies that are available on the web. I have finally decided to go with A Christmas Unit Study from Amanda Bennett. We have used one of her "Download N Go" units before and really enjoyed it.

That will be the core of our curriculum for the month of December (for at least the first two weeks we will continue Math U See, All About Spelling, and First Language Lessons).

I have also found several free unit studies from Easy Fun School. They have one on The Names of Jesus and The Symbols of Christmas. We are already studying the Names of Jesus this year, but I would love to use some of The Symbols of Christmas along with this great lapbook on Christmas Symbols from 1+1+1=1.

The books...oh the Christmas books....


Between several Scholastic Book Club purchases and FILLING my library account we have just a few books waiting for us, ha!

Here are the choices for Read Alouds. I think The Little House Christmas is a great choice because we are reading the Little House books with Adventures. I got both volumes :-)


Here are a few of the selections for Senior's reading books. These are the ones that he will read independently and write book reports/setting maps/ or character studies on.

I have also picked out a few fun books for Senior to read.

Gator-Tot

Totally Tots made this one really easy for me! They have listed all of the Mommy Made CHRISTmas Printables. I will probably add more as I find them.

Family

We are going to be doing a Jesse Tree this year. I have printed ornaments and daily lessons from here. We will be reading from this book each night for devotional.
Take a look at Confessions of a Homeschooler's Jesse Tree post last year.

We are also going to have "A Family Fun Advent Calender". I am basically stealing this awesome idea right from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I am even using the same printable ornaments ;-) I am changing up a few of the activities for our boys. Here is what I am thinking as of now....

1. Make a Christmas Star Paper Chain
2. Decorate the tree and house
3. Go to the Nutcracker Ballet
4. Make and send Christmas cards
5. Light a fire, have hot cocoa with marshmallows
6. Make Hand print Snowman Ornaments
7. Go shopping for brother gifts
8. Read Polar Express and make Paper Rudolf Cup
9. Make a Christmas craft
10. Have an indoor picnic
11. Make a Gingerbread House
12. Family Game Night
13. Make Sugar Cone Christmas Trees
14. Watch Polar Express
15. Decorate a tree outside for birds
16. Dress fancy for dinner tonight
17. Go to our church Christmas Program
18. The Minivan Express
19. Surprise a neighbor with an act of kindness
20. Listen to Christmas music by the fire
21. Wrap Christmas Presents
22. Bake something yummy
23. Watch a Christmas movie with popcorn
24. Make a birthday cake for Jesus and Freshman. Make sure to read The Night Before Christmas.
25. Merry Christmas! Happy Birthday Jesus! Happy Birthday Freshman!

I hope all of this rambling helps someone out there. Thank you to all of the ladies that have offered up these great ideas! Whew, now that I have it all written down, maybe I can relax?? Nope, probably not.