The bigger they are...

the harder they fall, right? That is how I feel about my most recent experiment. I undertook a seemingly simple project of creating and decorating 24 paper trees, one for each day until Christmas. The whole thing almost fell flat because it has been so time consuming that my children lost interest and here I am finishing it up alone.

I really do enjoy crafting and look forward to using the finished project to celebrate the Christmas season with the kiddos. But I certainly won’t attempt such a project until the boys have a greater attention span to help me out.

I'll place their six trees and my eighteen trees on the mantle and then place a treat and scripture reading under each. The last step is to attach a number to each, one for each day of December 1-24.

Our First Advent Calendar

In a previous post I shared our plans for a simple home made Advent calendar. Each day the kids open the calendar to find out what activity we have planned and to read the next segment of the Christmas story from Luke. Here are some of the activities and scripture verses that we will enjoy in December:

Christmas movie night with popcorn and hot cocoa
Decorate the Christmas tree
Bake cookies and listen to Christmas music
Visit Santa Clause
See the Nutcracker
Make Christmas cards for neighbors and family
Make Snowman Soup for Cub Scout friends
Attend Cub Scout Christmas party
Make Christmas gifts- bath bombs for friends
Personally deliver or mail cards to neighbors and family
Build a Ginger bread house
Christmas shopping for Papa
Take a drive to see the decorated houses
Deliver cookies and cards to the community fire station
Celebrate Las Posadas
Make pine cone bird feeders
Roast marshmallows in the fire place and have a slumber party by the tree
PJ Night...everyone gets new ones on Christmas Eve

I took the Christmas story from this website and divided it into 24 segments. Each day we'll read the new one in addition to all of those that came before, so by Christmas Day we'll be able to read the whole story through.

December 1
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."

December 19
When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.

Back to school-- again!

After a week of vacation and then a week of caring for sick children, we are back to school. Both boys were excited to pull out their books and learn more. What a blessing!

I have a light school schedule planned for the Christmas season, with reading and math every day along with just one or two other subjects and lots of field trips and holiday activities.

My six year old son, we often call him "Turtle", is taking a break from My Father's World 1st grade. It has taught him all of the basics of reading but he needs more practice, so we are switching to Delightful Reading by Simply Charlotte Mason. It meets his needs perfectly-- he knows most of the words very well but it helps him apply some of the new concepts from MFW 1st (like -ight and -tion words).

We also got an excellent deal on La Clase Divertida Levels 2 and 3. We are almost finished with level 1 now and the kids just L-O-V-E it! It is one of two subjects that I never need to fuss/cajole/threaten them to work on. Even my one year old has learned a lot of Spanish by watching most episodes with his big brothers.

The other subject my oldest son can not get enough of is history. We use The Story of the World, Volume 1: Ancient Times. We started with the text book and eventually purchased the MP3 version as well. I read him the chapter once and then he listens to current and past chapters as he likes, learning more each time. Next year we will use My Father's World 2nd grade which includes American History, so The Story of the World will be for fun reading, whenever he wants to pull out his CDs and activity book.

Plan B-- homeschool supplements

We have chosen a wonderful homeschool curriculum and a few extra subjects which the kids love. But today has been one of those days and I was too sick to pull out the usual school materials. On days like today we use our supplemental books. The boys can look at the pages and figure out how to do it on their own. They get in some fun learning time and I can work on my own problem areas (health, house work, a fussy baby, etc.)

Kumon Math-- We finished the Telling Time book and have moved on to Counting Coins. The workbooks go really slow which is a great way to build a child's confidence. We often skip pages to avoid boredom and by the time my dear son has finish one of these workbooks he is very familiar with the material and ready to use it in every day life. This isn't a good primary curriculum because it takes several weeks to finish a workbook and the books only cover a single topic rather than a variety of math skills like our regular math book.

Usborne sticker books-- I picked up a couple of these on sale at a curriculum fair back in the summer. Today my oldest son chose the one about soldiers and learned a little history along with practice placing the small stickers carefully on the page.

Explode the Code-- This can be a stand alone reading curriculum but we use it to reinforce skills already learned in our regular book.

This adds up to about an hour of school that he would not have had today when I am too sick to talk (but obviously not too sick to type!)

Ready or not, here come the holidays!

Piles of leaves litter the ground, inviting small feet to kick and jump; moms are discussing their holiday menu ideas; and while it is too soon to decorate the house with snowmen and reindeer, it is the perfect time to prepare for the celebration of Christ's birth.

I have been exhausted during the holidays for the last several years, living in survival mode through pregnancies and while caring for by beautiful baby boys. Holiday celebrations have been low on the priority list for long enough. This year I would really like to take time to share the beauty of the Christmas season with my children and if we are to start soon after Thanksgiving, I need to get ready now.

I found this home made advent calendar idea at "ikat bag" and decided it is so simple, there is no excuse not to make it! The boys can help me decorate the little trees and then I will fill each tree with a treat, the daily Jesse Tree scripture reference, and a fun winter or holiday activity. Here is a template which helps make perfect cone trees. I enlarged the template to take up most of a sheet of paper so we get two cones per page.

Some moms from our homeschool co-op are going to come over to share craft supplies and creative vibes. Hopefully by December 1 we will each have our advent calendars ready to go!