Homeschooling at Christmas Time

 

I love Christmas time, and get excited every year about all the fun school activities we can do during this season.  In the past we have done special advent activities every day leading up to Christmas day, but this year that just wasn't going to happen.    

Here are a few of the many activities my daughter will be working on through December.  Not all of these works will be available at all times.  We only have so many shelves for school work, so I will rotate them on a weekly basis.  

Fine Motor:  Perler beads sorted by color in a medicine container.  This is a fairly challenging activity for my 5 year old.  It requires a fair amount of fine motor control and concentration.  My thought was she could make an ornament, but we will see what she chooses.

Fine Motor:  Scissor practice is the theme this month, and what a perfect time.  Pre-folded snowflakes will be available for my daughter to use (both with lines to follow, and for her to design her own snowflakes.  We will also be cutting out trees.  This blogger is doing something similar.

Math:  Adding with red/green counters.  Here there are addition flash cards pre-sorted from easy to harder.  She uses the counters to determine the answer, then checks her work on the back.  She will also have paper and pencil to write out the problem with the correct answer.

Math:  I made this snowman activity for my daughter several years ago when she was learning to identify numbers.  I would place pom poms or buttons on the snowman's belly, and she would place the corresponding hat on the snowman's head.  Now, she will place a math equation on the snowman's belly, and the corresponding hat on his head.

Math:  She will need to use her do-a-dot/bingo dotter to cover the correct number as I call them out, similar to this, but we will be focusing on teens.

Language:  This activity has a nomenclature card with a Christmas themed word.  She will use cards with the word at the bottom until she gets more comfortable with this activity.  She will find the magnetic letters to spell the word, and then she will practice writing the word. 

Language:  My daughter will be practicing alphabetical order in a similar style to what this blogger is doing.  We will also be trying out crossword puzzles.  Homeschool Creations has some great kindergarten packs we have leftover from last year, we may use to supplement.

Books:  There are so many fun books we love to read this time of year.  Here are a few that we will be reading.

Llama Llama Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney

Humphrey's First Christmas by Carol Heyer

Bartholomew's Passage by Arnold Ytreeide

Who is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate

Cultural: We will be talking about how people celebrate Christmas in other parts of the world.  We will also be practicing how to say 'Merry Christmas' in different languages.

Spanish.....Feliz Navidad
Danish......Glaedelig
Italian.......Buone Fesle Natalizie
French......Joyeuz Noel
Dutch.......Vrolyk Kerstfeast
German.....Froelich Weihnacten
Polish........Boze Narodzenie
Turkish......Yeliniz Kitu Oslum

Resources:  Homeschool Share 

                   Falling Into First

                   Teach With Me

Practical Life:  She will need to scoop the bells with the spoon one at a time into the metal bowl, without making the bell jingle.

Play Dough:  She will need to roll out the cinnamon smelling dough, and use the letter cut-outs to make each vowel.  We will also make trees out of the green dough and decorate them with buttons similar to this.  

Sensorial:  She will need to trace the metal inset triangle onto the green paper.  Next, using an extra large push pin she will punch holes into the paper to cut out the triangle.  Finally, she will use the star stickers to decorate her triangle to make it look like a Christmas tree.

Felt:  I am not sure how I will increase the challenge of this activity.  I made this for my daughter when she was 2.  I cut out the felt pieces, and then placed them on a copier to get the copy of it.  She used the paper copy and either laid the felt pieces on top of the paper or beside it to replicate the picture.   

Felt:  Nativity.  We will read through parts of the Bible, and my daughter will act out the story with the felt pieces.

Sorting:  My daughter will sort the 10 pieces from smallest to largest and create a tree, then glue the pieces down.

Science:  Examining snowflakes and pine trees.  We will also be bending candy canes to learn about how molecules are affected by temperature.

Sewing:  Since my little one is very interested in learning to sew more substantial things, I created a little sewing project for her to complete in December.  I laid out green buttons of various sizes on some white material and traced them.  She will need to find a button that matches the circle outline and sew it on.  When it is complete she will have made a tree.  We will then sew up the sides of the material to make it into a pillow that she can then fill.

How do you make your homeschool work go along with the seasons and holidays?  Are you doing anything special with schoolwork this Christmas season?