It’s only the first of December and Christmas for our family has been called. As in, we are postponing our Christmas celebrations until January. I realize this sounds absurd. How can one just postpone Christmas? Well, shockingly enough it isn’t our first time we’ve had to do this, and it very well may not be the last. Thankfully, we learned how to be very flexible with holiday scheduling during my hubby’s residency years. Someone has to be at the hospital to receive those Christmas party disasters, after all. Suffice it to say . . . sometimes, life happens. Even in December. And boy has life been happening over here this holiday season!
Thank goodness, it’s all GOOD life stuff we’ve got going on, just sudden and oh-so-speedy. As much as I’d love to, I can’t fill you in on all the details just yet, so stay tuned for a family update post in the New Year! And no, I am not having another baby 😆 . HA! I’m sending this post your way because I have to sign off blogging for the next month (along with reading, movies, sleep, and sanity). But I just couldn’t bring myself to log out before sending something along for your Homeschool Holiday season. So here are 12 Posts of Christmas Past. An excerpt of each is included below, so feel free to sample and select whatever excites! I hope a few of these ideas and resources will serve you during your family’s Merry Little Christmas!
Thank you dear friends and followers for being here on this Homeschool journey with us! We will be back in 2022! So, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
For the first post of Christmas . . .
Printable Christmas Coupons
The holidays can be hectic. But Homeschooling during the holidays? It can be nothing short of merry mayhem! There is so much for us Homeschool parents to compete with in December! Christmas movies, cookie baking, letters to Santa, decking the halls, and the never ending, incessant, maddening ring-ting-ting-a-ling-too of those jingle bells! I don’t want to rain on our kids’ Christmas spirit, but we still have three weeks of Homeschool before “winter break”! It was only the day after Thanksgiving that I realized that I was going to need some extra creative ideas to help our family remain focused in school amidst all the festive-frolic and Sugar Plum fairy-dust!
Today’s post is what I came up with to corral Christmas during the Homeschool day and manage that merry mayhem! I give you our collection of Christmas Coupons to help the Homeschool family navigate the holiday season . . . infusing plenty of festive fun but maintaining regular focus on learning.
For the second post of Christmas . . .
12 “Living Literature” Christmas Picture Books
Today’s post is a special Christmas edition of our Salt-of-the-Earth-Storytime: a giant “Living Literature” List to grow our children in sound wisdom and strong morals! In this post I proposed that we parents adopt a “carrots first, then cake” policy with our children, both in regards to the food we feed them and the books we read them. In other words, we can first ensure that our child is well-nourished (in mind, body, and spirit) before we ensure that he or she is well-entertained. Healthy before happy. When considering what book list to put together for this holiday season, I was convicted all over again in regards to this incredible calling we have as parents to grow our children in sound wisdom and strong morals. Even at Christmas. Or, perhaps even . . . especially at Christmas.
For the third post of Christmas . . .
Give your child the WORLD! Gift Guide
I have come as a Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. -John 12:46
Atlas(t) . . . a gift-guide for kiddie cartophiles (I had to look that up) like ours! Here is a list of our personal favorite gift ideas for map-loving munchkins with hearts for exploration! And I can’t think of a more fitting time to celebrate geography than in the season for celebrating the birth of the Savior who was born to redeem us from our sins “and also for the sins of the whole world!” -1st John 2:2
For the fourth post of Christmas . . .
12 Unforgettable Christmas Chapter Books
There are few things I enjoy more than cozying up with our kids to read a good book. I love the light in our son’s eyes as the story unfolds—the frenzy of ideas and inspiration he’s struck with whenever he discovers a previously foreign concept. I love the joy on our daughter’s face when she holds a book up to me, her eyes bright and rosy cheeks shining, as she asks sweetly “peez, read to me?” And nothing is quite as incredible as watching her eyes work over the pages as the words reach her ears—her mind expanding before our very eyes. But Christmastime reading is extra special. Something about a fire, Christmas tree, cup of hot cocoa, wool socks, a fresh blanket of snow outside . . . it’s pure read-aloud magic.
For the fifth post of Christmas . . .
The Skill-Filled Stocking
Stockings these days are most often filled with your two basic types of stuffers: sugar and plastic. In other words, we basically stuff our kids Christmas socks every year with bright and shiny . . . junk. And the worst part is that it’s all that little junk. You know the kind of kid crap that ends up . . . everywhere. These cheap choices may make the kids happy for perhaps a few days (but more likely for just a few hours) and the dollar-section allows us parents to check off the “stockings box” on our Christmas list for very little time and effort. In the end, however, we are left with an empty, bereft, purposeless sock and the debris of instant gratification it delivered.
We may have stuffed it to the brim . . . but we were only focused on filling that sock rather than fulfilling a more worthy purpose for our kids. And not to be a heel or anything, but darn it, socks should serve a purpose! After all, socks were made to warm, to protect, to soothe the sole, and to accompany us on long, fulfilling journeys.
My friends, I’m thinking it’s time to cut the crap. With a little bit more intention and creativity, we can transform the potential of the Christmas stocking . . . if only to make it simpler again.
For the sixth post of Christmas . . .
12 Holiday Homeschool Hacks; Welcoming Christmas into your Curriculum!
Does anyone else have their own personal little BUDDY-THE-ELF boarding at their house these days?
Our own Kindergarten BUDDY is extra-super-festive this year. Maybe it’s because it’s his first white Christmas, or because he has his very own Christmas tree since we were permitted to chop down FOUR of them (all for a whopping two dollars and fifty cents . . . wow, I do not miss living in the city), or because he now recalls just how magical Christmas morning really is. But whatever the reason, our son’s Christmas cheer has made Holiday Homeschooling very interesting . . . to say the least.
For the seventh post of Christmas . . .
Family Favorite Christ-Centered Christmas Traditions
May Santa reward you for being GOOD . . .
May you enjoy good food and COMFORT . . .
May YOUR Christmas be magical because YOU DESERVE IT!
May all your Christmas wishes come true . . .
It’s almost impossible to escape the onslaught of the “Me-Centered-Christmas”! Let’s steep our traditions in the true meaning of Christmas so our children will not mistake WHO is the real center of the season.
For the eighth post of Christmas . . .
Two Printable Stocking Stuffer Freebies
Transport yourself back to the Christmas mornings of your childhood. Remember waking up to see your stocking full to bursting on the mantle over the fire? You rushed to snatch it down, and then bright and shiny loot just started spilling out onto the floor before you even got your hand in there to start pulling stuff out! A Christmas Cornucopia! I was always amazed at how much my mom was able to cram into that one stocking. It was like a darned magic-compartment sock or something . . . spewing out mittens and candy and toys from who knows where! But then, all too soon I found it . . . the toe of my sock.
For the ninth post of Christmas . . .
Visions of Sugarplums Christmas Candy Tutorial
We’ve been looking forward to our Christmas Candy Workshop ever since we polished off all the Trick-or-Treat Spooky Sweets we made at Halloween! Today’s recipes are short, sweet, and super simple . . . very unlike the early days of our confectioners’ journey.
For the tenth post of Christmas . . .
Rich and Creamy Vegan Hot Cocoa
Whatever you are doing this week . . . whether Homeschooling, Skill Schooling, or just Holly-Jolly Happy-Holidaying, this VEGAN hot chocolate will make it even better.
For the eleventh post of Christmas . . .
12 Helpful Holiday Tasks to UNSPOIL our Kids this Christmas!
For all the parents out there right now with a kid who wants a Hippopotamus for Christmas (or a rowing machine like my own precious sugarplum), I humbly offer this solution for unspoiling our children and cultivating character this Christmas week.
For the twelfth post of Christmas . . .
Frosted Vegan Nutmeg Nog
Today’s Egg-less Nog has been a pampered project of mine for the past several Christmases. Even though I LOVE Egg Nog, I’ve always found the whole raw egg thing pretty disgusting . . . even before the terms “vegan” or “plant-based” meant anything to me. Don’t get me wrong . . . I still drank it for years! I just had to shove the whole icky-factor far out of my mind whenever I slogged some nog. Fast forward to about ten Christmases ago (when my hubby and I were only two months into our “plant-based journey”) and we just decided to go without Egg Nog that holiday season as well as for the following three years. It wasn’t until about six or seven Christmases back that I finally got it into my noggin to get . . . nogging and make my own Egg-less Nog! Honestly, how hard could it be?
May your days be merry and bright!
Love, ~Our Holistic Homeschool~
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