Christmas School 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! As you know, this is our second homeschool year and one of the things we liked most about homeschool last year was "Christmas School." Sophie and I have worked really hard on our first unit. She learned a lot, I taught a lot, and we both produced excellent work. Now it's an appropriate time for a little "break," but that doesn't mean we're not still working!

A couple of years ago, friends and family starting discussing the potential wastefulness of the American holiday season and begin questioning the importance of "gifts" just for the sake of giving something. For years, most of the gifts I gave were hand-made and the response of both the receiver and the giver (myself) was so genuine and sincere, I earnestly wanted to pass on that feeling of the true meaning of Christmas to Sophie and Lily.

I believe that gift-giving truly is about the thought and not the actual physical thing in the wrapping and there is nothing more thoughtful than a gift you hand-make for someone you love. Last year Sophie and Lily created and made each and every gift they gave. They each made over 30 gifts and countless cookies. Sophie especially understood the lesson when she felt the joy of watching the people she loves, who she thought about when she prepared and created each unique gift, open hers and were thankful. It was a magical moment for me when she declared: "It really does feel better to give gifts than to just get them!"

So this year our homeschool Christmas School tradition continues. We have made our list, planned each gift, and have begun our crafting and cooking and painting and sewing! Sophie and Lily will create and give almost 30 hand-made gifts again this year and they will learn new crafts as well as refining their talents learned last year.
We also read a lot of Christmas and holiday books and talk about the meaning and lessons of the season. Sophie will do extended book reports and she reads the books aloud to Lily. We also watch a lot of Christmas movies together when we're crafting and baking and she'll also complete some reports on our favorites! I will post the completed reports throughout the month. 

I have created our first Cookie Math worksheet of the season--one for Lily and one for Sophie. They will calculate and complete at least 4 Cookie Math worksheets this month and I will post them throughout the month of December.

Most of our "work," however will not be posted in our usual day-by-school day format because we want to keep our gifts a surprise! We are keeping good track and taking pictures! At the end of the season, once all the gifts are distrubuted, Sophie and I will post a cool PDF document called: 12 Days of Calderwood Homeschool Christmas 2011, which will include every gift Sophie and Lily made with pictures and some instructions and recipes.

In January we start school again and will start where we left off with Lewis & Clark in 1805 and learn about Westward Expansion, Pioneers, the Trail of Tears, and the lead-up to the Civil War.
We will start our next science unit during December and continue in January learning about Weather!

As always, thanks for reading and learning with us & merry, merry Christmas and happy holidays!