Holiday Unit Studies are Fantastic for Homeschooling! – A Review of Homeschool Complete Christmas Unit Study

Disclaimer: I received this unit study for free from the Homeschool Complete in return for my honest opinion. All thoughts and opinions are my own. For more information please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy. Thank you.

If you are looking for an all-inclusive curriculum as a Christian parent, Homeschool Complete might be the perfect fit for your family. Thematic units contain lesson plans that cover multiple subjects including mathematics, language arts, and physical education. There are a variety of activities in each unit to help you really meet the needs of your individual child and family. Because Homeschool Complete offers such great flexibility I was very happy to review their Christmas Unit Study (K-6).

What is in the Christmas Unit Study?

The unit study is designed for K-6 grades with a variety of activities to accommodate beginning, intermediate, and advanced level students. For example, while both our children could work on saying the sounds for Lesson 4 in Part A of the student workbook, our five-year-old was able to read the words and we were able to complete the fill in the blank questions, too. And our three-year-old daughter (with help) was able to complete the matching activity (Worksheet 4a). As they get older, we will be able to reuse the Christmas Unit Study and look at the section on contractions and comparison of three digit numbers from Lesson 4.

At the heart of the Christmas Unit Study is the story of the birth of Jesus from the book of Luke. Each lesson introduces new parts of Luke to your children so you can work on memorizing it (or just enjoying it like we did). After the reading of Luke, there are a number of different activities you can complete for the different subject areas.

Sample Activities and Lessons

There are so many great ideas and activities in the lessons that I could see this unit study lasting more than the recommended two weeks for our family. As both our children are younger, we have been spending a short amount of time on the lessons each day spread throughout the entire day. In fact, we were able to complete one of the activities while waiting for dinner to finish baking. How is that for flexibility for the homeschooling family?

Flexibility and adaptability are two of my favorite things about homeschooling. I was able to adapt some of the reading of vocabulary activities to also include writing for our five-year-old. For example, in Lesson 1, one of the activities lists asks the child(ren) to read eighteen words. I wrote out some of these words in our son's notebook for him to read and write.

Some of the activities in the lessons include the following:

• Read a recipe and make gingerbread cookies 
• Count the days until Christmas using a paper chain 
• Put words in alphabetical order 
• Read A Christmas Tale by Geronimo Stilton 
• Play Alphabet Toss 

Learning about positive and negative space using stencils and tracing objects.

What We Like

From the Daily Calendar Routine to the ideas for physical education activities, we are really enjoying the Christmas Unit Study. We really enjoyed working on the different art projects such as using stencils and cut-out shapes to create positive and negative spaces as well as creating paper ornaments for our tree. 

Establishing a daily routine of identifying the date, days of the week, and months of the year has been a great thing to add to our homeschool day. We had been working on these skills but now the kids ask for each day if I should forget ever since we started using the Christmas Unit Study. 

• Each lesson lists the materials needed (for example, the books, crafting supplies, worksheets, or even baking supplies) 
• Very adaptable 
• Each lesson lists the skills – so if you are looking for something specific to work on you can just reference the first page of each lesson 
• Variety of books recommended and used 
• Lessons include language arts, math, and physical activities 

Learning about time and making a clock

Our five-year-old son said his favorite part of the Christmas Unit Study has been learning how to read a clock. I think working on this particular skill has allowed him to feel more grown-up as he is navigating the world of time more and more on his own. Our three-year-old daughter enjoys any project that allows her to draw, color, or create something – which this unit study has plenty for her!

Personally, I would recommend the Christmas Unit Study for families from Homeschool Complete. I find it has been a perfect fit for us as we approach the holiday season. I look forward to continuing to use the activities in the different lessons as we get closer to December 25. 

How do you spend the month of December? Do you use unit studies or take a break from homeschooling? Let me know in the comments!