Learning Year Round: Christmas Homeschool Plans

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The month of December affords homeschool families with a lot of wonderful opportunities for holiday homeschooling. Learning year-round takes on a special meaning for the Christian homeschooler at Christmas time. We can set aside our normal routine and books and spend time focusing on Jesus and Christmas. 

Making Small Changes 

If you aren't ready to put away all the homeschool books during December, you can start adding in small changes. Swap out the books in your morning basket or at read-aloud time with Christmas ones like A Christmas Carol, Christmas in the Manger, or Bear Stays Up. 

In addition to books, change out the music you play during the week. We often listen to music during art or while working on independent projects. During this time of year, we listen to my different Christmas playlists. 

What do you do during lunchtime? Our children watch either Minno or RightNow Media or listen to me read aloud. During December, I break out our box of Christmas-themed holiday DVDs for lunchtime. Some of our favorites include: 

• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• VeggieTales: The Toy That Saved Christmas
• The Year Without a Santa Claus
• White Christmas

Fun Activities 

If you are looking to incorporate more Christmas activities while learning year-round, you can look at art lessons from SchoolhouseTeachers.com that focus on Christmas themes. Or you can work on crafts, cards, and gifts. 

Another feature of SchoolhouseTeachers.com that I enjoy is the holiday-themed worksheets. This year, I printed out one about Advent, where our children will write a poem and some coloring sheets, but there are more options, including ones for math! 

Switching Up the Entire Day 

There are a couple of options left to you if you want to holiday homeschool the entire month. You can keep working on normal subjects but with a Christmas twist from unit studies. For example, Homeschool Complete offers a Christmas Unit Study (K-6). Lessons include reading, mathematics, arts and crafts, and more. Another option would be the White House Holiday Unit Studies offered by Silverdale Press LLC, which includes a Christmas-themed one.

You can also ditch all the subjects and work on relationships. Prepare the house for Christmas by cleaning and decorating. Bake Christmas cookies and prepare yummy treats and treasures as gifts. Go ice skating, skiing, or participate in other winter sports. Learn Christmas hymns or carols and sing or play them for others. There are many options available. 

As a family, select from things to do in your area. Go see Christmas lights, drink hot chocolate, or choose a new hobby (or return to an old one). Spending time together during December is a wonderful way to learn during the Christmas season. 

What are some of your favorite ways to homeschool during December? 

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!

Reviewing White House Holiday Unit Studies from Silverdale Press LLC

I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew. 

After doing a little research about the White House Holiday Unit Studies offered by Silverdale Press LLC, I knew that I wanted to review it with our family. As a former high school history teacher, I loved the introduction written by Jill Hummer. I agree wholeheartedly that learning about the history behind the holidays is so important – even for elementary-aged children.

The White House Holiday Unit Studies series "uses the American presidency as a window into the holidays" and provides a great number of primary sources. Your family will be reading and reviewing primary sources like:

• Speeches (i.e. Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points) 
• Posters (i.e. Uncle Sam's I Want You poster) 
• Letters 
• Photographs (i.e. Korean War Memorial) 
• Press releases 

There is one set of lessons for grades K-6 and a separate set for grades 7-12 in many of the unit studies. There are some activities that overlap because the lessons work well for a variety of ages. 

Currently there are six White House Holiday Unit Studies: 

• Labor Day Unit Study
• Veterans Day Unit Study
• Thanksgiving Unit Study
• Christmas Unit Study 
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Unit Study 
• Valentine's Day Unit Study 

How We Used the White House Holiday Unit Studies 

Our family primarily worked through two of the Unit Studies: Veterans Day Unit Study and Martin Luther King, Jr. Unit Study, while touching upon some of the information in the others. I downloaded the lessons and then uploaded them to our tablet so that I could read and refer to them during our lessons. I also printed out some of the information so that I could more easily share the photographs and information with our children. I read the lessons at lunch or dinnertime while we were all together as a family so we could talk about the information presented. 

The materials needed to create our own Poppy Pins.

Veterans Day Unit Study 

The Veterans Day Unit Study has three lessons for each level covering similar topics with age-appropriate information. The materials required are simple – things that most people already have at home. I love that they state: "Our goal is to keep it easy for the parents!" 

We looked at the calendar as we talked about each holiday so we could properly place it during the year.

The lessons that I really enjoyed sharing with our family from this unit study included: 

• President Woodrow Wilson and the Story of Armistice Day 
• President Wilson and Food Czar Hoover at War
• The Story of Dwight Eisenhower and How We Got Veterans Day 

We created a poppy pin, read "In Flanders Field," had a meatless day (where we did not eat any meat during our meals), looked at Food Administration Posters, and talked about how to honor Veterans on Veterans Day. (There is a great list of ideas included in the unit study.) 

In addition to writing the poem In Flanders Field on our white board,
I also wrote some key facts from the unit for our children.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Unit Study 

There are a total of five lessons with a read aloud portion included in each lesson. The first lesson (title) is divided into Part A (same for grades K-12) and Part B (different for K-6 and 7-12 grades). We started by reading about the home and family of King and learning about discrimination and segregation. The lesson then continued to discuss the life history of King as he attend high school and then college as well touched upon nonviolent resistance, stereotypes, and his marriage to Coretta Scott. 

There are timeline and map activities that can be completed throughout the entire unit study. We focused upon those as well as completing the Rosa Parks Craft to discuss the Montgomery Bus Boycott. We read some of the history presented in the lesson regarding Rosa Parks and talked about why it is not fair to treat people differently just because of the way they look.

What I also like is the inclusion of a video of President Eisenhower speaking about the institution at Little Rock, Arkansas. For grades 7-12, there are also questions included to be answered by your child(ren), as well as a press release from the White House. (Of all the video links – which are from a variety of sources – provided in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Unit Study only three links were 'not found.')

We worked our way through the timeline activity together on the floor. If our children were older, I would have had them write out the the information on the index cards and then create a large timeline on the wall to display while we studied the entire King unit.

Labor Day Unit Study 

There are three lessons for K-6 and three for 7-12 grades. I was looking forward to completing Lesson 1: Eleanor Roosevelt and Child Labor with our children so they could learn about how the lives of children have changed over the years. I also love using primary resources. 

There are several photographs with descriptions from the Library of Congress and questions to help guide children to evaluating the primary documents. Unfortunately, it was rather hard for our younger children to understand without the descriptions of the photographs and lots of guiding. As a high school history teacher, I found analyzing photographs was difficult even for my advanced students. The inclusion of this activity is fantastic as having the opportunity to start practicing with younger children will help start their skill-building early. 

What We Like 

We can use these lessons year after year. Each year as our children grow, we will be able to review the information from previous years and eventually move on to the lessons geared towards 7-12 grades with our younger two children. The White House Holiday Unit Studies can grow with our family as our children grow.

What is also great is that you can use these lessons throughout the year as well. We actually studied Veterans Day the weeks prior to Memorial Day. So we were able to discuss how the two holidays were different while still learning about Veterans Day in May. The maps and timeline activities from the Martin Luther King, Jr. unit study are such that you can incorporate the study of the events as they actually occur throughout the year. There is no reason to wait for January, as we worked through the unit in late May and June with little confusion from our children. 

Of the three that we used during the review period, I enjoyed the Veterans Day Unit Study the most (but then again I love studying the world wars and the American Civil War so this comes as no surprise to me). Of the three unit studies that I have read through for future use, I am really looking forward to using the Christmas Unit Study this year with our family!

We Look Forward to Future Lessons 

Valentine's Day Unit Study 

As our children get older, I look forward to reading the letters of John and Abigail Adams and Ronald and Nancy Reagan in the Valentine's Day Unit Study. The unit study quotes Nancy Reagan: "I realized how valuable the art and practice of writing letters are..." and I think these are valuable to encourage in our children. Writing letters is something we plan to focus on more this summer. 

As we will be attending a family wedding at the end of June, we will also spend time talking about weddings that were hosted in the White House. I had no idea that there were 17 weddings! Ten for presidential children. What a great opportunity to compare and contrast the various portraits and photographs of White House Weddings.

Thanksgiving Unit Study 

There are so many great lessons within this unit study – from opportunities to study the history of the Pilgrims to current events (viewing the current pardoning of the turkey by the president) to baking and cooking using Mamie Eisenhower's recipes. I can't wait to try out some of these recipes this year! 

Christmas Unit Study 

At Christmas time, I am excited to share the history of the Crèche or nativity scene in the White House as we put up our own nativity. Being able to share family traditions is so important to us and these lessons provide one more way to share our own family history as we explore the history of the holidays and the White House. And since our five-year-old has started to bake cookies with me, being able to use a recipe from the White House is a thrilling idea!  

I highly recommend the White House Holiday Unit Studies from Silverdale Press LLC for families who wish to know more about the history and background of holidays in America. We look forward to using these unit studies year after year!

To learn more about Silverdale Press LCC, please visit the following:

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To read more reviews for the White House Holiday Unit Studies or read reviews about the language arts curriculum Creative Writing and Classical Rhetoric: Practicing the Habits of Great Writers for grades 9-12.