It’s the time of year when festive carols are playing, Christmas performances are happening at local venues, and streets are filled with beautiful lights on homes. All I want to do is to ditch real life for watching Christmas movies, baking holiday desserts, and wrapping gifts, but I can’t always justify dropping academics for the holiday spirit. So what to do instead?
Changing My Perspective with Christmas School
As someone who tends to be slave to the lists I’ve made and boxes I need to check, I’ve realized that I don’t necessarily have to choose between Christmas cheer or homeschool academics. My family can enjoy the Christmas season and still be learning things, even if we take time off from structured school days.
If it helps you to embrace the freedom of flexibility, think of it as Christmas school. Here’s a list of ways to combine holiday fun with practical learning.
Geography Lessons for Christmas School
- Sending or receiving Christmas cards provides an opportunity to identify specific cities, states, or countries on your globe.
- Tracking the shipment of packages can be done on your Markable Map.
- Watching YouTube videos provides a glimpse of how other cultures celebrate Christmas.
Handwriting Lessons for Christmas School
- Sending notes of holiday cheer to friends and family is a chance to improve cursive or printing skills.
- Showing gratitude with thank you cards is an opportunity to practice writing in a straight line on unmarked paper.
History Lessons for Christmas School
- Reading books from the library shows how the fictional Santa Claus transformed from the story of the real Saint Nicholas.
- Doing an Advent study or activity teaches biblical prophecy and history.
Literature Lessons for Christmas School
- Gathering around the dining table to listen as a family member reads a Christmas book during meals can be a chance to hear timeless classics.
- Turning on an audio book in a room lit only by the lights on the tree is a soothing way to listen to new Christmas stories or old favorites.
Math Lessons for Christmas School
- Doubling or tripling the recipe for a favorite treat, then determining how many to put on plates to share with community members and loved ones, requires multiplication and division.
- Monitoring the amount of money spent on each gift and deducting it from the total set aside for the purpose is a lesson in budgeting.
Staying Light-Hearted
Of course, not every Christmas activity needs to have an educational component. The point is not to take the season so seriously that every moment is forced to serve an academic purpose. While I don’t want to shirk our homeschool studies, it’s equally important to have some Christmas fun simply for the pleasure of it!
That means we’ve worn Santa hats when we’ve gone on runs through town, cranked silly Christmas songs in the car, and built gingerbread houses out of graham crackers. You might want to invite the neighbors over for a snowball fight, get creative with Elf on the Shelf antics, or cut out paper snowflakes to tape on your window.
As the year comes to an end, I want to know that my family and I have savored the Christmas season and forged precious memories. If we focus so much on school work that we forsake the fun and meaningful aspects of Christmas, we've wasted an opportunity as a homeschool family. You only have so many Christmases with your children under your roof. Cherish each one!
Three Advent Unit Study Kits
Each kit comes with a novel, discussion guide, activity ideas, recipes, and many of the craft supplies you'll need.
