In the last week, I've been asked about Christmas school at least 3 times. I thought it would be a fantastic blog post. When my kids were little, we took the entire month of December off from school. Between 3 birthdays, Christmas parties, and all the extra activities that the month brings, school became stressful and just checking off the boxes so we could be done. No real learning was happening, so we started taking the month off. That worked great when I had pre-schoolers and early elementary kids. When Eliana hit middle school, I knew that wouldn't work anymore. In order to get everything done we had to do school at least till Christmas. It once again became the same thing - crossing off lists so I could say we did our lessons. For us learning should be something we are excited about not just a list to cross off. Something had to change! Enter Christmas School. It's not a term I made up - lots of homeschoolers use it. In the beginning I put away our regular curriculum for the month and found fun Christmas themes to study. Unit studies are my favorite! Over the years we have used different people planned out Christmas School and used things I have put together myself. Everyone still does their math curriculum. All of our other curriculum is put up till January. Guess what - we are still learning! Science can happen through a fun experiment with snow. Fine arts are done with a study of Christmas artwork or a drawing class. We read so many books during the month of December. Writing happens in reports of St. Nicolas or letters to family members. Once again homeschooling is just thinking outside the box. I have never wanted to recreate public school at home.
The longer I homeschool the more I focus on the end result. What do I want my kids to remember about homeschooling? I want us to enjoy being together. I want them to remember the fun we had. I want them to be lifelong learners. Always look for something new. To wonder how things work. The best way to do all of those things is to embrace Christmas school and learn a little differently during the month.
If you check Pinterest there are lots of different Christmas School Plans out there! Here are a few resources we have used over the years. Some of the plans are free, some you can purchase.
Uncovering Mercies at the Manager
I'm always looking for new ideas. If you're Christmas schooling, what does it look like at your house?
This is just a general idea of what Christmas School is. If you want to know exactly what we are doing this year that plan is in this post: Christmas School 2021
What an awesome idea. I planned on doing school, just less of it around the holidays. I already have Uncovering Mercies at the Manger and I'm excited to start it with her. Just didn't realize it had a name..Christmas School! I like that and I think she will to and it'll be something she looks forward too every year!
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