Catching up

Della's been in our family (on the "outside") for almost 6 weeks and we're getting into a pretty good groove around here. We are receiving meals from our church family which has been a huge help in getting used to managing everything. I am trying to add things one at a time to avoid burnout. So we actually did school a lot in November, more than I originally planned. Now that it's December, we are stepping back again from the academics of school and focusing on the Christmas season. So we've been doing lots of crafts, Advent activities, special activities and just spending time together. To my surprise, it's actually pretty "academic" but without the books we were using. For example, we're doing a lot of crafts with buttons, so the girls have had a lot of time sorting buttons to use. We've also been painting and practicing good artistic planning and ability.

I put together an Advent calendar/activity plan, which everyone's liked so far. I printed out a Bible verse for each day and glued it onto a card. I also planned an activity for each day and put that on a separate card. Each morning the day's card is sitting with the special elf that is in a new place every day. (Not "Elf on a Shelf" that everyone else and their mom is doing this year.) I chose activities such as cookie baking, crafts and ornament-making, places we're going to go and things we're going to do, and also things like "sing Christmas carols." It's been really fun and fit in nicely with our "December School."

This week and last they played with shaving cream or "snow" and made a huge mess! Then we sang Christmas carols and Caley played on the computer on a caroling website I found. We have been making salt dough ornaments and then painting them, and we learned about St Nicholas on December 6, St Nicholas Day. They even got treats in their shoes that morning! Yesterday they bought a toy for the toy drive, and today we're delivering it.

I feel good about taking December "off" from the usual academics of our school. It is giving us a lot of opportunities to grow in our traditions as a family.

Pictures to come!