Homeschooling and Life: Dec. 1-11, 2015

We are winding down our school work soon in preparation for the holidays. We will have three days of school next week and then we'll take a break until January 5. How long do you take for your holiday break? What are your plans and traditions? We love to watch special Christmas movies. Our favorites are Home Alone, A Christmas Story, It's A Wonderful Life, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (animated version) and The Nativity. We choose an angel off the Angel Tree and buy gifts for a less fortunate child. We also enjoy riding around to look at Christmas lights. We bake gingerbread cookies and build a gingerbread house. This year we even made a gingerbread nativity! We have a basket filled to the brim with Christmas books that we love to read. Also, the children receive candy and a small gift on the feast day of St. Nicholas. We have a special Christmas Eve candlelight dinner after we attend Mass. We let the children open one gift on Christmas Eve; the rest are for Christmas morning! After breakfast on Christmas Day we play board games and lunch consists of a variety of appetizers. For dinner on Christmas night we meet friends at a local Chinese buffet. I love the holiday season! I'm probably more excited than the kids. I'd love to hear about your family's celebrations! Meanwhile, though, we have a little more school to finish before the break: 

Books I use to plan Baby Girl's winter activities. 

Grinch ornament...thanks to the wonderful world of Pinterest!

Gingerbread nativity

Baby Girl during school

Bug is studying layering of earth elements.

Science experiment

Erosion!

Placing sod over the soil

The sod prevents the erosion from being too bad.

Studying cells

Baking cookies