Here are some lovely ideas from a chat we had on the topic of Holiday School last December:
-Holiday School is a break from the “normal” rhythm of school to enjoy the holiday season
-Can be all of December, Thanksgiving-the new year, a couple weeks before the holiday, or the 12 days of Christmas (Dec 25- Jan
6)
-There’s no wrong way to do Holiday School- just take time to enjoy time w/ your family and enjoy this special season
-Time to enjoy holiday-related activities like cooking, baking, making decorations and gifts (great handicraft time!), learning to play or sing a carol or hymn, make wrapping paper, help write and address the family cards, play games and make puzzles, listen to music, create art, watch holiday movies, etc
-Enjoy holiday activity books like hidden pictures, holiday-theme word searches, crossword puzzles, and lots of coloring pages
-Work on holiday-based words in whatever foreign language your kids are studying
-Try to learn a carol or hymn in another language
-Lots of families read a book per day
-Some families keep the “core subjects” or do one main journal per day and lots of extra fun holiday activities
-Do Holiday theme copywork, recitation, and dictation
– Learn about how places around the world celebrate
-Learn about other winter holidays besides what you practice
-Dive into some of the legends of the season
-Memorize a different version of the Christmas story in the Bible each year
-Memorize a passage of a famous book
-Create a holiday play
-Let your kids script a play of Christmas Carol, The Night Before Christmas, or the 12 Days of Christmas song
-Also a great time to relax and refresh after a busy year
-All ages can enjoy Holiday School. Tap into what your kids are interested in and see where it leads
-Some families choose to do a special unit study around the holidays too
-Teens are often really tired by the end of the year and may need extra time to just REST
Enjoy this little video of our family Christmas caroling in Italy, a decade ago! Merry Christmas!