Holiday School!

Christmas with the Browns, 2018

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!