Homeschooling Update: December 2013

We are half way through the school year! I can't believe it! December was a fun month. We did school from 12/1-12/18, then took off for Christmas break. We started back up on Monday.

First, here's the pictures, since I can't remember which week we did which. We did lots of Christmas crafts, of course. Arabelle made a blue snowflake out of popsicle sticks and Bo made a green star. Both had glitter, of course.

Arabelle loves these little cards with the geometric patterns on them. We matched white to white and black to black with all the cards to make a neat design.

Foam gingerbread men with their pictures inside.

One day Arabelle set up all her little figurines with the nativity. Everyone was worshiping Jesus!

We printed some Christmas trees off on paper and they painted them with water colors, then glued on Christmas confetti.

We also made some yummy treats for our friends and family! Pretzels with Hershey's kisses on top and melted in the oven, then an M&M on top. So good!

Week 1 was 12/2-12/6 and was the 17th week of school:

• We started our Advent tree on 12/1. Each day we had an ornament (that I printed and laminated) and we traced the lineage of Jesus, beginning with Adam. Each ornament had a passage of scripture and a little prayer. We hung each day's ornament on our little 3 ft pre-lit tree. It was a neat tradition and we all enjoyed it!
• Our book of the week was Little Fir Tree and we also read several winter/Christmas themed poems from our poetry book A Child's Book of Poems.

Week 2 was from 12/9-12/13 and was the 18th week of school:

• I can't really remember much of what we did this week, but I know this was the week she had her phonics assessment for book B and she did great! She read all the words on the list correctly, including her new sight words and missed a few during dictation. She spelled all her CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words correctly and missed a few sight words. 
• We also focused on the Christmas story and the kids did a Christmas play for me with the little nativity set. Arabelle was sure to point out that the wise men didn't visit Jesus at the time of his birth, but a about 2 years later. 

Week 3 was 12/16-18:

• We started book C of her phonics set, which has new words with the vowel 'e'. 
• We did some math review to finish up and had a "Christmas party". :)

I know we did a lot more, but we have had some busy days between then and now, so I don't remember. I'm going to try to record better this month!