I haven't posted much this last year or so, a lot of life going on around here with pregnancy loss and then pregnancy and keeping up with homeschooling 3 kids and all their activities while pregnant. This year we decided to try The Good and The Beautiful for LA and History and are enjoying it and continued with the next books in Sassafrass Science and stuck with CTC math. That's the main stuff. However, I have really struggled with my motivation to do science. The chapters feel long, I didn't feel like we were getting a ton out of the SCIDAT log books...my kids only like the story but they logbooks became a big chore, science felt very time consuming and even though I kept wanting to love it, my kids weren't retaining what they had learned very well. Not to put that against the science curriculum it may just be that my kids learn better through different methods. But I started to feel like it wasn't worth the time when after all the time and effort in science and they couldn't recall much from it later on, yet they could offload detailed facts about things they had learned from a wildkratts episode they had watched a year ago or from watching the Planet Earth and Life series as a family.
With a preschooler and a baby about to join us, I want to be intentional about how we manage our time and learning. The more my kids would randomly talk about in depth facts from science related videos and documentaries they watched a long time ago, but couldn't remember what we had studied in our homeschool time, it didn't feel like a good investment of our time. The more I thought about this the more I figured if my kids retain information so much better from videos rather than a living book with notebooking (as much as I love the idea of that) then I should just have them do science learning through videos and then let it be delight directed learning from there. So if they watch a video on something and they get excited about it, we can look up more on it, watch more videos, look up experiments or demonstrations they can watch and or do. So this is a compilation of some resources for approaching science in a more unschool-relaxed way of learning that I think we are going to try. I haven't previewed many of these but saving the links here for myself and anyone else that wants to quickly find free videos for science topics and unit studies. This will be an ongoing compilation, if you know of any great resources to add please comment and share! from here you can do notebooking, project based learning, lapbooking or simply narration or as enrichment to go with your packaged science program...there are so many ways to enjoy learning and it's important we don't get stuck within the security blanket of a purchased curriculum product for everything we do, Sometimes it's easier to just have that open and go curriculum and I totally appreciate that, but we don't have to be hostage to certain products or methods of learning and teaching every subject either. I'm curious to see how it goes just watching videos, then having the encyclopedia handy for the kids to look and then seeing where things go from there. ANATOMY
Operation Ouch - The Amazing Human Body on YouTube
Tongue, How Babies Grow, Eardrum, Breathing, Toxins in Wee, Kidneys, Spinal Cord, Energy, Bone Marrow, Poo. Body Bacteria, Plaque, Skin, The Heart, Guts, Couching, Blood Vessels, Flouresence, Red Blood Cells, Digestions, Wrinkly Skin, Bacteria Breath, Epiglottis, Vocal Chords, Vomit, Enzymes, Strength, Hormones, Fueling the Body, The Eye Lense, The Diaphragm, The Stomach, Brain, Pain Receptors, Sneezing, Diarrhea, and Nastogastric Tube.
Operation Ouch - The Human Head
Ear Injuries, Tongue, Head and Heachaches, Snotty Noses, Throat, Mouth, Excellent Ears, Getting Hairy, Teeth and Braces, Lip Injuries, Incredible Eyes, Contagious Yawning.
Operation Ouch - Human Skin
Top 5 gruesome cuts (skip if you don't want to see gruesome cuts), Belmishes, Skin, Smelly Sweat, Sore Scars, Stretch Marks, Deep cuts and wounds, Bruises and blisters, Birthmarks, Burns and Skin Grafts
Operation Ouch - The Skeletal System
fingers and toes, Sprains, Broken Bones, Skeletons, Ankle, Wrist, Breaking Bones, Joints and Skeletal System, Lively Legs, Fantastic Fingers, Fixing Feet, Dislocations, Broken Arms, Knobby Knees, Tending to the Toes.
3 states of matter, landforms, bodies of water, volcanoes, astronomy and space, rock cycle, clouds, oceans, glaciers, water cycle, snow, how leaves change color, thunder and lightening, caves, eclipse, why is sky blue, erosion, giant causeway, leap year.
ASTRONOMY AND SPACE Free School Astronomy and space for Children - Playlist
solar system, astronomy and space, phases of the moon, the sun, dwarf planets, milky way, solar eclipse, nebula, apollo 11, about the moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Neptune, Myth of Orion, Aurora Borealis, Cassiopeia, Lunar Eclipse, Scorpius, Leo, Pluto not a Planet anymore, Ceres, Light Years, Taurus
We are alacking on timeline....(just keeping it real!)
History
1400s-Henry the Navigator established colonial rule in Africa leading to slave trade between the Portuguese and the Ashanti...
Reviewed and memorized song using the CC app and making up actions. Continued reading The a Royal Diaries: Nzingha Warrioir Queen of Matamba. It isn't about Henry the navigator but is about the villages working together to fight off the Portuguese in Angola, Africa set in the 1500s. (Bonus on this book both my daughter and son are enjoying hearing about the way the clans and villages are because they are relating it to Clash of Clans which they sometimes play...)
Then we practiced using skittles on a map. They just needed to put the right mountain on the right continent.
Geography
Middle East
We rented a short video about Isresl from the library that I found to go along with this section.
And of course visited our MAPS book to explore that region.
English grammar
More helping verbs...we honestly don't get a lot out of this or do much with it...we just cover it and move on
Latin
Noun endings (1st Declension)
Same thing...don't go too much into it we just learn it and move on and hopefully if they take Latin or when the learn other foreign languages later on this will help some things click. So for now just settin' the lil' pegs in place and keeping it low key!
Fine Arts
This weeks artist was Angelico, however we did not ever get a chance to get an Angelico inspired art project done like I had planned. (This isn't what we were going to do but it's a good idea you can do with kids for Angelico http://www.thatartistwoman.org/2008/12/pastel-resist-madonna-art-project.html?m=1 I showed them some pictures of Angelico paintings in an art book but that's as far as we got. We did a lot of other drawing and some YouTube watercolor painting tutorials to practice for our nature journaling this week...CC is not the only thing we do and sometimes we do more with CC and sometimes we do less with it to make time for other projects or activities we are focused on.
This year as I prayfully researched all the great homeschool math programs out there, I could not settle on one. When I embarked on this homeschool journey and originally started reading and researching I really gravitated towards the Charlotte Mason living as well as the words of John Holt like this gem...
Kindergarten with 1 child was fun and easy with a napping toddler but come first grade and a third baby on the way, I started to feel pressure to make sure I was doing "real school" with her. So I bought an open and go boxer curriculum and signed up for Classical Conversations. However, other than feeling good that I had something "to show" for our days in published bound books and folders...that was about it. I got so caught up in trying to do school and get it all done and forgetting one main reason we were led to homeschool in the first place! My daughter is smart but it was obvious in preschool she wasn't a typical student who fit the classroom mold and we thought she would do better in a more relaxed , flexible environment with the freedom to cater to her learning style. However, teaching her systematically during "school time" at home wasn't helping her that much, but more just making me feel like the worst teacher and worst parent in the world. It would take do long to get through simple assignments that I was resenting her for taking up so much of my time in which I had to keep distracting the younger ones. All in all...things were not right. I had 2 little ones but the oldest was taking up all my time and energy and although I had planned to do more preschool activities with my son, he really ended up just doing puzzles or whatever off to the side because I had to be on top of my daughter the whole time! It wasn't fair to anyone and by the time we got through our day I was spent and had no interest in engaging with them to do all the fun creative things that I really wanted to do. The worst part was the resentment...why couldn't she just copy 5 words without taking an hour and all my emotional energy? Why couldn't she just remember what we had already learned? How can we keep going on in our curriculum when she keeps forgetting what's 7+2 and can't figure it out after a year of practicing it? I just wanted to give up (started learning about dyslexia).
Then I came across a video by Sandra Dodd, an unschooling advocate and she was answering the question of how much time do I need to give to my kids each day and she drew a simple graph...
Basically the youngest need the most mom time so no wonder doing a traditional homeschool curriculum felt wrong, I was spending my time backwards! How often on homeschool pages do you see the question "what do I do with my little ones while we are doing school time?" Now I'm not a full blown unschooler but leaning that way gives our family lots of grace to spend our days in a meaningful purposeful way together, without the stress that can lead to resenting the older children and having them under constant pressure while not spending enough time with the littles. It allows us to improvise and do more learning all together with everyone included, which you will see in our examples of living math further down this post. And yes as I realized this mom time problem, I did consider and pray about putting my kids in school, but that wasn't the answer so last year I still struggled to let go of traditional school style and culture around education and step into the unknown so I bought the 2nd grade curriculum. It was actually going pretty good a little easier than the year before as kids mature a little more each year but something still wasn't jiving.
Sandra Dodd also said don't let your home become some miniature copy of a school...which resonated with me and the first book on homeschooling I ever read, The Thomas Jefferson Education. I just kept coming across all these reminders of the original things The Lord had brought me to in my original quest into homeschooling but had forgotten due to insecurity and worrying what other people think...(a major weakness I have been overcoming). She talked about creating and maintaining an environment where natural learning can thrive, creating a nest where it's not just the home environment but the family relationships within the home are crucial. She encourages parents to learn about learning, not about school, but how real natural learning happens. Be their partner (and mentor as Thomas Jefferson Ed puts it) not their adversary. Encourage, facilitate and assist. See all that is good about your child (which I was having a hard time doing with the way I was doing school with her). Be the kind of person you want your child to be, nurture your own curiosity and joy, find gratitude and abundance in your life....don't do what you don't understand, read a little, try a little wait a while, read a little more, try a little more, wait a while more...don't pull your plants up by the roots to see if they are growing. That's not good for any plants or any children. Be patient and trust that learning can happen if you give it time and space. Observe your children. Are they calm? Happy? Curious and interestied in things? Don't mar their calm or happiness with arbitrary limits, shame or pressure. Learning can't happen when people feel afraid or hungry so feed your children happily, share food and smiles and laughter. Watch movies and listen to music together, explore...follow information trails, play, make connections and touch your children sweetly, smell their heads, relax into an appreciation of each child in your life. If you can envision the kind if relationship and life of learning you want to have then every time you make a choice, choose the one that takes you nearer to that goal. Learn to make many choices a day and when possible choose the more loving, peaceful options. Choose to make your life more positive and less negative. Choose optimism, choose joy. Create good memories with your children. Look directly at your children without filters or labels. Babies are born whole people, help then to grow up and remain whole people, unmared by shame...paraphrased from Doing Unschooling Right by Sandra Dodd.
As I've mentioned in other posts, I didn't feel led to sign up for Classical Conversations this year and my kids didn't seem to care but they did request to do the memory work at home. My daughter loves learning through song and hand motions so we decided to do CC at home along with following Ambleside Online for a guide for each grade, leaving plenty of space for project based learning and to just be curious and spend time in the moment together, and being able to seize the teachable moments in a natural, unforced, meaningful way. This year has been our most productive by far but I was still having my daughter do her Singapore math...that is the area I felt the least confident and bringing to life the way I was everything else.
I poured over homeschool math options and was praying and seeking, but I couldn't settle on any one curriculum, even though I know they are great. I knew in my head which math curriculums I liked and thought would fit our family but in my heart, I couldn't to it. Why? I kept seeking and praying. Then The Lord brought me to info about living math. Well I'm not good at math so how can I teach without a textbook??? This seemed like more work for me not less! Shouldn't I just do Teaching Textbooks or Math U See? Well who knows what the future holds but the answer and conclusion I came to was Living Math. This means I have to face my insecurities, look at the how and why and incorporate what needs to be learned in hands on, fun ways. Followed by some worksheet and or online practice after the concept is understood through hands on play, activities or life experience. This was a definite experience in learning to read a little, try a little, trust and see. What I've found is that we can actually ENJOY Math together and it is sticking better than when we just stuck to the workbooks. Also it's easy to include everyone and then take the concept further with my oldest while my Kingergarteb age son is still getting to play around and be introduced to math concepts beyond his level but enjoying it because we are having fun. There is a website callee Living Math that I found the book Family Math and have been enjoying using that. We also having been purchasing used through amazon or borrowing from library living math books. For worksheet practice we use either the math section of the big Brain Quest workbooks by grade or Math Mammoth worksheets, among other sources and practice online using websites like ixl, matific, starfall, and xtramath. But mostly we are learning through hands on projects, games, role play, or just living and bringing out the math in our daily activities or things we cone across.
Here are a couple of the fun times and ways we've encorporated living math, just a sample not exhaustive of every single thing we do :) My point in sharing is to inspire some ideas and feeling freedom to step outside the box a bit if traditional methods are working as well as you like. The great thing about homeschooling these days is we have do much information and resources at our fingertips and therefor can totally individualize and cater to our individual family needs and styles!
Making up stories for Remembering Odd and Even Numbers
Place Value
We love playing the game Dino tracks. You can make the game more advanced with the playing cards giving lots of opportunity for more advanced math thinking or keep it simple to just becoming familiar with place value.
Millions of Cats - we borrow from the library frequently the book and audio cd set because they love this one! Especially my 5 year old! Now he's ways he can tell me how much he loves me first with a hundred much, then a thousand much up to millions, billions, trillions and finally infinity and beyond ;)
Cut out Tangram pieces using pattern and activity ideas from Family Math. My kids kept going back to that book and their Tangrams daily for over a week on their own, fascinated by the puzzle and the culture, architecture and clothing in the book.
Wood Pattern Blocks
Megaformers
The Book Nature Math and the section about shapes and patterns in nature.
Symmetry, Mirror Image, Patterns Measurement and Perimiter
Card games such as war and they are starting to learn poker (with their dad) soon we will introduce the chips just for family fun no real money...not trying to teach gambling but it is fun playing some Texas Hold'em at a family gathering! The chips make it fun even if theirs no real money involved)
Also a print out activity from one plus one plus one equals one with an alligator mouth for the > and < symbols for practicing.
Multiplication
All the skip counting songs from Classicsl Conversations memorized up through the 15s has made multiplication so much easier to learn!
Little homemade Montessori multiplication grids are great too
This monster dice game is great for practicing addition, subtraction , multiplication or division
Playing Poker and learning/memorizing the different versions, rules, hands while having fun and bonding with dad!
Making Donuts for Division and Fractions
we have 12 donuts and can make as many toppings as you like as long as we make an equal amount of each type. You want 3 toppings? Ok then how many donuts will be in each group? What if we did only 2 types of toppings? How many donuts in each group? What if we do 4? Etc? Also when they are measuring ingredients I often hand them a smaller measuring cup so they have to figure out how many "scoops" of 1/3 cup to make 1 cup like the recipe says. Casually practicing division and fractions while having fun making donuts!
Money- counting, dividing, percentage, and life skills money management
Counting out all the money and change, making dollars with different coin combinations of $0.25. Introduce percentage and how to figure out 10%. (We recently did hymn study of Because I Have Been Given Much- not intentionally but it worked out to a good intro o this). After taking out 10%, divide money in half, or 50% for spending and 50% for saving. Child then has to work out how to divide the money into each jar. We wrote in the too lid with a chalkboard marker how much is currently in each jar so we can easily erase and change the number as needed for keeping track. I told my daughter she can give her money however she wants, to church, orphans, missions, or other charity collection boxes and coin rolling things at stores or if she knows of anyone she wants to give to.
For all these resources and more great living math resources, check out my Living Math Shop.
Well, I was excited to make Christmas gifts for everyone this year and I almost accomplished that!!!!
For the 5 little girls in my life I made snuggle mermaid tail blankets
For the women in my family I made pure silk pillowcases accompanied by modestly wrap bracelets I ordered months ago during a good promotion. I was really excited how these turned out and that I didn't have any problems sewing silk with my $50 brother sewing machine from Walmart. I did use a fresh ball point needle though! And I learned how to do a French seam which was exciting! Then my favorite added touch was the label I created for fun with a list if the benefits of using silk pillowcases on the back including care instructions tied on with a raw strip of silk remnants. I ordered the real silk from dharmatrading.com
For my dad who has ALS, I made him a double layered fleece poncho blanket so my mom can easily adjust his layers when he is up for the day in his chair. I'm really happy with this because dad was always hard to know what to gift other than an REI gift cards to help add to his collection of mountain climbing and surviving gear and a lot harder now that he has essentially no mobility.
For a fun little Waldorf inspired gift for my little boys, I made a serving wooden minecraft blocks. I love Grimms colored wooden building toys and my 5 year old lives minecraft (yeah a bit of a contradiction, I'm sure true Waldorf peeps wouldn't even have their kids play a video game...but I have sorta taken all the different educational philosophies that resonate with me and dumped them out of their boxes and onto the floor altogether for a flexible jumbled whatever mix of them all! Rather than climb into any one box lol!)
The square storage box was $3 at Michaels and I ordered the 1.5 inch wooden blocks from craftparts.com. I dipped them in food coloring mixed with rubbing alcohol like dying Easter eggs. The black blocks I dipped them in my black Sumi Ink. For the iconic grass on dirt blocks I dipped each side in brown food coloring leaving one side blank which I then dipped in green. I think these will be a gift to both my boys even though my 2 year old doesn't play minecraft but for him they are still cool naturally colored wood blocks. After they were dry, I dipped them in vinegar as I read that could help seal the color. So now we have a cool Grimm Toys style natural minecraft wooden blocks!
And in the works is a balance beam for our little gymnastics daughter that we started building last night and will probably finish assembling today and some snuggle shark tail blankets like the mermaid ones for my boys. They are cut and ready to sew!
Update with balance beam:
I will say, as I posted on Instagram earlier this month we were going to take a break from our regular style learning for the month so we could basically do a unit study on Christmas time focusing on learning through living, creating, crafting, baking, card and story writing, pouring through as many beautiful Christmas and Winter theme books as we could get our hands on and focus totally on the season. It's been awesome! My kids have learned so much, improved their art skills and we've been able to incorporate a LOT of math into everything we do! The more I learn about living math and understand the concepts and goals myself, the more I can incorporate it into everything we do without it ever feeling like smart lesson! And the kids are totally getting it without and coercion. I have still pulled out my daughters Brain quest book for some math page practice but it's been very interesting how mathy we can be outside of a text and have it be fun (VERY exciting for a math phobe like me!). (Oooo...I just came across a term that describes our month very well...project based homeschooling).
I did have one set back. It was the shark tails. I was starting to stress about getting them done to mail in time and this past week my 2 year old must be cutting teeth or something...he's been totally irritable and fussy and it was rubbing off on everyone. On Wednesday I was literally praying "oh Lord this feels too crazy please help us!!!" My daughter kept begging to go to the library, the baby kept getting up from nap and finally I was like "ugh yes fine lets go I have other errands we can run too then"...then as I and the kids stressed out and in a rush ran out to the car, I realized I left the keys in those house and locked ourselves out. It was crystal clear what was going on...everything had been going so well with my plan to savor the season with the kids and then I still got caught up in being busy and stressed and suddenly realized what a beautiful day it was and we didn't belong anywhere doing anything else other than being outside enjoying it and connecting with each other!!! It was The Lord putting me in an abrupt but good and needed "time out" and the kids and I played on the trampoline together laughing and being silly for the remainder of the afternoon and evening until my hubby got home from work to let us in. The kids had such a great time with me being completely focusee on them...chasing them around the trampoline and making gingerbread cookies out of them...cracking the egg on each knee (remember that game?) mixing it up with lots if tickles, adding LOTS of sugar (smothered in kisses) rolling then out etc....the said "Can we get locked out if the house everyday!!!!??!"
The next day was an even more beautiful day and while I felt the pull of finishing Christmas cards and getting to the post office...I said ok I learned my lesson yesterday Lord, I'm not going to waste this nearly 70 degree sunny day to Christmas errands. So we went to the library (what the kids had been begging to do all week), stopped at ups to mail the cards and then went to the grocery store next door to buy lunch and snacks and we then spent the day at a little sandy beach that's apart if a big lake that is not far from us. It was like pretty much the best day ever. And guess what? By the end if the week I still got done everything I had been so distracted with...and the days I did do it the weather had changed to cold and rainy!
Christmas is a joyful time of year but if we let all the self imposed to-dos....even though they are really good to-do's, interfere with the real joy of connecting with those we love and cherish most...then it's not really worthy of all the hustle and energy we put into it. Now, I didn't end up sending all my gifts by the deadline for guaranteed Christmas delivery but my extended family and friends know it's coming and that we love them and more importantly...my kids know how important they are to me and how much I love them, and praise God for that when he woke me up by showing me how I was allowing myself to get frazzled by locking myself out!!!
Seeing these pictures and all our nature finds we brought hone from that day reminds me to thank The Lord for allowing me to be a flexible person and for the ability to be home with the kids so we can even have these spontaneous adventures and be reminded over and over no matter how much we research great Homeschool supplies and resources...that learning is like breathing, it happens all the time!
Well, Black Friday has come and gone and now onto the the non-stop deals on whatever crap people are compelled to buy in the hustle to get Christmas shopping done.
I have a different plan. Nothing speaks to my heart more than a nice homemade gift. I love receiving them and getting them! While there are lots of great diy gift ideas on Pinterest, I am going to share some of my plans for diy Christmas gifts this year. Most of our Christmas shopping this year is going to be for supplies to make these. I even did take advantage of Black Friday shopping by getting a great deal on blizzard fleece on Joann's website so I never even left the house!
These are not just cheesy homemade gifts that you make and then at the last minute feel like you should still buy something anyways to go with it...These are AWESOME stand alone great gifts that can replace whatever else you may have purchased otherwise!
MERMAID AND SHARK TAIL SNUGGLE BLANKETS
For all the girls and boys in my life I am making either fleece mermaid tail blankets or shark eating me blankets. I got the fleece on Joanns Black Friday cyber deal for $2.50/yard so these are a super fun gift to make and keep your budget down!
For the women in my family, I will be making up some hair and beauty silk pillowcases. There is a great tutorial on HowDoesShe that you can follow. I may do mine a little different and try to embed some lavendar...we shall see. I ordered the real silk on dharmatrading.com as recommended from the tutorial. I will make a cute litle printout of all the benefits of silk pillowcases to go with.With 1 yard per pillowcase this gift rings in at just under $10 each.
WOODEN MINECRAFT BLOCKS AND PLAY PARTS
For my son who likes Minecraft and loves building with blocks, I ordered a set of 50 1.5 inch unfinished wood blocks from craftparts.com. He's 5 and I LOVE Grimm style wood toys, but instead of rainbow blocks, I am going to dip dye the blocks in food coloring in the main minecraft colors and may get a little creative to make a few special blocks. My son has a good imagination, and dying them with minecraft theme colors, he can enjoy building his own minecraft stuff but his imagination wont be limited to minecraft play. If you want a more specific minecraft look check out this diy post on wooden Minecraft Blocks. It's more involved with printing the skins, cuting, modgepodging etc but looks cool.
My daughter is making other minecraft things to go with the block set as her gift to her brother with perler beads. She is just making them up based on how she knows minecraft looks but here is some inspiration...Check it out HERE
GYMNASTICS BALANCE BEAM
For any gymnastics loving girls, there a tons of tutorials online for constructing your own balance beam. I plan on using a fun color combo with fun faux suede and paint on the wood frame. There are LOTS of different tutorials to make them but it doesn't have to be complicated! Here's a simple tutorial here
For awesome balance beam color combo ideas, check out this pinterest board.
DIY DOLL GYMNASTICS SET
For our little gymnasts and doll loving girl, my husband is going to "help" our son make a gymnastics set for his sister for his Christmas gift to her. He'll make a set of bars from pvc pipe and using a tutorial like this and we'll make some velcro grips so she can swing around.
For a mat you could just layer some craft foam or get a small piece of thin foam padding and wrap it in cute duct tape.
Doll Beam (we'll make one that matches her beam)
CANDY POPCORN
For other great people in your life like friends, neighbors, teachers, etc...ne of my favorite things to make is my mom's carmel popcorn recipe and then drizzle melted chocolate over top, package in cellophane bags and pair with a Christmas card.
and for the men....that's where I am still deciding! Maybe homemade BBQ rub and custom aprons? i don't know but here are some great lists of ideas for the men here and here and here.
Shopping for the perfect gifts can be super stressful and time consuming and making a bunch of gifts can seem completely overwhelming. But if you can consolidate projects by making all kids the same thin, all women the same thing, all men the same thing and all neighbors etc the same thing...then you just take a couple session focused on that one project. The key to enjoying the season and meking homemade gifts is to be intentional about how you spend your time. Less running around and more resting and making. Less Christmas activities for more relaxed Christmas season savoring at home! Don't feel like your kids are going to miss out if they don't attend every Christmas party and activity there is to do. The kids will remember making a homemade gift while smelling cookies in the oven more than they will the blur of events and errands that sometimes englufs the entire season. Order as much as you can online, even fabric if possible and only do the running around that is absolutely necessary! That way we can be productive, give great gifts while still feeling the joy of the season and create lasting memories with our children.
As for us as homeschoolers, I also posted about this on instagram under the picture of my daughter making a minecraft diamond with her perler beads...that since we HAVE the flexibilty, we are going to take the month off of regular school and learn through living and all the productive hands-on Christmas time things we do. It is just too much to maintain a regular homeschool schedule and then pile on top of that all the other things we want to do. So we are making the season fun and learning through all our fun seasonal activities and gift making!
