December Homeschool Plans & Book Haul 2024 | "Christmas School"?!

[@meganpease552]

Little Christmas Carol is what Read Aloud Revival based her Christmas School off of this year so we are going through that one too. I'm so excited!

[@SevenInAll]

It looks so good!

[@madeleinecooper3557]

December/January is a very busy time for my family. My mother, mother-in-law and I have December birthdays; and my husband's and baby's (1st) birthday will be January 3rd. Between all of those and the holidays it can feel overwhelming sometimes, but we try to acknowledge each day. I think knowing that we are celebrating Jesus coming to earth as a baby for us, and celebrating that, helped to never feel overshadowed by all the festivities that can happen around this time of year. December is a great month to be born!😊 Happy (early) first birthday to your little one!

[@SevenInAll]

That's a lot of birthdays in a short time frame! Thank you!

[@kayegenin123]

We got out our Christmas decor and y our laminated cards again! Excited for year three of your Christmas program.

[@SevenInAll]

:) I'm so happy to hear that!

[@gbcflower]

I love your plan, and I completely agree that the packages are a brilliant idea.

[@SevenInAll]

I definitely think those will be good to make sure the bigger boys can still do the crafts they love even though baby is keeping me very busy these days.

[@lauracampbell7644]

That craft gift package idea is so great! You are so creative. Thanks for sharing.

[@SevenInAll]

Thank you so much!

[@ambergarrett3301]

Product suggestion: 😃 a list of your daily, simple Christmas crafts if they differ from the Christmas Calendar ❤ I love your approach with switching over to “Christmas school”! You are so inspiring!

[@SevenInAll]

Aww, thank you! Hmmm...that would require me actually remembering what I put in each one. I have been posting the shorts/reels that I made and sharing in the caption what my plan was for that day's craft. And they are VERY simple - pipe cleaners & red/white pony beads to make candy canes to hang on the tree, strips of paper for a paper chain, pipe cleaners and jingle bells to make "noisemaker" rings/bracelets for them....my goal was very much crafts that the 5 and 6 year old can handle mostly independently while I keep baby out of reach of beads and jingle bells. :P

[@christincardenas5683]

I have a daughter that has a December birthday and instead of gifts for her she has always chosen a trip. It's normally a day or weekend trip but something she wants to do.

[@SevenInAll]

That's such a wonderful way to celebrate her birthday! I love that!

[@ashleybarney88]

Oh I love this! We live in the American Southwest so Christmas dinners have always been tacos. It is the best! Our other Christmas tradition is to watch alll of the The Lord of the Rings movies. Its one of our favorite things to do.

[@SevenInAll]

Tacos are one of my all-time favorite foods. And the movie marathon sounds amazing! I very much look forward to introducing my boys to that series someday!

[@karinnarodriguez2205]

Hi! Thank you for the video. Any suggestions for Thanksgiving? Something similar to this. Books for toddlers?

[@SevenInAll]

Hmmmm...I haven't done too much with Thanksgiving but something I think it very sweet is cutting out leaves and talking about things we're thankful for and writing those things on leaves...could hang them up or make into table decor.

[@lisaroper421]

My absolute favorite Christmas things are: 1 Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols. This music was woven into Christmas for me from before I was born. 2 We do a Swedish dinner (not the traditional in Sweden, but what my Swedish ancestors traditionally did) of Rost beef cooked in alspice and gravy, served on bread! Yum!

[@SevenInAll]

That dinner sounds delicious!

[@kdwerner]

We just bought the Little Christmas Carol too! I'm so excited to read it for Christmastime this year!

[@SevenInAll]

I'm very much looking forward to it!

[@StephanieMT]

My 13 year old turns 14 on dec 6th. Shes excited because wizards beyond waverly place will drop new episode on her birthday. She also wants a donald duck plushie because donald duck is her new favorite thing. Her and her dad will go out to asian food for her meal.

[@SevenInAll]

That sounds fun!

[@tiffanymeyer6110]

Christmas baby here 🙋‍♀️! My mom worked really hard to keep the two events separate even though they were the same day. She let me pick breakfast and dinner on the 25th and there was always a birthday themed table cloth on the kitchen table. She also made sure that any presents people gave were wrapped in actual birthday paper.

[@SevenInAll]

Wow, on the day itself! That's awesome to hear about the way your mom made it special for you!

[@emilywinter4821]

We have a little guy turning 4 this December! He was due on Christmas Eve but came two weeks early so he had a little cushion between birthday and Christmas. We thought about how we would do his birthdays if he was born at a different time and tried to do that. We don't use christmas wrapping paper for his birthday gifts (even though that would be easiest lol) He gets to pick a meal and a special movie to watch too!

[@SevenInAll]

Aww, I love that tradition of picking out a special movie, too!

[@lisaroper421]

For the birthday thing, we just do the normal birthday things 🤷‍♀️ Just the same as at a different time of year. For 1st birthdays we like to give a box of kleenex for the kiddo to rip all of them out of! FWIW, I have always loved my birthday being on the penultimate day of the year!

[@SevenInAll]

hahaha I am absolutely certain that ripping all of the Kleenexes out of a box would be exactly what my son would love to do for his birthday!

[@jessicajones611]

We joined the membership to the Read Aloud Revival and so will be doing their Christmas unit this year (not released yet) and it is based on the book, ‘Little Christmas Carol.’

[@SevenInAll]

That sounds great!

[@lesliedavis5323]

We’re doing that as well!

[@RockSimmer-gal4God]

We are not doing Christmas schooling but I’ve put Christmas books and crafts out!!! I think that’s all we can do this year!!!one year before we homeschooled we did Easter crafts and my older kids and sister in law remember it and it was awesome bonding time for all of us!!! We drink iced chocolate Instead as it’s hot here!!! We are planning on getting our house ready for ppl to come in after Christmas and then travel in February!!! We leave the candles till toddlers are in bed!!! We don’t have white Christmas decorations or a white Christmas dress!!! It’s traditional in Australia to have fish unless you are English and even tho we’ve lived in England we love a Aussie style Christmas!!! It’s awesome that you finish term 2 before Christmas and able to take a break!!! I bought a lot of Christmas books this year!!! We celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah in December!!! My older kids have read the Christmas carol and idk if they will reread it tho!!! We sing Stille Nacht every year!!! My twins where born in November so we buy 2 special gifts and one is a bday gift and the other is a Christmas one and I kno they often kno their special Christmas gift but they are now teenagers!!!

[@SevenInAll]

As kids get older, they can definitely start taking the lead on Christmas books and crafts on their own. :)

[@victoriasbooktalks8882]

Great books!

[@SevenInAll]

I'm excited about them!

[@arlenstoltzfus9240]

Thanks for another great video! Would your 25 Days of Christmas unit be good for older kids too? I have an 8, 13 and 14 year old and I'm looking for something to do for advent. We have done 3 of the Jotham Journey's series but I'm ready to switch it up this year and I don't want it to take too long in the morning. For a December baby; my best Christmas present ever was my first born! But yes, born on Christmas day can be a challenge, especially in the elementary years. We celebrate her birthday in the morning and then move into the Christmas celebration after that (with double the amount of presents for her... which you have to explain to the younger siblings). One year we celebrated her half birthday in June with some friends, which was so fun but also a little weird. If we hadn't moved around so much, she would have had more of those!

[@SevenInAll]

I can definitely understand it being tough for the little siblings to understand at first why their sister got birthday AND Christmas presents in one day. I would say that our Christmas unit is definitely aimed more at older kids in the content--each short reading dives into the history and significance of each symbol or tradition (for example: Where did the tradition of sending Christmas cards come from? What was the first Christmas card ever sent?...What is the history and legend of Saint Nicholas?). Activities suggested are pretty open-ended (i.e. - Handmake a Christmas card...which simply looks quite a bit different if it's a 6 year old vs. a 12 year old).

[@arlenstoltzfus9240]

@@SevenInAll Thanks! I just looked it up on the website and it looks beautiful. Another quick question as I am wondering where I can print those lovely cards and not break the bank; what size are the cards? I was wondering if I can print them as a homemade Christmas card on card stock at a place like Walmart or something. I appreciate you taking the time to answer!

[@SevenInAll]

@@arlenstoltzfus9240 The cards are formatted 2 to a page, and are designed to be doubled sided...so the full "cards" document is about 25 pages that can be printed on thicker paper or cardstock. I don't live in the US so I don't know the best affordable printing option. I printed my set on my home printer (but my printer can't handle cardstock so I laminated them). There are also some online homeschool printing services that tend to have pretty affordable prices that I know a lot of homeschoolers use for printing PDFs.

[@StephanieMT]

We got the book flood from a peaceful press but im not sure if i wanna do all the projects. I have 6 kids so im not sure i want to gather supplies and have to figure out where to put all the projects

[@SevenInAll]

Are any of your kids old enough to plan Christmas projects/crafts? Sometimes older siblings can play a big role in preparing Christmas activities.

[@stephenmodicabookgiveway]

Love this I thrifted 532 books for 88 dollars and 75 dvds for 22 dollars for my book giveway at applebees ( 3701 Veterans Memorial Blvd, Metairie, LA 70002). I have given away 3200 books in 10 months to babies,kids,teens,and adults.

[@SevenInAll]

That's awesome!

[@stephenmodicabookgiveway]

@SevenInAll I can give u some book ideas if you would likr

[@lisascott8801]

We are due with our first December baby this year. Our intention going forward is to treat it like we do all of the other birthdays in our family. The birthday kid gets to pick the meal for supper and the treat. Either after the treat or between supper and the treat they get to open their presents. It is really that simple! And our kids love it! In fact, our oldest was home from college with her boyfriend for Christmas break last year and she was so thrilled that he was able to experience a family birthday in early January.

[@SevenInAll]

I also love getting to pick out a special birthday meal - my own birthday pick is usually homemade potsticker dumplings with a few different kinds of fillings....because they are delicious but so much work, so not something ever eaten for a 'normal' meal. My boys are so young that when I ask them what they want for a special birthday meal it's always something incredibly easy and normal, something we have every week, like scrambled eggs--haha!

[@jesusisking9223]

I also do the you pick dinner and dessert for birthdays. My mom did that for us growing up and I chose to continue doing it. I would ALWAYS pick her special recipe stuffed shells so now I make myself stuffed shells for my birthday every year. My oldest son is 16 and his birthday is on Christmas, so Christmas dinner is always his choice, we have had everything from breakfast to tacos to lamb for Christmas dinner 🤷‍♀️

[@lisaroper421]

I love December birthdays! I am one, and so is my son. Definitely still a fun time to add a birthday into the mix 😅😉