Homeschool Glue | Balance & Intentional Motherhood for Homeschool Moms

29 || 15 EASY Ways to Incorporate Christmas into Your Homeschool

• Sarah - Homeschool Mom Mentor

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Many families like to devote a few weeks into December to following a Christmas curriculum, but alternatively, many families don't have the time, patience, money, or resources to do this.  However, there are SO many ways to bring the spirit of Christmas into your homeschool and I'm sharing 15 easy ways you can do that in today's episode!

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I pray this episode blessed you!
- Sarah

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I know it is not quite Thanksgiving, but as homeschool parents, we have to be looking ahead to what's coming next. And with Christmas on the horizon, I thought I would share 15 easy ways to incorporate Christmas that don't require a lot of money, don't require a lot of time. If you don't want to do a whole Christmas curriculum, how could you incorporate different Christmas things into your homeschool without it being super stressful? Glue. It's messy, it's sticky, it gets everywhere, but it's also really useful, just like the glue we need as homeschool moms to glue our chaotic, beautiful, and wonderfully messy days together with our children. I'm Sarah, homeschooling mom of three daughters, who is passionate about helping fellow homeschooling moms create intentional moments that act as glue, bringing entire families together. I create family-style resources for my business that can help act as the glue for your family, but I also share lots of ideas and encouragement here on this podcast. Whether you struggle with time management, overwhelm, or just exhaustion from all the hats you wear as a homeschool mom, I've got lots of simple ideas that can bring you from uninspired and tired to intentional and prepared. This homeschool life is a unique one that only fellow homeschool moms truly understand. I hope each episode leaves you inspired and ready to create a few moments to help glue your family together. Thanks for listening. Let's jump into it. Hi, I'm Sarah. Welcome to the Homeschool Glue podcast. I love to share intentional ways to bring your family together through your homeschool and make your homeschooling life a little bit easier, a little bit more stress-free because it can be really overwhelming. Um, I run a business, multiple businesses, and I homeschool and I watch kids before and after school. It's kind of a crazy life. But I also like to show that it is possible to work in many different capacities in homeschool. So I would love if you would subscribe and follow this podcast if you haven't already. And if you've been listening for a while, I would love if you would leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It would really help me out in the algorithm and getting people to listen and be part of our homeschool community. With that being said, it is soon going to be the Christmas season. I know many of us, many of you listening, are Christians and celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ. And so a lot of you may not want to abandon all of your homeschool plans to do like a whole Christmas curriculum. And whether you do or don't, that's totally okay. But for those of you who don't want to do that or don't have time, or it's overwhelming, or you're trying to save money or whatever the reason, there are still lots of different little things you can do to incorporate Christmas and the joy of Christmas and the holiday spirit into your homeschool plans, even if you're not devoting the whole month or even a couple weeks to Christmas being your main curriculum and your main focus for December. So for our family with a baby coming right after Christmas and knowing January is going to be a month where we just kind of do what we're able to do and we're just being really loose with our homeschool plans. I wanted to make sure December was filled with finishing up, you know, some things that we've been working on for our main curriculum. And I didn't want to devote a ton of our energy and time into focusing solely on Christmas. We did last year, we did Treehouse Schoolhouses Connected Christmas, and it was amazing, and I loved it. We did crafts all month long and we read a ton of good books and it was beautiful. Um, and so there's nothing wrong with that at all. Um, I have actually plans to make a Christmas curriculum. Hopefully, next year, I had plans for this year, but uh little baby changed the plans, and that's okay. And so um I just thought it would be fun to share 15 easy ways that you can incorporate Christmas into your homeschool plans without devoting all of your time to it. Okay, so I'm just gonna jump right into these 15 different things you can do. Now, I don't expect anybody to like listen to all of these and then incorporate them all. Maybe pick one or two, or maybe it will spark an idea that you have seen or heard about that you could incorporate into your own homeschool. Okay, and a lot of these you probably already do, but don't really think of as school. So that's also a win when you can realize actually this is learning that we already do, and we can incorporate that into our homeschool day and feel satisfied that our kids learned something through it. So, one thing we started doing last year, instead of like um we have done like Lego advent calendars and like slime advent calendars in the past, um, and we just didn't want to spend the money on that, and I just didn't really want the whole month of December leading up to Christmas to be about material things. And so last year we got an advent advent puzzle off of Amazon, and it was the nativity scene, and so how it works is every day there was a little box that you would complete as a family, and it has like 20 pieces in it or whatever. I think it was a thousand-piece puzzle, so it was more than 20 pieces, but it was uh a bunch of pieces that you put together and it's all part of one section of the puzzle. So every day you're doing one little section that you're adding on to the section from before. And I really wanted to do one that was Christ focused because that is the whole point of Christmas. If you're Christian, that is why you celebrate. And so there are lots of other beautiful scenes and things like that, or Santa Claus scenes and whatever. Um, but we really wanted one that was a nativity scene that was focused on Christ. And so every day we would talk a little bit about like, oh, um, there's the sheep, there's the shepherd, oh, there's Jesus, there's Mary, and we would put the whole picture together and we were talking about the nativity story as we were putting it together. And it was just a fun way to bond as a family. A lot of times my girls would do this while I was doing a read-aloud for the month and so, or for the day, and so that was just a great hands-on thing they could do, or they're, you know, celebrating Christmas in a small way while we were still doing our homeschool time. So if you can find something like that, I will put a link to some in the show notes. Um, we're doing that again this year, and I just really loved it. It was just a fun way to celebrate Christmas in a new way together leading up to Christmas. Another thing you can do, and this is something we've done for many years, is have something along the lines of what um uh story a day, devotional type thing, um, but incorporating ornaments. And so we did the 25 Days of Christ. I've loved that for many, many years. I will have a link to that below. It is an affiliate link, but we paid for it ourselves. Um, I don't know how many years ago we did that. So we have a little extra small little Christmas tree in our dining room next to our fireplace, which is where we do most of our homeschooling. And so the 25 Days of Christ, the way it works, there is a book um that talks about you know Jesus' life and the gospels and you know um the different miracles he performed, and then his death and resurrection and and all of that. And so every day leading up to Christmas, we read the little story, and then there is an ornament, a beautiful wooden ornament. You can get them already painted, or you could paint them yourselves, which would be a fun thing to do with your kids too. We got them already painted, and so every day we take turns putting that ornament on the tree, and it's just a really beautiful Advent celebration of what Christmas actually means. It's not just about Jesus' birth, which obviously is important, but his birth is important because of his life and his death and his resurrection and saving our sins, um, dying for us. And so re learning the whole story um and seeing it full picture leading up to Christmas is just a really beautiful thing. It doesn't take a lot of time, we just add that to our morning time. You could add it to supper time, like you can add it whenever you want. But um having something like that where you're going through the whole story, and if you have some kind of symbol of each day, it can be really fun for the kids and help them really remember um all of those different things that Jesus did um during his time leading up to his death and resurrection. Another really simple thing you can do is just listen to some Christmas hymns leading up to Christmas. If you do um, if you follow Charlotte Mason or you incorporate hymns into your homeschool, just replace your normal hymn with a Christmas hymn. The same thing goes with Christmas poems. If you do poetry in your homeschool, you could look up some Christmas poetry and learn that. Maybe do a recitation, have them even do copy work is another idea, like having some Christmas copy work, either scriptures from you know, Luke and the Nativity story, or having some different Christmas poems that you will have your kids uh do copy work or recitation from. Those can all be great ways to incorporate Christmas into your homeschool, doing things you kind of already do, but just making them Christmassy and focused on Jesus and the Nativity story. Another thing, kind of going along the lines of that, is having a Chris Christmas picture study. So looking up different paints, paintings or um sculptures or artwork or whatever it may be, um, usually paintings for picture study, but just different artwork that reflects Christmas in some way. You could look up how different artists depicted the nativity scene and talk about that. Maybe have one a week and then you compare what does the Bible actually say? What do these pictures show? Like, are the wise men in the picture or are they not? And what does the Bible say about that? And having your kids kind of figure that out and talk about the differences and similarities and how they depict Jesus and the shepherds and the angels and all of that can be um a really great way to incorporate picture study, but also you're talking about this the story of Jesus and his birth and what the Bible actually says and comparing them, which I think is a really cool idea. Obviously, another idea is just to incorporate reading the Bible and reading the nativity story, or you could read that and then read. Um you could read the whole one of the whole books of the Gospels. Uh, a lot of people read Luke this time of year because it has the most thorough nativity story. Um, but you could compare that and then you can, or you could read that and then read, you know, the different miracles that Jesus performed. You could read about his death and resurrection. Um, I just think obviously that's a really important thing to do this time of year. But if you hadn't thought about doing that, um incorporating that into like your morning time or over breakfast or over afternoon tea or at supper time or before bed as a family, however you want to do it, uh, is probably the most important thing you could do to incorporate Christmas into your homeschool. And um, something obviously we should all be doing, whether we homeschool or not, if we are Christians leading up to Christmas, if we celebrate. Obviously, another fun thing to do is incorporate Christmas picture books. There are many great picture books um about Christmas, some of which aren't necessarily focused on Jesus, but many that are. Um I'm not going to share a bunch of names of different picture books, but there are tons of lists out there. So having like a picture book a day where you're reading either about what Christmas actually means or about like more like virtuous stories or morality stories or stories of kindness and goodness and things like that during the holiday season is just a really fun thing to do, and they're just fun to pull out every year. We just love reading picture books this time of year. Another thing you can do, and I know a lot of people wouldn't necessarily necessarily think of this as homeschooling, but you can do some of your Christmas baking, and that is science, and it's also life skills. Um, having your kids help you bake cookies um or bake the Christmas ham or whatever it may be leading up to Christmas, doing those different things that you do as a family and baking and cooking different things that are special. Um, and if you want to like maybe make different recipes that people use to celebrate Christmas all over the world or something, so then it's also history. But just think of the different um subjects you're learning through these things, and it still is school. Uh, we did a lot of baking for school last year, and um we still do with our peaceful press curriculum, there's a recipe every week. We don't always get to it, but that is definitely still learning. Um, it's something that's been lost in the schools, if you ask me, but also very important for kids to learn for the future, and so that's definitely something you can consider as school. Also, if you take your kids shopping and have them do the math, do the budgeting, you have this much money to spend, um, or we as a family have this much money to spend and kind of have them take on, okay, how much money do we have per person? How much do each of these things cost? Do we have enough money for that? Having them actually pay for it. Even if you did it online, it would still be the same. But I think it's even more meaningful if you go out and actually do that together. But that is math, that is budgeting, that's finances, that's life skills. Um, that's definitely still learning. Um, probably a way better way of learning than just doing like a math problem about it is actually going and doing it. So that's another fun way. Uh, I already mentioned Christmas copy work, but finding um a poem or a scripture every week that you want, or even the hymns that you want to have your kids copy or recite are great ways to incorporate Christmas into your homeschool. Another thing many families do, but maybe you wouldn't even think of it as homeschooling still, is doing some kind of artwork or craft for Christmas, um, making ornaments or decorating cookies or creating, like even making cards. I know for our homeschool co-op, I'm teaching watercolor right now to five to seven year olds, and I am not a watercolor painter by any means. I'm just a couple steps ahead of them. And we, for our final project this term, we are making, we are painting Christmas cards. So there's like one version has a wreath, one version has a tree, and one version is like a beautiful night sky with some bare trees with snow on the branches. And so those will turn into gifts for people, but they're also learning a skill through that. They're learning art through that. And so you could have your kids paint um or decorate wrapping paper, um, ornaments, like I said, so many different things they could be using as art during the Christmas season that's not just fun, but also can be functional, which is also like a double bonus. Obviously, incorporating a Christmas read-aloud is something really, really fun. I'm gonna just mention a few. Um, and if you want to add in some hot chocolate chocolate and Christmas treats while you're reading to your kids, or having them do the um the puzzle or something like that, or doing a craft while you're reading, um, you can get double the benefit or triple or quadruple, depending on how many things you're having them do. But some of our favorite Christmas read alouds, and I will have links to these in the show notes. Um, the Vanderbeakers, their very first book, um, is set during Christmas time. My oldest daughter, we read that a couple years ago, and she just loves the Vanderbeaker, so that's a fun one. Um, Little Christmas Carol, that's the new book put out by the same uh writer and author of Little Pilgrim's Progress with the little bunnies, which is beautiful. They have Little Christmas Carol, so it's a retelling um with beautiful illustrations of Charles Dickens' The Christmas Carol. And so you could read that um or just the original, but that one's really fun for younger kids. The best Christmas pageant ever we read a few years ago, we saw the play, and now the movie is out and has Lauren Graham in it, so I'm extra sold on it, but um just a really great, funny but also endearing story about kids learning about Jesus for the first time through a nativity play. Um beautiful book, very short and easy to read. Another one is I saw three ships. There's a return to Christmas, The Family Under the Bridge, set in France. Uh, we read last year, The True Gift, uh, which is about a cow. Then there's Nancy and Plum, we read. That one um is about two orphans. We read a few years ago. We really enjoyed. And then The Best Christmas uh is a fun, more a little bit older story um for your family. So lots of different ideas. There's tons of other ones out there, of course, but those are some of our favorites that I will link to that you can read one or two of leading up to Christmas, either during your homeschool time or at the end of the day. It's still learning, it's still reading, um, still counts. And so that's another way to incorporate into your homeschool. Another idea is to make gifts. So maybe you're going to make candles. Um, that would be like science, but also just, you know, anything you do with your hands, a handicraft. Um, if you're gonna have your kids like sew something or crochet something or knit something, do a cross stitch, um, do some woodworking, make something out of paper slowed. Like there are so many different handicrafts you can incorporate into your homeschool and then give those as gifts. So it's like double benefit. They're learning, they're practicing some uh hands-on skill, and then they're able to give it away. Uh, and those are some of the most meaningful gifts, too. So that's another way to incorporate that Christmas into your homeschool. Also, your kids could, if they play an instrument, have that, you could have them learn how to play Christmas music um on their instrument. That's definitely learning. That's, you know, if they were in school, that would be banned. Um, and so that's another idea. And then my very last idea to incorporate Christmas into your homeschool is to go on some kind of field trip. Um, who doesn't love a homeschool field trip? Doesn't even have to be during like your normal homeschool time, but anything you do um outside the home can be considered a field trip as homeschooling family. So going to see the nutcracker, um, we're going to see a Christmas carol, the play, going caroling, volunteering in some way, going to a symphony. We're doing actually a few of these things, going to a historical home tour. Um, so many different things. Uh, going to see the Christmas lights, like all of that. We do, we often will do a trolley tour of the Christmas lights. And um, all those things can be considered, you know, field trips. They're not always super educational, but a lot of these are, um, especially if there's like a play or music involved or something like that. So lots of different ways to incorporate Christmas into your homeschool, many of which you probably already do in some way, but haven't considered it homeschool. And many of which are really easy to just kind of insert um or replace something you already do with one of these. Like if you already do a read aloud, just replace it as a Christmas read aloud. If you already do poetry, just find some Christmas poems. Like, it doesn't have to be super complicated. You can still bring that Christmas spirit into your homeschool without devoting the whole month to everything Christmas, which is okay too. If you want to do that, um, you have that freedom as a homeschooling family, and we have done that in the past. But these are just some fun ways to incorporate homeschool uh Christmas into your homeschool. I hope this was inspiring. Um let me know if there's any other ideas that you have, DM me over on Instagram at homeschoolglue. I would love to share some extra ideas in my stories if there's other ideas. Um, but if you found something useful out of this episode, I would love if you would leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Really uh does help us out. And so I appreciate it so much. And I hope leading up to Thanksgiving, if you're in the US or just leaning into the Christmas spirit, if you are, you know, in Canada or somewhere else in the world, uh, that you will have a great time with your family and can really connect and bond and focus on the true meaning of all the holidays coming up and just enjoy and really relish this time together. Thank you so much for listening. I will talk to you soon. Happy homeschooling. Thank you for stopping by my little cozy home here on the internet. I pray this podcast episode blessed your life and helped encourage you. I would appreciate so much if you would leave a rating and review. And why not share this episode with a friend while you're at it? Make sure you follow me over on Instagram at homeschoolglue for lots of other intentional motherhood and homeschool tips and encouragement and some funny memes in there. And as always, happy homeschooling. I'll talk to you soon. Have a good day.