Advent 2007 - School plans

A commonly asked question I hear every year from homeschool friends is 'What do you do for school during the holiday season?' Typically here at Knotty Pines Trails, we take a break from our regularly scheduled school subjects and go on an Advent and Christmas season "rabbit trail" or unit study.

In past years we have done variations of this integrated literature unit for Advent and Christmas with Tomie de Paola which has now been updated, and Jan Brett's 'Twas the Night Before Christmas unit study both of which Elizabeth Foss has brilliantly put together. We have thoroughly enjoyed them both and look forward to using them in future years.

However, this year we will be taking a different literature approach for the Advent and Christmas season with 'The Little Pinecones'. My dear friend Cay Gibson has just come out with a new book Christmas Mosaic, An Illustrated Book Study for Advent and Christmas. After starting our Liturgical Craft Club this year, using her book list and ideas from Catholic Mosaic, I could not resist this new treasure trove. I am really excited for this year our Christmas budget is very tight and many of these books I have been able to find at our local library and I promised the kids we would fill the season with many fond memories - cooking, crafts and reading etc! We are all very excited and thank you Cay for this wonderful treasure we will enjoy it for many years to come.

Starting the week after Thanksgiving we like to take a break from some of our regularly scheduled school subjects to follow rabbit trails (mini unit studies) that are more focused on the season.

In the afternoons the whole family has been enjoying wonderful books from Christmas Mosaic and participating in some great craft and cooking projects of which I will post more on later. I am building a wonderful Christmas list of books for next year.

This year the children are participating in a couple different unit studies. Typically we do these together as a family but this year it worked out that each student desired to pick their own unit study.

Aravis is working on a St. Nicholas study that I adapted for our family using a variety of resources from several very creative and resourceful ladies at the 4Real Learning forums.

Jill is working on a mini unit study for the fabulous Advent trilogy Jotham's Journey. This idea was one of those unexpected rabbit trails graciously offered by Catholic Mom's Journey. When she is finished with this mini unit study she will be doing a Twelve Days of Christmas lapbook. We love Jan Brett's books so when this opportunity unexpectedly arose we decided to take advantage of all the wonderful ideas.

King Peter and Lucy have been working on Jesse Tree books while reading aloud from a wonderful book called The Jesse Tree. King Peter is using the prayers relating to that day's Jesse Tree reading for copywork then coloring an illustration of the symbol that will then be bound together into a book. Lucy's Jesse Tree book is a bit more simplified. We are creating felt symbols each day, using many from Serendipity and several of our own, then gluing them onto a page where that day's Jesse Tree bible verse is already written. These will then be bound into a book. I will try to work on getting updated pictures into our albums this week.