It’s no surprise that themed events are always a hit with families. A little theme gives rhyme and reason to meals, crafts, and storytime. And, it makes memories.
As a mama, I’m always on the lookout for simple ways to curate those extra special memories, magical moments of the season. Now, I do not mean hours of re-creating Pinterest amazingness — I’m talking sweet and simple yet meaningful.
I especially love when I can snag someone else’s idea and tweak it a little for our family’s needs and preferences — enter Christmas School!
A while back I shared about my love for Sarah Mackenzie and her community at Read Aloud Revival. Well, she is back with the most perfect, themed experience – CHRISTMAS SCHOOL! It’s a full guide with ideas, links, resources, and a daily schedule to follow.
Before stumbling across her guide, I had already planned to theme our December homemschool lessons. Counting gingerbread men instead of blocks, making Christmas cookies to practice measurements, and styling our paragraph prompts around elves and winter weather. A little theme brings all the magic and excitement to mundane tasks.
If you’d like to launch your own “Christmas School,” here’s a few ideas for getting started:
Weekday subject themes
One of my favorite takeaways from years of reading homeschool advice is that you do not have to do everything every day. Make Mondays math day and bake a recipe together. There is so much to be learned about fractions, temperature, and quantity when you’re in the kitchen. Read a story on Tuesday and coordinate a craft around it. On Wednesday, dive into some wild history and research a holiday tradition and how it came about. On another day, plan a service project or field trip. You get the gist!
Seasonal theme
Make this year all about peppermint: Research the history, read books about it, dress in only red and white, do a taste test of various flavors and graph everyone’s favorite, paint candy canes, and make peppermint cookies. If peppermint isn't your thing, you could tweak the theme to center around hot cocoa, gingerbread, the Twelves Days of Christmas, Tomie dePaola’s holiday books, or even scratch the idea of Christmas and learn about other winter holidays like Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Winter Solstice to bring light to all that is celebrated this season.
Christmas carol theme
Every day. listen to a new carol and build a mini lesson around that. Best of all, at the end of Christmas season. you’ll have a treasured playlist to remember and sing.
Acts of kindness theme
I remind my kids that the main idea of Christmas is not about the presents they receive, and a Christmas School theme centered around acts of kindness perfectly illustrates this. Help a neighbor winterize their yard, pass out $5 gift cards from a local coffee shop to folks at the store, mail handwritten cards to grandparents and their friends who probably still love receiving written mail, or make soup and bread for a family friend. This year, we read The Giving Manager and that story would flow perfectly with this Christmas School theme.
Movie theme
You can absolutely learn from movies. Work your way though holiday- and winter-themed films and episodes and do as Julie of Brave Writer recommends: Wield the remote and pause throughout to ask open-ended questions like “Who are we rooting for and why?” and “How does the music make you feel?”
If all that feels like too much planning during this already busy season, you can absolutely purchase a pre-made guide like Christmas with Tales from A Year of Learning, or the Christmas Time Guide from Peaceful Press.
Last but not least, if your crew might be averse to the idea of “school,” consider calling your learning activities “Christmas Camp,” “Falalala Lessons,” or “December Days.”
