Homeschool Preschool Week 14

We have gotten really Christmas-y around here this week! It is the beginning of December and we are so excited for all the things we have planned this month. This week was a great start to the Christmas season. 

We began learning a new bible verse this month: Isaiah 9:6 - "For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government is upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Our Catechism for the month is: "How can you glorify God?" --- "By loving Him and doing as He commands."

Ellie and I got to further decorate her bedroom for Christmas by making a red and green paper chain to go across one wall. I LOVED decorating my playroom with my big sister as a child for all the holidays - especially Christmas! Ellie first wanted to play with the strips of paper making patterns. We color sorted them also. She loves building and creating and she made a city of just the paper strips. What an imagination! Then she got to practice her staple skills as we connected them together. Once connected we hung the chain up over her bed. This was such fun and really great for patterns, sorting, and meticulous method skills. 

We began our chocolate advent calendar in addition to Advent which began the most previous Sunday. We gather every night by the fire with blankets and pillows and read from three books/devotionals for our advent study time. These books are: "Jotham's Journey," "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus," and "The Dawning of Indestructible Joy." This last one is a John Piper devotional and I am really enjoying this. We drink egg-nog, tea, or hot chocolate. We pray, light the candles (One new one a week) and cuddle and learn about the coming of Christ as a baby, together. 

We made Christmas Play-Dough. Green play dough, red glitter, peppermint essential oil. Mix. Play. Ellie really relaxed with this and had fun cutting, slicing, and rolling the dough.

Ellie made magic happen in the cold Christmas land of the North Pole by using pipettes filled with red or green warm salt water to melt and decorate a massive ice block. She also added glitter and worked to use the pipettes to wash away the glitter on the ice block. 

One night, my husband, Ellie, and myself, went to my parent's house to sing Christmas carols. We then ventured inside for hot chocolate and Christmas cookies. I love these moments to learn to perform and be confident, and to also just bond with family! She was actually surprisingly happily shy and laughed a lot. She never sang but she thought it was a funny adventure. So again, just pushing boundaries and teaching her to put herself out there, be silly, and be confident. And who better to do that with than with her grandparents?!

We made some pinecone birdfeeders in preparation for next week for forest school. Pinecones, peanut butter, bird seed, yarn.

Something super and new, fun, and educational we did together as a family this week was to teach Ellie to make her own candles. These candles are to be her gifts to her aunt and uncle, and both sets of grandparents. We used beeswax, old cashew butter jars washed and cleaned out and label removed, apple pie spice oil, and wicks from Hobby Lobby. We followed some deeply detailed instructions I found on the great world of Google and worked together as a family to learn and create. 

Ellie did a lot of block building with her daddy. This is one of her favorite things....one of my husband's as well actually...and they love to do this together. They made an impressive robot and train from rectangular wooden blocks.

At Forest School, Ellie learned about evergreens and Christmas plants. We studied the origin of the traditions of Christmas plants such as mistletoe, Christmas tree, poinsettias, etc. We read many books, purchased our own poinsettia, went on a nature walk to find evergreens, holly, pines, firs, and we read poetry and studied classic art regarding Christmas Roses. We read about the legends of poinsettias in some really cute books. 

Books read the past two weeks:

We also "rowed" another book this week for our Before Five in a Row curriculum which was, "If Jesus Came to My House." We just had such a meaningful time together bonding with Jesus and bonding together. We read this precious story, dug deep into God's word as usual, and just sought to love others the way Jesus loves, and to treat people the way we would if we entertaining Jesus, Himself. Those activities can be read about, here.