January 2012: Reflecting on the holidays of 2011 and looking forward.

We started "back to school" yesterday, January 3, 2012. I was ready to get back after a three month divergence from regular school activities.  It was so fun, but there's just something about normalcy and structure that I crave.
During the holidays, the boys continued to do their seatwork, but expectations were lighter so that we could immerse ourselves in learning about & getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  Of course we also had a complete 2 week break as well.

Our tree

We (mostly I) started working on home-made Christmas gifts about October 30th, and I worked on them right up until the week of Christmas.  Also, I like to spend time discussing and learning about the holidays and their histories during these times. One of the first things we did in anticipation of Thanksgiving was to enjoy the book Growing Together in Gratitude by Barbara Rainey.  We also listened to her book and CD set called Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember.  After that we listened to the Focus on the Family audio drama, "Squanto."   These books are becoming somewhat of a tradition for us during that time of year.  We also made a Gratitude tree, which was basically a posterboard tree with leaves taped to it.  We wrote the things we were thankful for on the leaves.

Another activity we enjoyed was making Christmas tree ornaments out of buttons.

Here are the boys in front of the tree at Spring Mill Inn.  Mom came up for a few days and visited us right before Christmas (I wish I had taken a picture of her with the boys).

For the new year, we are adding a couple of new studies into our daily schedule. 

•   Leading Little Ones to God is "the basics" of leading children to the Lord.  I wanted to make sure I didn't leave anything out when teaching my children about the Lord.  Even though we regularly attend church, daily memorize verses, read a Bible story, and read the Psalms out loud, I want to make sure I don't leave the plan of salvation out.  I thought the book might help me out.

• We are also going through Journey through the Bible.  It is fascinating!  It gives the historical background behind the Scriptures.  It was a must when I saw it!   

•   I am back to ABeka for history, and we are going to use Apologia Science.  I have heard rave reviews about Apologia, and we are going to use their astronomy book.  We will see how it goes!

• Now that we have finished memorizing the Presidents in order, we are memorizing the states & capitals via song.  After they learn that song, I plan to teach them the locations of the states and do a study about each state.

That's pretty much all we are changing for now.  We are already enjoying the new studies!