This first week in December has been all about counting the days until Christmas.  I am just as bad, if not worse than the kids when it comes to the rush and excitement of the holidays.  Also, we look forward to surprises each day and a welcomed break from learning as usual.

We’ve had special activities each day this week.  We dug out the box of Nativity collectables from the garage and cleaned off our school shelves for them.  We made a couple of trips to the grocery to buy cookie and treat ingredients for baking/cooking projects.  We have also visited the craft store to stock up on the supplies we’ll be needing for our holiday art creations. There’s been old favorite Christmas movies watched. And of course, we loaded our bookbags up with stacks of library books with holiday themes.  Finally, there were web sites with holiday studies that we have linked to each day.  Below are the best of the online resources we have kicked off our learning through December with.

For our daily Bible devotions we have started the Advent Chain from this site.  It’s simple to print and assemble but meaningful and thought provoking  http://www.spelloutloud.com/advent-chains-easy-christmas-craft.html

Daily Christmas countdown activities for both my teens and younger boys .  One is a calendar which features an interactive game or activity for each day and another calendar with a different Christmas themed geography and history lesson.  Both calendars are found here http://primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/teacher/christmas.html#advent

NORAD also has a site with a new interactive activity each day as well as some other north pole and Santa activities and resources  http://www.noradsanta.org/

The teens also have an interactive calendar to link to each day.  This one offers a new secondary level math video each day http://nrich.maths.org/10472

Even more Christmas Countdown and Advent resources

I haven’t made this yet, but plan to.  This mamma NEEDS a countdown activity too!  Candy Countdown Calendar!  http://www.franw.com/2011/11/make-your-own-candy-countdown-calendar.html

More Christmas Resources https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/11/23/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-christmas/

And More Christmas Resources here  https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/11/29/free-christmas-themed-teaching-resources/

https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/12/13/how-holidays-are-made-and-other-christmas-science-lessons/

Hope you are having a wonderful time counting down the days till Christmas!

betty jo