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0:02
Hello, you are listening to Call to Homeschool episode #288 Christmas Lesson Plans.
Friends, how in the world are you?
The holidays are right around the corner.
So before Thanksgiving hits, I wanted to go over my lesson plans for December.
0:21
Now I have with these episodes, I like to do a homeschool tip in the beginning in case you're like, I want to do my own thing.
Fantastic.
I want you to still be able to get something from these episodes.
So as we are moving into the holidays, what I want you to think of with homeschool is when in doubt, remember to kiss.
0:43
Keep it the simple, sister.
I see so many clients burn themselves out because they tell themselves they have to go big on everything.
Friends, I'm here to remind you, no, you don't.
You don't have to decorate for the holidays.
1:00
You don't have to make everything from scratch.
You don't have to do neighbor gifts.
Now, you can do some of these things if you want to and they speak to you.
But it's also OK to keep things simple.
There was one Christmas I just didn't have it in my heart to decorate and I just did not care.
1:18
And our Christmas tree was so sad.
We had a real Christmas tree and I completely quit watering it.
So it was slowly dying at our house and I didn't want to decorate it and apparently neither did my kids, 'cause I have big kids and they could have easily gone and got some of the decorations, but they didn't want to either apparently.
1:37
And so it just sat there and every time a neighbor came over with a gift, we would put it on the tree.
If we would make something during school, like we would make a reindeer craft or we did make snowflakes or something, we'd stick it on the tree.
And it became this hilarious thing of like, that's all we have in US is to just stick it on this tree.
1:58
And it was super memorable and super fun.
So you can't do it all.
You need to just pick what is the most important to you and do that.
I even think with Thanksgiving, I signed up to bring rolls and I thought, you know, I may make them all from scratch because I really like my homemade rolls.
2:17
But if so, things start feeling crazy and I feel like I just don't have the time.
I also don't feel bad if I run to Costco and go get some rolls from there too, because everybody's still going to just be happy that there are rolls there.
I actually have a couple different food assignments.
So I will just either if I have feel like I have the space mental energy to do things from scratch, I will totally do it.
2:38
And if I don't, I don't feel bad about buying something from the store.
So whatever speaks to you, maybe decorating really does speak to you.
It obviously does not speak to me.
So do that.
But then realize that you have to pull back somewhere else, right?
So you just can't do it all.
So pick what's the most important as you are going to the holiday season and do that.
2:58
So that's just my quick tip for you.
So let's move into December's Christmas lesson plans.
I'm really excited about this one because just I feel like as my lesson plans, as I progressed, this is my second year doing them and just getting more and more feedback.
3:14
What do people like?
What do they want?
I wanted this Christmas to be incredibly simple.
Obviously, keep it simple, sisters.
So super simple, very affordable, and incredibly doable.
So with that, I only have three book suggestions for the whole entire month.
3:35
One of them is the chapter read aloud book.
And I said you can use this certain chapter read aloud book or you can just use Christmas stories you already have on hand, picture books and read those.
That has been a fun thing that we've done before with Christmas time is just reading different picture books that we already own.
3:54
So if you already own some picture books, fantastic.
Just use those.
The book I suggested for science, I found it on YouTube that you can just have somebody else read it to you on YouTube if you don't want to buy it.
The one for history, I did not see it, but it is.
So you would probably need to get that.
4:11
But so if finances are tight, you can just grab the one book and make it super affordable.
Let's see.
So there will be 12 lesson plans.
So three weeks of lessons.
Because as I was looking at the December calendar, the 4th week is Christmas.
So it felt a little silly to say here's do this when people most likely are kind of done and don't want to.
4:32
So they'll be 3 weeks of lesson plans and four lessons each week.
I've always done school four days a week and I love it because it gives me wiggle room.
It gives me the ability to stay consistent.
And so I really love doing that.
4:47
And then it also, if you're in a Co-op, right, with some co-ops will end during December that maybe there's fun things in your town or in a big city near you that you can go do some Christmas activities as a family.
Super awesome.
So giving you some flexibility, the lesson plans have been incredibly condensed.
5:05
So it's just memorization and it's not even a poem and a scripture.
It's just a scripture read aloud.
And like like I said, it's I have a chapter book suggestion or you can just do picture books and then one subject a day.
So some of the lesson plans you'll see I have warm up activities.
5:21
And then there's like you can watch this video, you can do all these different types of things.
So this one is just a lot more condensed.
So there is a subject each day and some of the subjects do have some activities with them, but it just make it super simplified so you can actually get to school and feel good about yourself that you are doing it.
5:42
Let's see.
I do also for arts, I have included a book of poetry that have poems about the nativity and some about snowflakes and snowmen.
And so I wanted you once again to not have to think like I have to buy another book because I know finances could be tight, but sometimes people are like, I just don't have the space for another book or we move a lot or we are nomad homeschoolers, right?
6:02
So just trying to make it as easy as possible that I already put the poems together for you and they're really cute and super sweet.
And so if you want to memorize 1, the lot of them are just 4 stanzas.
And so you could do that and just have a lot of fun with them.
So your kids will get lessons in the arts, there's a writing activity, there's science, and then there's history.
6:24
I am still going to have my kids do all their basics like math, reading and writing.
But there aren't any more books for teens this month.
So you can either have them finish up books that they were currently working on for November or for maybe a Co-op or another subject, another class that they are taking.
6:43
You can find a cute Christmas story, like a feel good story that you're like, this would just be really fun for you to read.
Like if you're like, I would just really like you to read this.
Or you can just let them have an easier month and go a little bit slower and just do some of their basics.
The choice is completely yours, friends.
7:00
I really love helping homeschool families and I want to make your life easy.
So head on over to www.coachmegthomas.com and download your lesson plans so you don't even have to think of what to do for school during December.
It'll be already planned for you.
7:16
Love you all and I will talk to you next week.
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