Maridel Willer

My traditions for the weekend after Thanksgiving include decorating for Christmas and planning how we will be “homeschooling for the holidays”. We take a break from our regular schooling in December, but continue our learning with a holiday theme.

I just reserved a bunch of Christmas books at our library website for our literature studies, including a biography on Handel, the composer of the “Messiah” cantata. I pulled out another book I purchased last year on the history of Christmas Carols, and will plan to learn about 1 per week this month, including ALL of the lyrics.

The next thing on my list is to choose an Advent bible study and a personal devotion for both myself and my daughter. I have already downloaded Rachel Larkin’s “Discovering God’s Names” study (www.Rachel-Larkin.com) for my personal morning devotion and I have been searching for just the right study to do in the evenings when we light our Advent candles. Advent starts this Sunday and making a nightly devotion part of your holiday traditions is a wonderful way to keep your focus on Christ amidst the busyness of the next few weeks.

Click on the banner to find the Black Friday Freebies at:

Christmas has come a bit early at our house as we have been getting packages of exciting things to review almost every week. We are blessed to be a part of the TOS (The Old Schoolhouse Magazine) Crew, a team of 100 homeschool families who are trying out products and sharing our thoughts to help others choose the right resources for their own homeschools.

I was really excited when I opened the box for the One2Believe Nativity set and saw how cute it and well made it was. My children love to play with Nativity characters and have broken several “dollar store” variety ones over the years. This is one that I won’t have to worry about leaving out for the whole month of December. It is very durable, made of 1 piece vinyl figures with no small parts to break off or misplace. The size of the characters is about 2 1/2 inches, so they fit nicely in a child’s hand and are alot of fun to set up.

The set includes a “Birth of Baby Jesus” mini-storybook and 17 PVC pieces (Joseph, Mary, baby Jesus in manger, 3 Kings, 2 Angels, 2 Shepherds, camel, donkey, 2 sheep, stable, tree, and a barrel of hay). It is designed for ages 3 and up.

I had never heard of One2Believe, so I headed over to their website (http://www.one2believe.com/) to see what other products they have. I found 12 other figurine sets, plus dolls and a bear that all have bible themes. These all look like great alternatives to what is available at a typical toy store.

Here is their company vision statement from the website:

One2believe’s passion is to help children learn important Bible lessons and to have them come to faith in Jesus. Our goal is to provide fun ways of teaching children about the greatest people who ever lived. Through the toys that we design children will learn and play out exciting stories about real people. Our toys teach children that there are real superheroes they can believe in!

One2believe has a great desire to support parents in their battle for their children’s hearts and minds. We pray that parents will take the lead by engaging their children in faith and get them excited about Jesus. In Phillipians it speaks about pressing on, at one2believe we believe that we will either influence the world or the world will influence us.

For food and shelter and for toil,
For all thy gifts from sun and soil,
For cares that help us to grow strong,
For thought that guides from right toward wrong,
For tears that cleanse and the need to be
Closer in our touch with thee,
For every care thy love bestows,
For every joy each glad heart knows,
For all good things we feel or see,
Dear loving God, our thanks to thee!

By Soveig Paulson Russell

The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine is one of my favorite resources for practical tips and Biblical encouragement for homeschooling. I just found out about an amazing deal they have next week during their annual Black Friday Sale November 26 – 30. For those 5 days only, they are drastically reducing their one-year subscription price to $7.95! That’s the price you would usually pay for just one issue at a bookstore!

A one-year subscription to this quarterly magazine also includes the Teacher’s Toolbox, a subscriber’s only E-Newsletter that will give you a bunch of seasonal teaching ideas with a free E-Book download every month! It’s like joining a free unit study of the month club! The free E-Books alone are valued at almost $250/year, so it’s great if you are homeschooling on a shoestring or just want to add in some little extras to spice up your teaching.

In addition to the magazine, you may want to check out the bonus gifts you will receive for shopping at their site. There is even a Win Big contest for whoever just happens to be customer 67,000 - who will receive a prize package valued at almost $500 including a $150 gift certificate to the Schoolhouse Store. (Who couldn’t use that at this time of the year?) You can qualify to win it no matter how much or how little you spend!

My holiday preparation chore for this week was cleaning out my children’s closets and bedrooms and selecting toys, clothes, books and games that are ready for a new owner. They have birthdays right around Christmas, so it is really important for us to make space for the gifts that they will receive. I prefer not to wait until the new year, but go ahead and clear out the everything that that they no longer use or need. Here are some ways that I have encouraged them to let go of as many things as possible this month.

1. We talk about being a good steward of all that the Lord has blessed us with. It is important for them to understand what a blessing it is for other families to be able to get used toys in good condition. I remind them that a toy that has not been out of the closet at all this year could have been used by another child.

2. I tell them that part of being a steward is only keeping what you really use and need. Having more things than you have time to play with or room to store is a form of greed.

3. We sell some of the items at a consignment store or to friends with younger children. We have used this money to buy gifts for children in other countries through Samaritan’s purse or for local children through Angel Tree Programs. I also let them have some of the money for buying small gifts for each other and their grandparents.

4. This is an annual tradition for us and when we always set the goal to finish going through the whole house to de-clutter and clean before Thanksgiving. Our reward for getting it done is to be able to start decorating for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving. (Much less stressful than hitting the stores for the Black Friday sales!)

We are moving right into Home “Schooling” for the Holidays this week. It is just about time to put away the regular school work and dig into some fun books and activities that build family memories and remind us all about the ultimate gift that God has given us in His son, Jesus Christ.

I ran across a free unit study from Amy Pack of Homeschool in the Woods that covers history, writing, art, and even science and math as you celebrate the season in your home. Check it out at http://www.homeschoolinthewoods.com/ChristmasLesson/.

www.HelpMe2Teach.com is a subscription-based internet directory of online educational resources. The site provides links to over 2500 educational websites containing information of interest to teachers, parents and students. The directory includes a search function for the site and a detailed table of contents that organizes the listings into over 30 major educational categories.

I have tested the site a number of times over the past few weeks and came up with the following ways it might be useful to homeschooling families.

1. The directory covers a wide variety of subjects and could be used as a first look for gathering resources for a unit study.

2. The table of contents is organized in a way to make it easy to browse through to get ideas or to search for supplemental materials for basic skills, such as math and reading.

3. Older children may find the site helpful for doing their own research and parents have some measure of confidence in knowing that the sites listed have had prescreening for safety and relevance.

NOTE: I strongly recommend that all use of the internet by children be under the direct supervision of parents, because the internet changes daily and it would be impossible to test all outgoing links from the list of recommended sites.

4. Parents who do not have a lot of experience with what types of educational information is available on the internet, and are not familiar with the use of search engines such as Google and Yahoo, can easily get started with this directory.

You should consider these things when deciding whether HelpMe2Teach will work well for your family:

1. Parents who are experienced with the use of internet search engines may find that they can more quickly find pertinent sites using Google or Yahoo when they are looking for very specific information.

2. Not all of the websites listed in the HelpMe2Teach directory present material from a Christian worldview. For example, the science sites may have evolutionary content.

Here are the costs for a subscription to HelpMe2Teach.com:
1 year@ $29.95
3 mos. for $15.95
1 mo. for $9.95
3 days for $4.95

They have a special offer now through the end of December that gives you a second year for FREE when you purchase one year for $29.95.

For more information, go to www.HelpMe2Teach.com

With the holiday season rapidly approaching, what is your plan for your home and homeschool? Do you try to get as much done as you can with regular school, and then pile Thanksgiving and Christmas activities on top of what you are doing? Do you take a week or more break for each holiday and completely stop school? Does even talking about making a decision about what to do seem stressful!

There is a simpler solution to this. With a little creativity and the right heart attitude you can take advantage of the coming season to create an atmosphere of relaxed learning centered around the celebration of who Jesus is and what He has done for us.

Check back for tips on how you can do this throughout the months of November and December, plus suggestions for books and other resources that will help you make holiday memories in your home.

Would you like to have the most relaxed, Christ filled holiday season ever? Two secrets for preparing your heart and home are finding a special advent devotion and writing down your plans for the coming weeks. I’ve just pulled out the fantastic resource that I found last year to cover both of these items in one package - The Twelve Week Holiday Planner by Sheri Graham, which includes Ann Voscamp’s “The Glorious Coming” Jesse tree advent devotional.

I know, it is less than 12 weeks to Christmas (I have never been able to get started than early), but you don’t need to have started last month to get alot of good ideas from Sheri’s planner.

Twelve Week Holiday Planner
Click here to view more details