Gearing Up for Christmas...Our Advent Plans

It's almost time. December 1st will mark the beginning of our advent activities . A few years ago I found a way to incorporate the teaching of history behind the traditions of Christmas with our annual activities off another blog site. So I incorporated what she did and made little notes for each pocket that explains a certain tradition associated with Christmas. Along with each note there is an activity or gift that supports that tradition. The Advent calendar I use has big pockets and I bought it off E-bay. It's a Pottern Barn Advent calendar. The girls are already asking, "When will we start our Advent calendar?" Some times I have to buy new items for the pockets like candy canes and nesting dolls. Other times I just reuse the same things for the same pockets each year. Every year we buy a book for Christmas. So I try to buy one that we would read during our Advent time so I don't have to get it from the library.

Please note: I found the history behind most of the traditions through a unit study prepared by Karen Caroe in 1998. The original unit study can be found here. Since then, Kathryn Martinez has updated the unit and greatly expanded it. You can find her complete advent unit covering all the symbols of Christmas along with Bible verses, activities, recipes and links for additional online resources here.
And there is also a great book called The Adventure of Christmas: Helping Children Find Jesus in Our Holiday Traditions by Lisa Whelchel.

Here is our 2009 Calendar:

Christmas Tree-Dec 1
Give Russell Stover chocolate marshmallow Christmas trees from Hallmark.
Discuss the significance of the Christmas tree.
Read the story of The Three Trees and watch the DVD.
Read The Legend of the Christmas Tree.
Put up our Christmas tree and/or decorate our tree in the front yard for the animals by stringing berries, pieces of fruit, handing birdseed on peanut butter pine cones. Then watching the animals feast.

Gifts For Needy-Dec 2
No gift.
Explain that we are so blessed but there are some children who do not receive gifts. Sometimes they can only count on receiving gifts from strangers.
Read Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant
Go to the store and buy gifts to donate to Angel Tree project.

The Nutcracker-Dec 3
Discuss history of the nutcracker. Get Clara the Nutcracker or put marzipan candy in the pocket. Go see the Nutcracker Ballet. Read The Nutcracker by E.T. A Hoffman. It is the whole story of the Nutcracker which most people don't know. Color from the Nutcracker Ballet Coloring book by Dover coloring. Listen the the Nutcracker music on the way to the Nutcracker and back.

Christmas Carols-Dec 4
Discuss the significance of Christmas carols.
Give CD with Christmas carols on it.

Ornament-Dec 5
Explain tradition of ornaments.Leave their ornament for this year under the tree. Every year we buy our children an ornament that reflects their year. When they are older they will be able to have ornaments that tell a story of their life and use them on their tree until they have children. Decorate tree with ornaments. As the children pull their ornaments from their box I tell them a story about why the ornament was chosen for them.

St. Nicholas-Dec 6
Discuss how St. Nicholas was a man who loved Jesus.
Read The Legend of Saint Nicholas.
Give gold coins like Saint Nicholas left in stockings.

Stockings-Dec 7
Discuss the history of the tradition of stockings.
Give out stockings.
Read The Legend of the Christmas Stocking.

Candles-Dec 8
Discuss the significance of candles at Christmas time.
Give girls candles to decorate with beeswax shapes and give as gifts to neighbors and family.

Jingle Bells-Dec 9
Discuss significance and history of bells. Give bell necklaces and bells to jingle.

Babushka-Dec 10
Discuss Russian tradition of Babushka.
(Try to get a copy of Babushka by Sandra Ann Horn and Sophie Fatus.)
Read The Littlest Matryoshka. Watch the making of nesting dolls on U-Tube.
Give nesting dolls.

First Day of Hanukkah-Dec 11
Read Festival of Lights: The Story of Hanukkah.
Play Dreidel game.

Oranges-Dec 12
Explain the significance of oranges as Christmas.
(Try to get a copy of An Orange for Frankie by Patricia Polacco.)
Give oranges.
Make orange pomander craft with oranges and cloves.

Hot Chocolate for St. Lucia Day-Dec 13
Discuss the Swedish tradition of St. Lucia.
Give hot chocolate and serve it with cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

Snowflakes/Snow Day-Dec 14
Snow flake candy. Have a fun day playing in fake snow.
Read Snowflake Bentley.

Candy Canes-Dec 15
Read The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg and James Bernardin and watch DVD.
Give candy canes.

La Belfana-Dec 16
Discuss Italian tradition of La Befana.
(Try to get a copy of The Legend of Old Befana by Tomie dePaola)
Hide small gifts and candy in shoes.

Gingerbread-Dec 17
Give Gingerbread cookies or gingerbread house to decorate.
Go to gingerbread house exhibit.
Read Jan Brett's The Gingerbread Baby.
Read It's A Gingerbread House by Vera B. Williams.

Animals and the Nativity-Dec 18
Give nesting doll Nativity set from Oriental Trader.
Discuss how the fact that Jesus was born in a manger surrounded by animals shows how he humbled himself to come to Earth.
Read Clopper the Christmas Donkey
Read Tales from the Manger by Chonda and David Pierce.
Go to zoo to see animals.

Christmas Cookies-Dec 19
Explain tradition of Christmas cookies.
Give new Christmas sprinkles.
Make Christmas cookies for cookie exchange.

Angels-Dec 20
Discuss the significance of angels at Christmas time.
Make angel ornaments to give to our neighbors.

Give a Gift-Dec 21
Explain the significance of gift giving at Christmas.
Give each girl a Target gift card and take them shopping for their siblings.

A Poinsettia-Dec 22
Read The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola.
Give poinsettias to neighbors.

Yule Log-Dec 23
Discuss the French Canadian tradition of the Yule log.
Give Ho-Ho as a mini Yule log.

Christmas Eve -Dec 24
Read from the Bible the Christmas story.
Go to church. Open one present.

Here are some pictures of last year and what we did during this time.

Upward Soccer

This year the girls are playing Upward Soccer again. Emma is on a team called the Tigers with her friend Mandy, who goes to our coop. The twins are on the Ladybugs. Pete coaches the Ladybugs. The girls love to play soccer! Kelson likes to go because he gets to play with his cars in the dirt. He told me the other day,"They have really good dirt here." I believe him. When we get ready to leave his is a mess! It has been very humid, even in October. The temperature last Saturday during the games was in the 100's with the humidity being so high. They had to shorten the games so the kids didn't get overheated. The girls like playng on Saturday because they get a slushy to help cool them down. The twins team is so cute. They really like each other a lot and spend more time talking than playing. Oh well, Pete keeps telling them it doesn't matter if you win. It matters if you had fun or not.

Recycle Man

Everyone in our house has chores to do everyday. One of Kelson's chores is to take the recyclables from the house to the recycle bin outside and once a week take it to the curb for pick up. Here is a picture of RECYCLE MAN!

Mark Schultz concert

Since the girls were little we have always listened to Mark Schultz. His songs have really spoke to my heart during difficult times in my life. The girls have wanted to see him in concert for a while now. So when we found out he was coming in concert we bought tickets. The seats were upfront, three rows from the stage. When the music started you could feel the beat of the drum resonate in your body. The opening act for Mark Schultz was Point of Grace. Emma really like their music. During intermission they had a goal of people sponsoring 75 children through World Vision. Emma had sponsored a child in Nicaragua a couple of years ago. She has enjoyed writing Maria Louisa and sending pictures back and fourth. Hannah and Kristen really wanted to sponsor a child of their own so we let them each pick a child. Hannah picked a little girl a year younger than her that lives in Ethiopia, Africa. Kristen pick a little boy her age from Zambia, Africa. Both children live in villages with HIV Aids. Hannah and Kristen were so excited and have already started drawing pictures and writing letters to their sponsored child. Because they meet their goal, anyone who sponsored a child got to go backstage and meet Mark Schultz and Point of Grace. They talked to us, played more songs and the girls got their pictures taken with them. We didn't get home until 11 pm. The girls thought it was AWESOME and so did we!

Kelson's 4th Birthday

This year we didn't celebrate Kelson's birthday on his actual birthdate. The girls and Pete and I went to see Mark Schultz and Point of Grace in concert. Kelson hung out with Stacey, our babysitter. They went to get his birthday cake and went to get something to eat. Stacey asked Kelson if he wanted to get something to eat. He said,"Yes!" She asked him what he wanted to go eat. He said,"Food." How cute! We celebrated his birthday on Sunday. This was the first year Kelson didn't have a construction vehicle birthday. This year he had a Rescue Heroes birthday party. He was excited when he saw the table decorated in the morning. He kept asking when he was going to eat his cake. After church we ate lunch and Nanny came over and we ate cake. Then he opened presents. He got a Rescue Hero Firetruck with a man and woman firefighter and Police Helicopter. And a forklift that makes sounds. Hannah and Kristen got him a walking, talking dinosaur. Emma got him a Lightning McQueen MAC truck. Kristen also wrote a song for Kelson and played it on the piano.

Cumberland Island

On the Saturday before we left we took a ferry from St. Marys, Georgia to Cumberland Island. We learned about the history of the Carnegie family who owned the majority of the island. When Lucy Carnegie died she willed the island to the federal government. Now the majority of the island is a state park. Lucy had horses delivered to her island when she lived there and in her will she stated they must remain wild. The horses had just had five baby foals. One of them especially liked Emma (see photo). We were the first to walk the beach and found a huge conch shell completely in tacked (see photo of Emma), saw horseshoe crabs, shells we've never seen before (see photo of Hannah) and two sand dollars (see photo of Kristen). Kristen was especially happy because she promised to find one for MeMe. The girls completed a booklet with information about the island as part of the ranger program and received real ranger badges. The girls said after finding the BIG conch shell and sand dollars that it was the best beach they had ever been on. They felt like they were Nim from Nim's Island because there was no one around. It was an awesome day! We will definately go back.

Fort Clinch, Amelia Island

We took the children to Fort Clinch and learned a lot about the Civil War. There was hardly anyone there since school just started so we had the place to ourselves. The man in Union uniform met us at the storage building and showed us around. He really played the part, showing us what hot uniforms the government issued because they didn't know how warm it was in the south because in the north it was cold. Showed us how they made shoes for the soldiers. He let them taste hard tack. He was so much in character as we were leaving he asked us if we had a pass to give the man at the gate. We of course had no idea what he was talking about so he took us in the officers quarters and took out an old writing box with quill pen and wrote on an old official pass with the names of the people in our party so we could leave the fort and not be shot upon, as that is what they would do to the Confederates if they came near. The girls remarked about how fun it was and how much they learned. It's times like those that make me realize how much homeschooling really pays off. They didn't just read about it in a book, but also experienced history. They touched, saw and in some cases smelled (the prision) what life was like back in those times. How hard it was being a solider and what it meant by the saying,"Don't let the bed bugs bite."