December Already?!

Wow! I can't believe it is already the 2nd day of December! We made our family portraits the other day, and I think they came out quite nice :-) Thanks, Dad, for your patience in setting and resetting the timer over 400 times to get just the right shots!



So, we are studying the first Christmas, obviously, and I found a multitude of helpful resources this year! My first favorite is Celebrating the Season! by Sheri Graham. In there I found copywork for the Christmas story found in Luke and Matthew, and was able to adjust to our varying abilities. She also has in there an awesome Advent Calendar, which we are using daily- it reminds me of the Resurrection Eggs, and was VERY easy to put together! Another favorite of mine is the Nativity Lapbook by Angela Frampton. This is a free resource available to anyone to print and I pegged it to be a good independent study for my 6th grader- it is simple enough for him to do on his own, yet he is learning quite a bit. It even has a small comparison/contrast between the Bible and the Nativity Story movie.

For Geography, we are studying the United Kingdom, so this week, DS#2 is reading Magic Tree House #25- Stage Fright on a Summer Night, and DS#1 is Reading Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Together, we are reading The Mystery at Big Ben by Carole Marsh.

For Science, we are still working through Apologia's Zoology I, and currently studying insects. We have raised caterpillars and released the butterflies (one Monarch and five Painted Ladies) and our ant farm is in full swing. All three kids are still enjoying studying Zoology, and I think we are going to be able to move onto Zoology II in January! We recently purchased Sea World passes, so I hope I will find those useful as we study God's swimming creatures...

So- I hope you all are having a wonderful Holiday Season, remembering to keep Christ at the center of it all...