Once Thanksgiving has come and gone, we enter the rush toward Christmas. With family, church, and homeschooling obligations it can seem like we are always a little bit behind during the month of December. Why not consciously plan ahead and choose to create a little margin? Homeschooling offers us that kind of flexibility. In our homeschool, we will be setting aside the bulk of our studies in favor of an extended Advent Morning Time. Here are the resources we are using.
Jesse Tree from Paper Dali
Coloring Jesse Tree ornaments is the foundation of all we do in Advent. Through the month, we revel in the full scope of redemptive history read aloud. Veronica from Paper Dali has created lovely hand-drawn illustrations for your children to color while you read the scripture. Hearing scripture each day and taking the time to slow down and really listen while we color has added a depth to our Advent that makes celebrating Christmas so sweet.
Advent Morning Time Plans
Pam Barnhill from Your Morning Basket have created a set of plans that combines prayer, scripture memory, carols, art, and poetry. If you add in a little math and a read aloud, your homeschool day could be almost complete! These plans are structured, but leave plenty of room for you to tailor the plan to your schedule.
SQUILT Christmas Calendar
Mary Prather from SQUILT Music Appreciation has created a wonderful listening calendar for all of Advent. It contains a song to listen to each day. I look forward to the surprise of each day’s piece and the hope of finding some new favorites. Mary has even included a discount code for the Christmas Carol SQUILT lessons!
Peaceful Practices
This collection of simple practices–like clearing the clutter and giving our children the gift of our presence–can set the stage for peace. Each day this week, you can read a post and pick just one of practices. Little by little through the month your heart will become ready to welcome the Prince of Peace.
-originally published November 2016
Kortney Garrison lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest. Her days are filled with stories and poems, nature walks, drawing, and pots of tea. She writes about homeschooling through the church year at One Deep Drawer.
I love your last sentence! Years ago my children’s choir learned a sweet song, “Get Ready”. Each Advent that song has stuck with me because this season is all about preparing our heart’s for the Savior’s birth. Thank you for these resources, and thank you for including SQUILT.
Last night before bed, our three year old had to listen to Sleigh Ride just one more time! Thanks for making our celebrations so sweet, Mary!
Very nice!
My Catholic Kids / My Jesse Tree are currently giving away Jesse Tree ornament printouts (both full colour & black-and-white for colouring) along with a Bible Characters for Advent e-book for free.
The drawings are simple and the ornaments are a bit smaller than Paper Dali’s (which are CD-sized).
The Advent storybook’s Bible stories each correspond to one ornament in the Jesse Tree printouts. They are also selling a physical copy of the e-book, but for now are giving away the e-book for free.
These look nice! They are asking for people to subscribe to their mailing list to get the freebies.
Here’s the link to their website: https://www.myjessetree.com/
Thanks so much for this resource!
I really enjoyed your post, thanks for sharing.also keep in posting.