School Schedule During Advent {The end of the second term!}

Some of my favorite school weeks occur during Advent. We take on a more relaxed atmosphere and include more literature during this time. We have just three weeks left in the second term (half way done for the year!). Sometimes the last week ends early because the boys think Christmas will come sooner if they hurry and get two days of work done in one day!

This year's plans include no formal history, spelling, writing, and grammar. This subject tend to pop up in other stuff so they don't become completely forgotten. One day a week is all independent work for my boys (I work a half day) and I do include some Language Arts that are easy to be done without my help.

For science we are learning all about Christmas Trees using Christmas Trees and How They Grow and this oldie looks wonderful. I found some you tube videos about Christmas Tree farms to watch too. I also checked out several Christmas books at the library that centered around Christmas trees. Last year we read The Carpenter's Gift and that book would fit with a Christmas Tree study and I highly recommend the book!

Most of our school day will center around reading. We normally start our school day with "Morning Basket" and here is what's in the basket for Advent. We will be enjoying some plays and poetry from How Far is it To Bethlehem and we will enjoy Kersti and Saint Nicholas from one our favorite authors Hilda Van Stockum. Between library books and our family library we will have enough books to read one day all through Advent and Christmas. 

Some other books I bought this year include Letters From Father Christmas (because someone checked it out from the library the day before I went to check it out) and Silent Night (bought simply for the art work). A last minute add to the order was Cranberry Christmas.

For religion we will be studying the Liturgical year (Advent) with  An Introduction to the Liturgical Year and books on many of the feast days that are celebrated during Advent. Some books I bought to grow our family book collection include The Baker's Dozen and Lucia, Saint of Light . We will also do some Jesse Tree devotionals using the Holy Heroes Jesse Tree DVD.

Math will remain the same and we will trudge on in that study.  Tyler will be finishing the Math-U-See Gamma book. He is looking forward to Delta and learning division (seriously!). I had planned for Caleb to be done with Epsilon by the end of the year, but I think it will take him through February. I'm ok with this and still think we are on schedule.

Afternoons will be for life skills (aka extra cleaning projects, extra reading, art & crafts, and "Advent Projects". Really just a slowing down and enjoying some freedom to prepare for the joyous event.

For arts & crafts I bought A Simple Start in Christmas Chalk Pastels and maybe some we'll do some stuff I've pinned.