I am striving for TRUTH, BEAUTY and GOODNESS in our homeschool - and in our lives.
To that end, December is simple, and hopefully memorable. We are reading, doing memory work, including good music, keeping up with math - but that's IT.
(My 9th grader is doing a mix of Classical Conversations Challenge I and online classes and is very independent - this post is about my Foundations/Essentials student.)
*Disclaimer: Please don't think I have it all together. Notice everything in this post is SIMPLE. It takes very little preparation and is mostly about ROUTINE. I strive to be an encouragement to moms -- never a DISCOURAGEMENT -- and I hope you read this post thinking "now that's achievable for MY homeschool!".
Morning Time
Morning Time is our anchor. You can read all about our simple morning basket here.
I've put in holiday music appreciation for a touch of beauty.
Some days in December we ONLY accomplish morning time. And that's OK.
I'm learning that my kids learn a lot through the living of our days.
Memory Work Review
My son wants to be a Memory Master this year - his choice, not mine. (I'm thrilled, but I also know it has to be the CHILD'S choice, not the parent's.)
We always incorporate memory work review during our Morning Time, but in December I do add MORE review throughout our day.
Each day we review pieces of memory work , using our flipbook, the CC Cycle 1 app, and quizzes on the whiteboard. (I really like the Memory Work Review System from Homeschool Story).
We use the whiteboard mainly for writing our Latin declensions and times tables/squares/cubes.
I also like to keep track of Grant's progress with these memory work sticker sheets.
We've been playing JENGA (saying a piece memory work for each piece we pull out), using the Simple Dice Review Game, and listening to the CD any time we get in the car.
Math and History
Every day I try to have Grant complete a Saxon math lesson.
Math is one of those things that will slide if we let it go for too long.
We're also playing Yahtzee a lot, just because I think it's fun!
I've been talking a lot about the Veritas Self Paced History Course. This is perfect for us, because it requires NOTHING from me, and Grant loves to work on the computer. We even ordered the Medieval course for next year!
Reading
Reading is important in our homeschool, and I like to provide a few books during December that will help Grant get a jump on his Faces of History project in the Spring.
Just one trip to the library gave us some books that he's been reading this month so far.
We are also reading Ishtar's Odyssey as a family each evening.
That's it.
I'm not knocking myself out for Christmas read alouds this year.
I'm not knocking myself out for anything except preparing for the birth of Jesus!
This mama needs a break.
What about you? What does December look like in your homeschool?
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