I just needed to figure out what I was going to do in terms of schoolwork during the month of December. I'm sure we'll read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever again, but I know it doesn't take very long.
I briefly thought about dropping our regular work and embracing some sort of unit study with reading assignments, artwork, and project. Then I took a look at our December calendar and had a big reality check. There just isn't any way I can take on that sort of craziness this month.
I needed something simple, but I also wanted something educational and fun. I found exactly what I wanted when I heard about Christmas Around the World from The Awe Filled Homemaker.
Christmas Around the World is a 70-page printable study covering holiday traditions in virtuous countries around the world. The study covers 20 countries over the course of 24 days.
Some of the traditions are ones that I'm familiar with, such as German children leaving their shoes out on December 6th for St. Nicholas to fill with candy and treats. Other traditions are new to me, such as the way that people in South Korea eat in restaurants for Christmas dinner. I also learned that December 23 is called Little Christmas Eve in Norway. (At our house, we celebrate Brennan's birthday which is on the 23rd.)
For each country, there is a single page information sheet which is usually three or four paragraphs long. The next page consists of a few simple questions that relate back to the reading passage. The first three questions are somewhat varied, but the child is often asked, "What food from the traditional Christmas dinner would you want to try?" The last question always asks the student to list a favorite thing that they noticed while reading the passage. For Lauren, I may tell her that she simply needs to put down an interesting fact that she learned while reading the passage.
Finally each day includes a simple art or creative activity. Very simple. Just the what I need for this busy season. Most of the days include a bit of coloring or drawing. For France the activity is to decorate the yule log cake and for the Philippines it is to decorate the parol.
I printed out the entire packet and have it ready for Lauren to start on December 1st. I realize that working through one section a day will require her to work on weekends in order to finish during the Advent season. Fortunately, each day's work is short enough that she can double-up on weekdays and not have to do schoolwork on the weekends unless she wants to.
As an additional activity, I found blank maps for each continent and put them at the back of our study workbook. As Lauren completes the study of a particular country, we'll find that country on the correct map and color it in. (It seems like a study of countries around the world was just begging for a bit of geography and map work to go along with it.)
Christmas Around the World is the perfect solution for this holiday season. I can add a bit of holiday fun to Lauren's school days without adding planning stress for me. It's a win-win!It's not too late to order your own copy of Christmas Around the World for only $14.99.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product in exchange for my honest review. I did not promise to write a positive review nor did I receive any additional compensation. All opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC regulations.
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