A Christmas Tradition: Kim Hardy

We are not raising our children to believe in Santa. We want them to understand that the reason for Christmas is Christ. However, our children understand that other children do believe in Santa, so we are careful not to spoil that tradition for other families. This is a picture of our Christmas day.

Every year the children wake up to the Hallelujah chorus. The beautiful music fills our home, and we all join together to read the story of the birth of Christ. This serves as a reminder to us that Christ is at the center of our celebration.

In many homes there are loads of presents under the Christmas tree. However, we give each child 5 gifts under the tree. Three of these gift represent the gifts given to Christ from the Wise Men. We try to give gifts that are of a significant value, but the total of all three need to cost approximately $75 to 100 per kid.  The other two gifts are from Mom and Dad and their sister. We believe this helps to put the focus on Christ instead of on the gifts.

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A Christmas Tradition: Eric Felz

Today Eric Felz shares his family’s Christmas tradition with us.

Our Christmas tradition was to go to the candlelight mass on Christmas Eve. Many Catholic churches have a midnight mass on Christmas Eve, but our church had a couple of masses. The candlelight one wasn’t always at midnight, but we made a point to go to the candlelight mass. There was just something about the the warm glow of the candles and the beautiful music that made this tradition special. Oh the music was wonderful. The choir sang, and their voices were angelic. The organ, which I really only heard at church and baseball games, also played. The whole experience was what people envision when they think of Christmas.

The candlelight mass was a truly reverant experience. I treasure the memories of being in church with my family on Christmas Eve.

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My Christmas Tradition: Reading the Christmas Story

This is the first in a series of posts about Christmas traditions.This is one tradition that my family has started.

My husband and I, for the most part, are the only Christians in our family. We are trying to be salt and light to our families, especially around Christmas. It is important to us that our children understand that the reason for Christmas is Christ’s birth and not Santa Claus coming to our house.

On our third Christmas together as a family I decided that I wanted a very real way to express the reason for Christmas.

I actually got the idea for how to bring Christ into our Christmas from a powerful Christmas celebration put together by the church we were attending at the time. During this celebration, the entire Christmas story was read from the Bible as the orchestra played and the choir sang Christmas songs. There were even dancers behind a screen using creative movement to express the meaning. After seeing that, I decided that we were going to read the Christmas story in its entirety from the Bible. Unfortunately, I cannot provide the same kind of presentation that our church had, but at least my family can marvel at Christ’s birth every year.

I used Bible Gateway to locate all of the Scriptures. Then I printed them out and made booklets for each person in the family. I also added a nativity scene on the front cover. We took turns reading a few verses at a time. It was the first time my extended family had heard the real Christmas story. They always felt like they knew it, but after reading the actual story from the Bible, they realized that they were missing pieces. I felt like it was a huge success!

This will be the fourth Christmas that we read the whole story together. As the children get older, I hope that they grow to love hearing this story and anticipate it every year.

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Homeschoolers, Make Math Facts Fun!

Learning math facts can be boring and tedious. Here are a few ways that you can make learning them more interesting in your home school. Trying these ideas might motivate your children to memorize those facts instead of counting!

• Teach fact family trees. For example, one fact family tree is 2,3,5. 2is 2,3,5. 2
  English: World English Bible - WEB
  3 Many peoples shall go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Yahweh, To the house of the God of Jacob; And he will teach us of his ways, And we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion the law shall go forth, And the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.
  WP-Bible plugin
  +3=5, 3+2=5, 5-3=2, 5-2=3. It also works for multiplication and division – 2,3,6. 2×3=6, 3×2=6, 6÷2=3, 6÷3=2. Remembering three numbers is an easy way to memorize the basic facts. Also have your child write the equations on trees with the three numbers written on top.

• Practice addition facts by playing dice games. Create a game board and game pieces. Roll the dice and add the two numbers together. Move that many spaces forward on the board.

• Another way to practice addition facts is to play “Make 10″ with a set of cards numbered 0-9. It is played just like “Go Fish” except you add two numbers whose sum is 10.
• Practice multiplication facts by playing “Circles and Stars”. Roll a die. Draw that many circles. Roll the die again. Draw that many stars in each circle. Write the equation that your picture represents.

Have fun learning basic math facts by making a few simple changes in your homeschool curriculum.

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Rehearsal Learning

Rehearsal.

I’m not talking about the kind of rehearsal you have before a play, but if that’s what comes to your mind,  you are on the right track. I mean that some kids need to practice before they are expected to “perform”. For example, my little one whispers words that she is practicing before she says them for everyone to hear. There are many ways to use rehearsal in your home school.

• Very shy children, children who do not react well to the unexpected, and autistic children benefit from practicing social scenarios. They learn what to expect and what to say. Rehearsal allows the children to make mistakes and get coached in social skills.
• Children who struggle with writing, either the act of writing or with the process of writing, benefit from rehearsing their ideas before they write them down. Simply removing the frustration of actually writing can be a huge relief to kids who struggle to write. You might notice more insightful written thoughts and better organized writing.
• Children learning a foreign language can rehearse useful and typical conversations before you assess them on their conversational skills. This gives them the opportunity to think about vocabulary and verb tenses ahead of time. They can correct grammatical errors on the spot without the risk of failure. This also works for written work.
• Rehearsing by taking a practice test can also alleviate test anxiety. Through rehearsal children know what to study for and what to expect on the test. Often they perform better on the test.
• Young children can learn basic safety skills by rehearsing. Recently my daughter and I rehearsed an emergency scenario. I pretended to be unconscious and a friend talked her through making a 9-1-1 call. It was both enlightening to me and helpful for her. She’s now more equipped for emergency situations.

Rehearsal is a unique and helpful learning tool. Try it out in your home school.

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