Saturday 19 December 2009

First week of holidays

We have had a great week! We started our holidays this past Monday, which means we put the regular school books away and do fun stuff.
During our time off, we read a lot of books and do a little unit study, learning about Christmas through the years using the historical stories from the American Girl series. We have used these in the past and enjoyed them as a starting point. The first 3 days of this week we read "Kit's Christmas Surprise" and talked about Christmas during that time period (the Great Depression).
We will be reading more about that time period next week and about Amelia Earheart, who was mentioned in Kit's story. I will share more next week of our study.

We made some homemade ornaments like pomanders and cinnamon-applesauce ornaments.




Andre wanted to learn how to knit, I showed him and he continued on for a couple of hours that afternoon! He wants to make a little blanket for his stuffed animals.


We also made our own snowflakes (using borax), since there hasn't been any snow around here and a 3D paper snowflake too, mostly done by Andre. That paper snowflake is easy to make and looks great!








Adrienne made these adorable little books. Right now they are in our Christmas tree, but I think they will end up with the dolls after the holidays.
This first week off has been wonderful. It has been so nice to relax and enjoy our time together. Adrienne baked a few times too, but I didn't take photos this time (how odd!).
We have had 2 different homeschooling families visit us on Thursday and Friday, and it was great to connect with them.
I am looking forward to this weekend to catch up on the presents I still have to make for Christmas...it's coming fast!


*note: I have included all the links to our activities, you can click on the coloured words to visit the sites for the instructions *

7 comments:

  1. What a busy week and so much fun. Love the pic of your little guy knitting; I've never learned...yet. Have a wonderful weekend!

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  2. It looks like a wonderful Christmas season week. :-) I especially like the Borax snowflakes!

    My daughter is taking her croquet hook with her to her Nana's to learn how to croquet. A blanket for a doll sounds like a great idea.

    I've been asking several people the last few days - how do you create a custom header like yours? I think I could figure out how to load a photo now (I put a free Christmas header on mine for now) but how to you put your words? Also, your blog seems wider and I'm wondering how you did that. :-)

    Dana

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  3. My grade 1 class made those borax snowflakes with their grade 6 buddies a few years ago. I had forgotten about those. It might be something that I try with my girls.

    The paper snowflake and mini-books are great!

    Thanks for sharing,
    Tricia

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  4. Maybe next year we'll do wintry crafts. Pomanders are something I want to try!

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  5. I've made the clove oranges many years with my kids. They are grown now, but the memories remain...and even a few of the oranges!

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  6. Wow what talented kids you have! I love the Borax snowflakes and I think that's what we will be doing this afternoon when it's too hot to be outside. Thanks for a brilliant idea.

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  7. Borax snowflakes are very fun! I love the paper snowflake and mini-books! :)

    ReplyDelete

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