Posted in Christmas Books

You might have guessed that we will NOT get to all these books I have blogged about in recent weeks...but I did want to go ahead and get them typed up so that next year I can look back and see these titles and ideas. We haven't gotten to all the activities listed in each previous week either, but we are at least reading the books! And for me, that is a big goal of the season - reading some of the fabulous books about Christmas!

My guess is that we will only get to the first one I had planned for this week. I really think originally I looked at the calendar wrong, I don't think I would have planned to get anything done on Christmas day.

 I really do want to read the Christmas Day Kitten with the girls...I think they will love this book!

Are you familiar with James Herriot's animal stories? I chose The Christmas Day Kitten book by James Herriot to do with my girls because they love our cat SO very much! I thought this might be a fun unit to do with them! Homeschool share has a complete unit, with lots of printables to go along with it as well! FUN! I found this hardback book at the used book store AFTER I had already planned to do this unit - happy day!

HERE is the homeschool share unit on this book! And, be sure to check out the NEW lapbooking ideas just recently added!

Posted in Christmas Books

Today we had a spontaneous Christmas Tea-time for our lunch! We tried out the new Gingerbread Cookie tea by Celestial Seasonings. (I will have to say that I enjoyed the sugar cookie tea better!)

After we ate our dainty tea-party-ish lunch of cheese cubes, bananas cut into little pieces and cashews, I read the Pine Tree Parable to the kids. I have said this before, but I love the parable books by Liz Curtis Higgs!

After we finished our tea party and our book reading, we did this craft! They turned out pretty cute, don't you think?

Just for fun...if you know my kids, can you guess whose Christmas trees are whose?

1st tree - Caleb (mommy  did help him glue on the pieces, but he did all the painting, except the star!)

2nd tree - Hannah's tree - surprise, surprise! Hers had to be all neat and lined up, she did NOT want to leave any white space between the rows of green!

3rd tree - Emily -- you might have thought this one was Caleb's tree...Emily LOVES the painting, but she isn't nearly as interested in attention to detail as Hannah is! It's so cute to watch their differences! Emily was more interested in getting MORE paint on the tree rather than what it looked like!

PS -- yesterday I saw this link for a free unit to this book! I have downloaded and saved it for next year, there are some really cute ideas on it!

Freebie Unit - Parable of the Pine Tree

Posted in Christmas Books

Can it already be the 2nd half of December? Noooooo...the time is going too fast!

Well, as you might have read in an earlier post about the sickness in our home,  we didn't get to all of our Christmas book reading last week. The Country Christmas Angel actually was read later, but we still didn't do the drawing of the angel, which at any other time,  I think the girls will LOVE. So, hopefully, I will pull out angel crafts on another day to do!

I will say that we have several fun days planned with Nana next week, since she is off work. So, a few of these things may or may not get done! We'll see! But, we are planning a baking day, a craft day and then a day at the mall...so I will of course post pictures of all the crafts we make on our craft day! I have been wanting to do this with the girls again, they remember the last time we did this and BEG me to have another "fun craft day" again!

So, here are the books up for this week! A fun and exciting week ahead!

One of my favorite Christmas books that is all for FUN is The Polar Express. I used to read this book each year to my kindergarten classes...and now that there is a movie, it is even more exciting! There are some fabulous ideas online to go with this book...

HERE is one of many units written for this book.

Last year we made a train out of construction paper, glued it on some dark colored paper and  painted snow on our page with q-tips. Painting with q-tips is always a fun craft!

I did get the movie for this book at Target for $5, so I'm excited about that! I really want to watch it one day, cuddled under big blankets and drinking hot chocolate.

Oh, and I also bought each child a big jingle bell to give them on this day...we will tie red ribbon through it and hang them on the tree!

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The Legend of the Candy Cane was a book that I wrote a unit for last year...we spent a week with this wonderful book last year! I would at least like to read it and do a fun candy cane craft with it this year! 

HERE is the unit found on homeschool share with lots of ideas!

And, I'm so excited to share that lapbooking/notebooking ideas have just recently been added for this book!! Take a peek, there are a LOT of fabulous ideas for this book that we can do! I think we will specifically do the Christmas Candy Cane rhyme cut/paste, Psalm 23 copywork, dozens math lesson, and size order candy canes. We will see if we get to all that! But, I'm telling ya, as soon as we are done reading our books each morning, my girls are asking - what do you have for us to color today? Are there any more sheets for us to do? hee hee hee, they eat this stuff up!

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Posted in Christmas Books

Gingerbread is one of my favorite themes to do at Christmas time! I just love the cute little brown guys, and of course the fabulous books to read! On Monday we read a few versions of the Gingerbread Man and ended with Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett. I must say, this is one of my all time favorite books...EVER. The illustrations in this story are just priceless! And the story has a little twist in it that makes it just different enough from the traditional gingerbread man story. I love it!

After we read our gingerbread stories, we headed to the table for some yummy fun! We made our annual gingerbread house...and ate lots of the candy treats while we worked. Here is our beautiful creation.

After making our gingerbread house, and then watching it fall apart, we worked on a few crafts. (I did use a different kind of frosting this year, maybe that was the problem? Oh well, this is one of those activities where the experience is worth more than the actual finished product, especially with our decorating skills.)

We made these cute little gingerbread men to hang on our Christmas tree. I cut the gingerbread men out of brown cardstock. Then I spread glue all over them and let the kids sprinkle cinnamon all over them. Mmmm, smells good!

Then, they decorated with buttons, sequins and other crafty items. Now these little guys are happily hanging on our tree.

We also worked on this cute little booklet from HSS! Each page has you taking a bite of the gingerbread cookie, so Emily tore off that body part for the appropriate words on each page. By the way, Hannah would have NO PART in tearing up the pretty gingerbread men she has just worked so hard to color! It was pretty funny!! So, she made her own book and actually went so far as to cut off the words on her booklet so that it wouldn't say "eat one yummy arm" etc. What a funny girl!

Posted in Christmas Books

Here are the books and activities we will be reading during the 2nd week of December.

We can't let a Christmas season go by without reading Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett! And of course, it has become tradition in this household to build a gingerbread house together! My girls and I just LOVE this tradition and doing this together! And, well, there are just TONS of ideas out there for this book...so I believe I will let you google this one yourself if you want to delve further into this one. Elizabeth also offers some ideas for this book. One idea is to read the different versions of this story and compare, maybe even do a Venn diagram. 

HERE is an online gingerbread house for your child to decorate for some computer time!

Our activity with this book will be (obviously) building a gingerbread house together, lol!

And some NEW and FUN gingerbread activities have JUST been posted on homeschool share! Thanks to Ami, there are some fabulous new lapbooking ideas...we don't make lapbooks, but these work great in our school notebooks too. And these ideas are always perfect for my girly girls who love to color, cut, paste and just CRAFT all around.

Check out all THESE IDEAS!

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Posted in Christmas Books

UPDATED with a new website. Elizabeth Foss and Katherine over at Serendipity have posted a Saint Nicholas flip book that looks great! There is a color by number, dot to dot, maze and more. Check it out HERE if you are interested in another St. Nicholas activity!

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Here are some ideas that I hope to use as we learn more about Saint Nicholas, who he was and what he was known for.

 **First of all, you must check out this Saint Nicholas Center website - it is fabulous!!

**I will print a few of THESE coloring pages for us to color on Saint Nicholas Day.

**Look at this adorable Saint Nicholas HAND PUPPET!!

**HERE are some Saint Nicholas figures to make. I think my favorite is the one made out of the wooden spoon! I also think it is really neat how they give you the suggestion to turn a chocolate candy Santa into a candy St. Nicholas by adding just a little hat!

**Another page with a wide assortment of CRAFT ideas. I personally like the St. Nicholas mobile!

**And on this page are some great conversation starters and facts to tell your child about Saint Nicholas as you work on these projects together.

**There really are just so many great things on this website! Recipes, songs, many things I didn't even mention! So do take a look around yourself and see what you would like to do with your family to learn more about this man.

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And now for the books we will be reading to learn more about St. Nicholas. The ladies on the 4Real Learning message board recommend these books. I will not be reading all of them with my children, as a few of them are a little long. But, they are all the favorites mentioned by ladies there, so I thought I would at least give out this list.

The Real Santa Claus by Marianna Mayer 

This first title is definitely way too long for us this year, but it has absolutely beautiful illustrations in it! So, if you do have access to this book, you might get it just for the pictures and art discussion!

The Miracle of Saint Nicholas by Gloria Whelan

The Baker's Dozen - A Saint Nicholas Tale, retold by Aaron Shepherd

This is one of the stories I will share with my children, it is not too long for us this year. This tells the old legend of how a baker's dozen became 13, as a means of generosity.

The Legend of Saint Nicholas by Demi

I would like to read this book, as it tells the history of the boy Nicholas. However, I will admit that I am a little bit curious as to the story told in this book. The author notes that as a baby, Nicholas stood up in his bath and prayed. As a toddler he did not nurse on holy saint's days - he fasted. I admit, I have not researched the history of Saint Nicholas, and after reading this book, I think I will look and see what I find! Because I would like to read this book with my kids, I do want to find out about all these details.

Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend by Julie Stiegemeyer

I have not found this book yet, but this is another one that several recommend.

Posted in Christmas Books

I'm in the "final stages" (LOL) of working on these lists. I'm going through my lists and deciding which day I want to read which book, then finding the craft or activity to go with each book. The reason I'm trying to decide it all beforehand is so that I can wrap all the presents and have them in the right order!  I do hope this is helpful for someone else, seeing all these wonderful books and the activities I have found. But, I'm also putting it on here for my own benefit as I try and get my planning done, I need to get it all together.

So, here is the order of the books as we will do them. Also, are the activities listed with each book that we will do each day.

This is WEEK 1 of December. (note: Saint Nicholas day is Dec. 6th --not sure if this is what the day is technically called or not, but I will have a new post with several St. Nicholas titles in it and the ideas I hope to try on that day.)

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This will be the first book we open, so we can read it aloud throughout the month of December.

One Wintry Night was written by Ruth Graham Bell. This is a longer book that would definitely be a book to read through the entire month of December. I picked this one up when I found it on sale at the Christian book store recently and am excited to share it this year! I'm hoping this will be our bedtime reading for December.

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Yet another book I found at the used book store that I am excited about is by Jan Brett. Her version of The Night Before Christmas is beautiful, of course! Don't you just love ALL of her books? Since this is such a widely known and famous poem, I plan to find several versions of this book (I think I have 3-4 on my shelves alone.) and compare the illustrations. I know for me, the Jan Brett version will be one of my favorites! But I would like for the children to see the other versions too. Elizabeth suggests making this poem your poetry memorization for the month.

For our activities on this day to go with this book, I recently stumbled across the homeschool share unit on this book. There are TONS of lapbooking/notebooking ideas listed there and they are fabulous! Take a look HERE. I plan to do the reindeer activities - coloring the reindeer cards, putting them in ABC order, Santa Word Search (Hannah loves word searches) and the draw Santa page. There really are so many great ideas to use with this book, take a peek and see what you like!

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This is the Star -- here is what Elizabeth Foss says about this book on her website. (I have linked you to her entire Christmas/Advent study.)

 This is the Star  by Joyce Dunbar is a lovely story of the birth of Jesus that builds on itself. The book works well as a read-aloud because it is rhythmic and employs rich, poetic language and gorgeous illustrations that hold the older listener while younger listeners absorb the story. (This one pictured is not the one I have, but same author, mine is a red cover.) The day we read this, I think we will do a star craft - I haven't searched for one yet, so if you find one, please let me know! Also, any other books that are about the star we will read on this day to.

Star Craft:

See pictures HERE of a star craft. Paint popsicle sticks any color you like, glue together in a star shape. We may add glitter to ours as well! Then you can add ribbon and hang on your tree! This is a simple craft that the girls will love! So, that makes us all happy - simple for mom, paint and glue for the girls!

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For our activity for this one, I am going to discuss more musical instruments with my children. I have been wanting to start on the Story of the Orchestra, so I think we will glance through this book and just have a brief overview of musical instruments. I would like to see which ones the girls can name already...and see which ones they don't know yet. This book, The Story of the Orchestra, is fabulous! Many FIAR moms recommend this book, and I also used it when I taught music at the Christian school I taught at last year. It is a great resource for primary children to introduce them to the world of music. This book also comes with a listening cd, I think we will listen to some of the various instruments too, especially the percussion section to tie in with the Little Drummer Boy.

Oh, and while we're at it, I'm going to pull out the video to this book (if I can find it, otherwise I'll pick it up from somewhere) and watch it today!

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The Legend of the Poinsetta is another one in the Real Learning Advent Unit. Little Lucida did not have a gift for the Baby Jesus. All she could find was a handful of weeds. But because she gave from her heart, the weeds turned into beautiful red flowers. This is a story about the Christmas plant - the poinsettia. I think this would be a lovely week to take a poinsettia to someone! Maybe mamaw in the nursing home? Maybe a neighbor?

HERE is a page about the poinsettia with a craft as well.  

HERE is another page all about poinsettias, with crafts and links on it. She also mentions the Mexican legend that the poinsettia was known as the Christmas plant because it reminded them of the star of Bethlehem.

Use THIS poinsettia coloring page and print out several poinsettias for your child to paint. Another idea was to use torn tissue red tissue paper to glue on the poinsettia.

THIS is a REALLY neat ABC coloring book for Christmas. The picture for P happens to be one of the prettiest poinsettia coloring pages I found. Some of them just weren't so pretty. Anyway, I love all the pictures in this coloring book...but you could print off the P page and just cut out the poinsettia part.

Here is an idea that Elizabeth had for the poinsettia:

Narrate what you learned about Christmas plants and make a poinsettia covered brad-book for your lapbook.  Copy  a poinsettia picture from de Paola’s book, laminate it, trace it onto several pages of lined paper.  Write narrations on the lined paper and “bind” them behind the laminated illustration with a brad.

Of course I also plan to bring home a lovely poinsettia plant for our table. I think we will also DRAW a poinsettia flower in our nature journals!

Posted in Christmas Books

Christmas Book List - part 1

Christmas Book List - part 2

This will be the 3rd and final entry of my favorite Christmas books. That is not to say there won't be more ideas to go along with these books and anything new I come across in the next 6 weeks or so!  But, the pile of my "good books" is dwindling and after I post about all the titles, I'm going to work on the goal of finding activities to go with each one. Some have plenty already, some need a little extra "touch" to make that school day special. So...onto more imporant things...BOOKS!

The Pine Tree Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs. If you are not familiar with Mrs. Higg's parables - you really should check them out! The Pumpkin Patch Parable and the Parable of the Easter Lily are 2 of my favorites for those holidays! So, when I saw this book I had to get it! This would be a lovely day to do a Christmas tree craft!

Here is one Christmas tree craft we have done in the past...using the child's handprint cut out in green, make your tree. Let the child decorate with sequins, buttons, anything you want to use for ornaments.

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The Crippled Lamb is another wonderful story by Max Lucado. The day we read this story would be a wonderful day to do any kind of sheep or lamb craft.

This is such a simple craft, but I really LOVE it! You cut out the child's handprint with black and then glue cotton on for the body. You could use wiggly eyes as well.

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Are you familiar with James Herriot's animal stories? I chose The Christmas Day Kitten book by James Herriot to do with my girls because they love our cat SO very much! I thought this might be a fun unit to do with them! Homeschool share has a complete unit, with lots of printables to go along with it as well! FUN! I found this hardback book at the used book store AFTER I had already planned to do this unit - happy day!

HERE is the homeschool share unit on this book!

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 Are you familiar with the poetry of Christina Rossetti? She is a famous poet who has written lots of poems, especially for children. At the Christian school I used to teach at, the kindergartners memorized several of her poems. This book, What Can I Give Him, is based on one of her poems and is illustrated by Debi Gliori. This is one of her more well known poems that is recited a lot at Christmas time. So sweet...

This poem would be great for memorization in the month of December. It is also short enough that it would be good material for copywork for the younger crowd!

"What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part.
Yet what can I give Him?
Give my heart."

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The Story of the Three Wise Men by Tomie DaPaola is next. I would like to find some activities built around the 3 wise men for this day.

 THIS is a really pretty craft for older children...I found it and it is probably too hard for my kids, but I thought some of you with olders might enjoy it.

HERE is a wiseman coloring page.

I have seen some very cute homemade nativities made from the wooden craft balls (for the heads) and then use fabric scraps from around the house to drape over the heads of the characters. I suppose you could use different things for the bodies...but I'm really thinking about starting to collect these pieces and make one this year with the family! What a treasure that would be to have a homemade nativity that we can pull out time and time again.  I would probably start this project early on...and on the days we read about certain characters, that would be the day we made that part.

HERE is one set of instructions that I have seen.

Look at THIS adorable one using the wooden craft balls for heads and little tiny terra cotta pots for the bodies! Isn't that cute?

And here is yet another one below! This one has the clothing painted on (which we will not be attempting!) I really love the look of the actual fabric for their head pieces and such. But these crowns are great! She mentions finding old christmas cards with gold on them, cutting them into the shape of a crown and then gluing on sequins and jewels!

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One Wintry Night was written by Ruth Graham Bell. This is a longer book that would definitely be a book to read through the entire month of December. I picked this one up when I found it on sale at the Christian book store recently and am excited to share it this year!

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I have read some of Angela Hunt's women's fiction, but was not aware that she had written this beautiful children's story! I have heard this story before, but had not seen this particular book. This will wonderfully tie in the reason that Jesus was born...to die for our sins.

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Mary's Treasure Box is a new book for me. I found it at the used book store and could not walk out without it. It is such a precious, sweet story of the mother of Jesus and all her treasures. I am thinking that the day we read this one, we should make treasure boxes of our own. Some of Mary's treasures are hay from the manger, wool from the shepherds, gifts from the magi. What are our treasures? I am thinking of reading the verse about Mary "pondering all these things in her heart" and talking about what things we should ponder in our hearts - like scriptures! I may type up the verse we are memorizing at this point to be a treasure in our box. I think we will talk about worldy treasure and storing up treasures for ourselves in heaven.

I may also do a cut/paste craft using pictures of Mary's treasure to glue on a piece of paper for the kids to remember. After we read the story, I could give them all the pictures and see if they can remember what Mary's treasure was and why it was a treasure.

Also, HERE is a beautiful craft that was entered for Dawn's homemade gifts list a few days ago. I'm not sure which day I would do it, but I really love the Mary one a lot! I also love the angels! Maybe we could do the angels for our homemade nativity...or on the days that we read the stories about the angels!

Aren't these just beautiful?

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Posted in Christmas Books

Another unit that I put together for my girls was on the Nutcracker. I had originally had this in my plans for December, but their ballet school is going to see the Nutcracker on a field trip on Nov. 30th, so we are going to work on this unit the last week of November.

HERE is the unit on homeschool share site. There are several versions to this story - a lot actually! I have about 4 on my shelf and I know there are quite a few more! I hope to compare and contrast this book throughout the week. I have one that is a bit longer that we may use as a chapter book. We will learn a little bit about the history of ballet this week as well.

Also, during this week we will be learning about Tchaikovsky and his music.

HERE is a great site with information for children on composers and classical music.

While learning about Tchaikovsky, we will be listening to the Classical Kids story called Tchaikovsky Comes to America. If you are familiar with Beethoven Lives Upstairs, this is the same company. Their products are awesome for children! When I taught music at the Christian School last year, we listened to this one on Beethoven and the younger kids as well as the older ones enjoyed listening.

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One of my favorite Christmas books that is all for FUN is The Polar Express. I used to read this book each year to my kindergarten classes...and now that there is a movie, it is even more exciting! There are some fabulous ideas online to go with this book...

HERE is one of many units written for this book.

Lots of classroom teachers post their ideas online for having a pajama party to watch this movie at school. I think this would be a fun thing to do with our friends! (Anyone local that is reading...do you wanna come over in your PJ's, watch the Polar Express and sip hot chocolate together?)

Last year we made a train out of construction paper, glued it on some dark colored paper and  painted snow on our page with q-tips. Painting with q-tips is always a fun craft!

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Santa's Favorite Story is a book that just begs to be read at our house! I love this story! It is from the viewpoint of Santa; he tells all the animals of the forest that Christmas isn't really all about him (Santa) but about someone much more important - JESUS!  I love the illustrations in this story - they are beautiful watercolor pictures. Maybe this would be a good day in December to bring out the watercolor paints and see if we can paint a Santa?

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I also love learning new Christmas carols with the kids each  year! I can remember 2 years ago Emily was 2 1/2 and she was obsessed with the manger! We had learned Away in a Manger and she was just the cutest thing singing that song and carrying around the manger from our nativity set!

A beautiful book about a beloved Christmas carol is Silent Night, with illustrations by Thomas Kinkade. This is one of those books I picked up and just could not put down because of the beautiful illustrations! The pages of this book go through each line of the Christmas carol with beautiful pictures to go along with it. Maybe this will be *the* carol we work on this year along with some of the words in sign language.  We will also listen to various versions of this beautiful song.

HERE is a site where you can listen (on midi) to Silent Night. It also has a history of this song, written by Joseph Mohr, for you to read. It is a neat story! The melody we are most familiar with was written by Franz Gruber.

Did you know there is a Silent Night museum over in Salzburg? I didn't either! Check it out if you wish!

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If you have preschoolers and kindergartners in your home, you should check out My Birthday, Jesus Birthday by Holly Davis. I LOVE this book! It is written on such a wonderful level for these younger kids! Each page tells something about us and then something about Jesus. How we celebrate birthdays, how we celebrate Jesus birthday...the nice places we were born (for the most part) and the stable where Jesus was born...grandparents being excited over our births, the wisemen coming from afar to see baby Jesus. It is a really neat book! I love to read this book along with a Happy Jesus Birthday party that we do each year. Bake a cake together and sing happy birthday to our Blessed Savior!

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The Friendly Beasts is a book that goes through the words of an old English Christmas Carol. This particular version is illustrated by Tomie DePaola and I love the simple pictures in this book! Elizabeth Foss mentions a cute way to do copywork for this book...either copy a picture of each of the animals from this story, or have the children draw each animal. And under each animal write that animal's verse from the song. The song goes through the donkey carrying the mother up to Bethlehem, the cow giving Him the manger for a bed, the sheep giving Him wool for a blanket, and the dove cooing Him to sleep.  

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Another Christmas book by Tomie DaPaola is Country Angel Christmas. This one is another cute story about 3 smaller angels not knowing what they can give the newborn King because they are so small. This is a great book to use as a reminder that we can ALL be cheerful givers no matter how big or small we are!

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Well, that about wraps up the 2nd edition of Christmas books from my shelf. Looking at my pile, I think I can get all the remaining books in 1 more post...so be watching for the 3rd and final post on Christmas books I love. I do hope to continue to find and add crafts or activities for some of the books where I don't have one yet...so please feel free to share your ideas too!

Don't you just love listening to that Christmas music playing while looking through all these fabulous Christmas books? I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

Posted in Christmas Books

UPDATED: I am going to be adding in the specific crafts and activities as I make my final daily plans. I will post these Christmas book lists back at the top of my blog as I finish each one.

So, I've been thinking...so many WONDERFUL Christmas books and so LITTLE time!  Here is my courageous idea of the week...share with me if you think it will work. I have about 60 Christmas books of my own...with maybe 25 of them (at least) that I could do a lesson, craft, unit, SOMETHING with.

So, I'm pondering reading 1 of these books per day and doing an activity with each book each day. These would also be the books I would wrap and let them open 1 each morning for our school day activities. Am I crazy? A lot of the ideas I have seen are online...and I plan to give you all the links and such...but I just can't see doing 1 book for a whole week and only getting to 3-4 of the gazillion books out there...so these are my thoughts. Tell me if you think I can do it.

I'm going to give you a few books at a time with the links to ideas or units I have found...so far, I'm just doing books I actually have on my shelf. I am not sure if I'll have time for extras, but if so I'll add those last.

(Whew, update...I'm not even halfway through my pile of books! And look at all these fabulous ideas! I did want to mention that I don't type all this up to show off or look like I have it all together. I enjoy the planning, but more than anything, I need to begin getting MY act together...and I am one that needs to have it all typed up. So, I'm hoping that by putting my plans all together, it will help me sort out what I can do and not do in December. And maybe my plans will help someone else! Plus, I just plain ole' LOVE the Christmas season, so getting into all these fun books is just FUN for me! Remember, though, not to stress during December...Jesus is the reason for the season!)

This is the Star -- here is what Elizabeth Foss says about this book on her website. (I have linked you to her entire Christmas/Advent study.)

 This is the Star  by Joyce Dunbar is a lovely story of the birth of Jesus that builds on itself. The book works well as a read-aloud because it is rhythmic and employs rich, poetic language and gorgeous illustrations that hold the older listener while younger listeners absorb the story. (This one pictured is not the one I have, but same author, mine is a red cover.) The day we read this, I think we will do a star craft - I haven't searched for one yet, so if you find one, please let me know! Also, any other books that are about the star we will read on this day to.

Star Craft:

See pictures HERE of a star craft. Paint popsicle sticks any color you like, glue together in a star shape. We may add glitter to ours as well! Then you can add ribbon and hang on your tree! This is a simple craft that the girls will love! So, that makes us all happy - simple for mom, paint and glue for the girls!

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The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey -- I actually found this movie at the bible book store last week! So, that will be an exciting addition to our Christmas this year! I remember the book being a little bit longer, so we have not read it yet, and I think this year we will probably just watch the movie. (I haven't previewed it yet, but I plan to do so.)

There is a unit on homeschool share for this book as well, found HERE.

Here is what Elizabeth says about this book:

A picture book that is suitable for older children is The Christmas Miracle of Jonathon Toomey. Toomey is a widower who has become sad and reclusive since the death of his wife and son. A seven-year-old boy and his widowed mother are persistent in offering their friendship as Jonathon carves a creche for them. The carving of the creche is a story within the story and there is a joyous miracle on Christmas day. This is a tear-jerker that gives me chills every time I read it. It is not sappy and overdone but truly touching. This is the perfect picture book for children in the middle grades who might consider themselves too old for picture books. The book was written by Susan Wojciechowski. Illustrations are rich, realistic watercolors by P.J. Lunch. If there is a seven-year-old boy in your life, you must have this book. The rest of us should find a seven-year-old boy and buy the book so that we can live the story through the eyes of the child. 

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The Legend of the Candy Cane was a book that I wrote a unit for last year...we spent a week with this wonderful book last year! I would at least like to read it and do a fun candy cane craft with it this year! 

HERE is the unit found on homeschool share with lots of ideas!

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Another book that we have had on the shelf, but have not read yet is called Jacob's Gift by Max Lucado. Jacob’s Gift  tells the story of a carpenter’s apprentice, Jacob, who is competing with the other apprentices to determine who will be chosen to help build the new synagogue. Jacob loves working with wood and pours his heart and soul into a beautiful feeding trough. He falls asleep just as he finishes only to be awakened by brilliant starlight and a tough decision. Jacob truly learns that “when you give a gift to one of God’s children, you give a gift to God.”  

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When It Snowed That Night is a complilation of beautiful poems written to help us remember to slow down and remember the true meaning of Christmas. I enjoy finding books of poetry for the different seasons and holidays, so when I found this one recommended by Elizabeth Foss at the used book store, I snatched it up!

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The Miracle of 34th Street with illustrations by Tomie DePaola is another recommended on the Real Learning site, with Elizabeth Foss. I also found this one at a used book store! This one would definitely be a read-aloud, so I will have to contemplate which chapter books and longer books I want to do this month. I have several I will be thinking about. We might get to 2 of them, but I doubt if it will be more than that.

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The Little Drummer Boy is another Christmas favorite! I believe we have this one on video too! This version by Ezra Jack Keats is so simple, yet so wonderful! We will read this book and discuss what WE can bring to the King! I also thought of finding various versions to this song to listen to!

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The Legend of the Poinsetta is another one in the Real Learning Advent Unit. Little Lucida did not have a gift for the Baby Jesus. All she could find was a handful of weeds. But because she gave from her heart, the weeds turned into beautiful red flowers. This is a story about the Christmas plant - the poinsettia. I think this would be a lovely week to take a poinsettia to someone! Maybe mamaw in the nursing home? Maybe a neighbor? I believe we will also get one for our table as well! 

HERE is a page about the poinsettia with a craft as well.  

HERE is another page all about poinsettias, with crafts and links on it. She also mentions the Mexican legend that the poinsettia was known as the Christmas plant because it reminded them of the star of Bethlehem.

Use THIS poinsettia coloring page and print out several poinsettias for your child to paint. Another idea was to use torn tissue red tissue paper to glue on the poinsettia.

THIS is a REALLY neat ABC coloring book for Christmas. The picture for P happens to be one of the prettiest poinsettia coloring pages I found. Some of them just weren't so pretty. Anyway, I love all the pictures in this coloring book...but you could print off the P page and just cut out the poinsettia part.

Here is an idea that Elizabeth had for the poinsettia:

Narrate what you learned about Christmas plants and make a poinsettia covered brad-book for your lapbook.  Copy  a poinsettia picture from de Paola’s book, laminate it, trace it onto several pages of lined paper.  Write narrations on the lined paper and “bind” them behind the laminated illustration with a brad.

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Yet another book I found at the used book store that I am excited about is by Jan Brett. Her version of The Night Before Christmas is beautiful, of course! Don't you just love ALL of her books? Since this is such a widely known and famous poem, I plan to find several versions of this book (I think I have 3-4 on my shelves alone.) and compare the illustrations. I know for me, the Jan Brett version will be one of my favorites! But I would like for the children to see the other versions too. Elizbeth suggests making this poem your poetry memorization for the month.

This might also be a good time to discuss Saint Nicholas. I hope to find a few great books about him (seems like I tried last year and didn't have much luck! Elizabeth does mention several good ones on her page, I just don't own any of them yet!

HERE is the BEST Saint Nicholas page - with crafts, stories, ideas, everything you need to learn about this saint and also to have a fun celebration on his day, Dec. 6th. Or maybe like Saint Nicholas you would like to "adopt" a needy family anonymously and bless them this holiday season! I probably will make an entirely separate post about the things I plan for Saint Nicholas...but that is for another day and another time. :)

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And while we're on the subject of Jan Brett, we can't let a Christmas season go by without reading Gingerbread Baby! And of course, it has become tradition in this household to build a gingerbread house together! My girls and I just LOVE this tradition and doing this together! And, well, there are just TONS of ideas out there for this book...so I believe I will let you google this one yourself if you want to delve further into this one. Elizabeth also offers some ideas for this book. One idea is to read the different versions of this story and compare, maybe even do a Venn diagram. 

HERE is an online gingerbread house for your child to decorate for some computer time!