Special Days in January

This is fun! Special Days in January for those who do Unit Studies or just want to do something different for a day!

Ah, The Christmas Memories!

Ornaments
Copyright by Holly Hedman

Two days before Christmas and this is the first time (I believe) that I felt so relaxed! Living so far away from family has its benefits… sometimes! This year we have no visitors, no travel plans and no one coming over on Christmas day. It is the first, time in a very long time, that we are celebrating Christmas just our little family of five!

Are these our kids?

We have been having a lot of fun and the past few days (well, maybe even longer) the kids have been really, really, really good! I almost wonder if someone flipped a switch in them from “okay kids” to “REALLY good kids”. Maybe it is because there are all sorts of presents wrapped under the tree. Maybe it is the fact that Santa is coming soon (Yes, we believe!). Maybe because it is almost Jesus’ birthday. What ever it is, our kids have been really good! They have been so good that even they notice! That is funny to me! Today, one of the girls even commented saying, “have you noticed that we have been really good lately and that you guys haven’t needed to yell at all?” My husband and I just stopped and looked at each other, kind of surprised by that comment seeing we just talked about that before she came into the room!

Usually on days when we don’t have anything to do or places to be, the kids like to play with friends. It is almost strange for them to just stay home when they don’t have to! But, I have to say that I have been enjoying these past few days and I am savoring them because I know it won’t last!

Paper Stars
Copyright by Holly Hedman

Movie Day!

Today, we got up and it was Christmas movie morning! All of us in our pajamas (Yes, the girls had on their “Christmas Jammies”… have you seen the video? Oh my word it is funny! Here is a link to it, click here.) sat around watching Christmas movies. We watched Nester the Long Eared Donkey, Year Without A Santa Claus, Little House On The Praire (the one where it was their first year as Plum Creek) and then some old old old Christmas movies from the 50’s. It never fails, I always cry mulitiple times when we watch Nester The Long Eared Donkey and so did both the girls! Such a good video. I wish they still made good family friendly movies.

Wolf Painting
Copyright by Holly Hedman

After we were done watching movies, the kids still hung out! I decided to make a paper ornament, our oldest decided she would make different things out of the Rainbow loom bands and our blondie decided to start her wolf painting (it is a paint by number type of painting and it is not easy). My husband was finishing up the shelves he made for our oldest’s closet and our little man was having a great time playing in his room!

Loom Wreath
Copyright by Holly Hedman

I made dinner early and then we had a dance party in the living room. We used to do this when our little man was a baby and the girls would dress up in their flower girl dresses and we would dance together, laugh, let them do solo dances and hug! It has been about 3-4 years since we did that and it was great to see how much the girls have grown and matured in their dancing (I guess the dance classes have paid off). Once the dance party was over, we introduced the kids to the movie The Christmas Story! Yes, it is the one where Ralphie wanted a Red Rider BB gun! Boy, funny how movies in the 80’s are not like movies now… It is good to know my kids know what not to say and what words should not be repeated. But, it was a funny way to end such a good day!

Family Tree
Copyright by Holly Hedman

For the love of family!

After we got all the kids in bed, I sat down on the couch and just looked at our Family Christmas tree as it glowed in our lowly lit living room. Looking at all the ornaments on the tree brought back all sorts of memories from when I was a kid. I call our tree the Family Christmas tree because that is what it is. My parents are now retired and are snow birds, so they don’t have room for all the ornaments and a big tree. Not only do we have our own ornaments on the tree, we also have my parents ornaments and ones from when I was a kid! The glow of the Family Tree always fills my heart with love. Love for my parents, who struggled to give my sister, brother and me what we needed (maybe not what we wanted but always what we needed). Love for my own family and the joy they bring. Love for our Savior, who came into this world as a baby to save us from our sins. Love for God, who loves us unconditionally! Funny how a silly tree can bring all those feelings and memories!

Today has made me realize that you don’t need to do all sorts of crazy things during Christmas to make it memorable. Life is crazy and active enough, why make Christmas so non-stop with activities? Love on your kids, make time to just be! Remember the true meaning of Christmas is the birth of our Savior and just relax and enjoy this season! Time goes by way to fast to not slow down!

My God Bless you and yours! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

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Thanks for taking time to read about our journey into homeschooling. Please feel free to share my blog with your friends and family! Also, I would love to learn from you and how you homeschool. Please leave a comment below. Have a Blessed Christmas season!

Advent Calender Time is Here!

The other day, my daughter (the blondie) and I were talking about homeschooling. She asked why she had to be homeschooled and I told her we were not happy with the school system here! Then she said that she was happy that we homeschool and really did love it. This came as a surprise to me because there are days (bad days) when she says she doesn’t want to homeschool or that she wants to go back to public school. So, when she said that she loved it, I was shocked! As we sat and talked, she rattled off some of the reasons why we are blessed to be able to homeschool: they got to play volleyball, they had their STEM class, they get to sleep in (meaning, they are up around 7:45 and we start schooling around 9:30-10), we get to go on more then 2 field trips in a year, special activities, park day… The list could go on. But one of the things that she didn’t realize is that since we do homeschool and don’t have to be up at 6:30 am, we can do more together as a family at night! So, bring on the fun Advent activities!

Fun Advent Calender Activities!

Advent Calender
Copyright by Holly Hedman

This year, seeing as the kids don’t have to be in bed by 7:30 pm, we are doing a couple of fun Advent activities. The kids have been enjoying the homemade advent calender from Only Passionate Curiosity. This Advent calender is different then the ones you buy in the store because you (the parent) can pick what goes inside of it. Plus, it is homemade… Who doesn’t like homemade things? Only Passionate Curiosity even gives you predetermined activities or you can write an activity a blank activity sheet that they designed for you!

Girls enjoyed stringing popcorn
Copyright by Holly Hedman

What I picked for our family: some predetermined activities and some activities I wrote. The activities I wrote were events that we already planned, so that works out perfectly! One of the predetermined activity was to watch a Christmas movie. I put that together with string popcorn for garland. Made for a great memory maker type of night!

Truth In The Tinsel

Our Family Working On Our Project
Copyright by Holly Hedman

Crown
Copyright by Holly Hedman

On top of doing our Advent calender activities we are doing a 25 day Bible study that has a craft for every day! It is called Truth In The Tinsel. I am going to quote their website because they said it perfectly! “Each day Truth In The Tinsel will lead you through a passage of scripture, a corresponding ornament craft and talking points for you and your kids. It is more then a devotion– it’s meditation and hands-on learning for kids. It is more then a craft book– it is a memory builder for your family. It is more then an ebook– it is an experience and adventure in God’s word!” I truly don’t think I could have explained it any better! You could just do this as your Advent calender but I decided to do both!

Slow down this Christmas season!

Seeing as homeschool has given us the freedom, that I didn’t know I craved, we are taking the time to spend together throughout the week as a family doing special memory making Advent activities! I hope you do too!

Wishing you a very Happy and Merry Christmas! I hope you take time to study the Word with your family and slow down to enjoy this wonderful season! Your kids are young only once, so go and make those special moments with them that they will cherish for a lifetime!

Merry Christmas!

Here are the links to the great activities I talked about!

Truth In Tinsel an Advent Experience For Little Hands

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Making new, celebrating old.

This is such a nice article about starting off as newlyweds and making their own Christmas traditions! Slow down and enjoy the reason for Christmas! Life is good! God is GREAT! Enjoy this article from The Art In Life!

The Art in Life

“You know, humans are weird. I’m here, in a city, carrying a tree from outside, so I can take it inside. All because 2000 years ago, God was born. And the weirdest part of that is totally not me or the tree.” – James

December-1 December-7 December-13 December-12 December-10 This week James and I went to pick up a little tree for our apartment. Despite the little size of our place, and of our tree stand, James kept trying to bring back a huge tree. Finally we settled for this one, a fat little tree that is just a little too big for our single strand of lights and meager collection of ornaments. The tree sellers in Eastern Market also let me collect a big bag of scraps that now cover the tops of all our shelves, intertwined with some festive red berries. It’s not exactly a Martha Stewart Christmas, but it’s cozy and we…