On My Mind ~ I love this season. Who says waiting isn't fun? I am so happy to see the joy in my children over shopping for gifts for each other. They are delighting in making gifts for the neighbors and giving to charities. It is wonderful to see the gift of giving taking seed in their hearts. It wasn't always this way ~ waiting for their own gifts on Christmas morning used to be such a burden to them. The pain of waiting trumped all else. Now they are seeing the true meaning of the season and enjoying the waiting. What a blessing!
Parties and Field Trips ~ 'Tis the season to go to parties! We attended our favorite party of the year at the local children's hospital. It is a party for special needs kids, and we have attended it for many years. This year the hula hoop was very popular with the kids and Mommy.
We also enjoyed this unique ride and the famous face painting lady. It was a fun, fun, fun party, as always!
We also attended a Christmas open house of two historic homes at the college my son attends. I didn't get any pictures. The Madrigal singers that performed Christmas carols were wonderful. Plus, we attended the National Gingerbread Competition at the Grove Park Inn. This is a family tradition and the displays are always remarkable. All of the pictures in the collage are gingerbread creations. Except for the base, everything is 100% edible!
The Grand prize winner was truly extraordinary. Can you believe one actually could eat this?
Giving to Others ~ We made breads for all of our neighbors (that is, the six who live nearest to us). The kids made them with almost no help from me. We even got all six into my tiny wall oven.
We also took a book to the library for a little girl we got off the library giving tree, plus donated money to a needy teacher.
Books We Are Reading ~
- Mrs.Katz and Tush
- Gingerbread Baby
- The Baker's Dozen
- The Chanukkah Guest
- The Other Wise Man
- The Legend of Papa Noel
- Winter's Gift
Homeschooling ~ We started a FIAR unit study on Mrs. Katz and Tush. What a lovely book with so many possible things to study. This week we focused on loving thy neighbor and learning different ways one can help the elderly. The kids did several math and language arts worksheets from www.education.com. You can print up to 10 worksheets a month for free. Our big craft this week was making snowflakes out of plain paper. This is one of our favorite Advent activities each year.
Around the House ~ We had two great days of construction this week. The new hallway floor is down and the bath tub is refinished. I should be able to take that Christmas bath I have been dreaming about. Next week we will turn the doorway that is between Tim's room and the library into a wall. This will provide more wall space for both rooms. Hopefully, the tile work will be fixed in the bathroom and the attic will be insulated as well. We will also have a chimney sweep out to make the necessary repairs to the wood burning stove. It is going to be a busy week before Christmas!
I am joining Homegrown learners .
Blessings, Dawn
Dawn, thank you for the book recommendation (Mrs. Katz and Tush)... I have not heard of this book and think we may need to study this.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had quite the busy week, too! Thanks for linking :-)
Looks like y'all are having a lot of fun! Loved the pictures of the gingerbread houses. Unbelievable!!!
ReplyDeleteHow exciting with the house progess! Love those snowflakes.
ReplyDeleteLaurie