Warning: The first part of this post is religious. We celebrate Christmas and advent, so if you want to skip that part just head down past the pictures, or read no further. I won't be offended :) We celebrate Advent with a calendar that has a special activity for each day. It always includes a family trip to the movies (this year was Big Hero 6), a trip to the store to pick up gifts for a family in need, sending letters to Santa, making Christmas cards and gifts. There are crafts, field trips, and all types of fun seasonal things.
This year we did a gingerbread house, made cinnamon salt dough ornaments to give away, peppermint ornaments to give, breakfast with Woodland Santa at the Nature Center, made a nativity craft, made our Advent wreath, read A Christmas Carol, and learned Twas the Night Before Christmas.
This year we did a gingerbread house, made cinnamon salt dough ornaments to give away, peppermint ornaments to give, breakfast with Woodland Santa at the Nature Center, made a nativity craft, made our Advent wreath, read A Christmas Carol, and learned Twas the Night Before Christmas. 
This was my favorite though. There were still gifts to open but Eliza just wanted to sit and read her book, she couldn't care less about the rest of the gifts. CJ was under the dining room table reading his new science book. :)
Plans for the New Year:
I finally totally reorganized the school room and play room. The play room now has all the dress up, creativity toys, and art supplies so the kids can use them whenever they like. CJ has his own tool/tinker kit, and it is also there, as well as a new LEGO table. The school room now has all the learning centers focused on what we are studying, and our desks. There are educational toys in there. We also cleaned and decluttered the kids' rooms, so it has been much easier for everyone to keep things clean, which has been so much more restful for me.
Over the next few months I want to focus on increasing our art and music curriculum, and continue on our favorite science topics. We are going to study early America, and continue great field trips. We are also going to start this cool Little Whovians lesson plan series that I found online (Traveling Through History with Doctor Who). We are starting with Pompeii. Then we get to watch Dr Who for school :) I am going to back off of heavy academics for a time and increase the creative aspects, and social development. We are going to start going to McWeeds classes in March, and spend a lot of time cooking, baking, and creating. We are continuing our study of Roman numerals and practice with 3 digit addition and subtraction, and continue multiplication and division. I am not going to plan on introducing new concepts, unless brought up by the kids. We were lucky enough to receive a membership to the Mystic Aquarium for Christmas, so we will further our ocean studies, and spend a lot of time learning about marine biology.
The kids have just been enjoying spending hours reading their new books and creating in their play room. It has been less stressful for everyone, and that means so much more learning and meaningful discussions. Learning for all of us :) It is such an amazing journey, can't wait to see where it leads this year!
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