Our Christmas homeschool plans look a little different each year. Last year, when the whole world seemed to be shut down, we had a lot more time at home on our hands. This year, we aren’t all that full on the calendar, but with a house full of teens, there is not as much crafting and such going on. That said, I still do have my little caboose, Vera, to think about and create fun Christmas homeschool plans for her.

This past weekend I sat down and went through my things to find ideas for our Christmas homeschool plans this year and I want to share them with you here.

I want our days this December to feel relaxed but productive. Meaningful and educational. Focused on Jesus and focused on family.

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You can have both a meaningful AND educational Christmas season.

This post will give you ideas for every school subject and how to make it meaningful AND full of holiday spirit.

Christmas Homeschooling: Making it Meaningful

Every year, my biggest goal of the advent season is just to make it meaningful.

I don’t want to buy a bunch of garbage to stock the shelves of Goodwill in June.

I don’t want to drag my kids around to a bunch of activities just because it’s “the best” for someone else’s family.

And I certainly don’t want to feel like I’ve been hit by a train on January 1st because I couldn’t say NO to what wasn’t meaningful to our family.

My advice for homeschool mamas looking to create meaning this season rather than madness is to sit down and write it out. Write out your top ten (or four or five) traditions or traditions you want to do.

>>That list is your family treasure chest–it comes before all the things.<<

List in hand, let’s make a plan for Christmas homeschooling that will be peaceful, meaningful and above all…doable!

Here we go.

Christmas Homeschool Plans: Pausing the Unnecessary Things

Every year, I pause the things that don’t have to get done in December.

• Dentist appointments.
• Extracurricular activities.
• That history unit study that used to be fun, but with Christmas it just seems annoying.
• Science. 😉

If it doesn’t have to get accomplished in December, leave it be for a while.

That goes for the regular math or language arts regimen, too. I love to lessen the “regular school” load and add in a twist of holiday. It’s OK to set aside the grammar workbook for the month of December or the basic math lessons that you’ve been struggling to get your kid to do since September.

Let’s take a step back, pause the things that aren’t totally necessary, and learn a ton this December.

RELATED: 100+ Gift Ideas that are FUN + EDUCATIONAL!

Christmas Homeschooling Plans By Subject: Art + Music

There are SO many fun ways to study art and music in December! This is where I could totally load up and do nothing else–just art, all the time!

Here is what we are using this year for ART and MUSIC:

We will be using multiple lessons from Deep Space Sparkle. These will include paints, collage, and more

Chalk Pastel’s Nutcracker: These art lessons are the most pain-free, rewarding art lessons we do in our homeschool. Click the photo below for a sample video from The Nutcracker course!

The Story Orchestra: The Nutcracker: We ADORE this book!

Our favorite classic CD’s are from Maestro Classics. Their Nutcracker CD is SO GOOD! Plus there’s many other to choose from as well. The CD’s come with a 24-page booklet with stories and more info about the music and the composer.

Every day we will be listening to the December Listening Calendar by SQUILT. We love these every single month, but especially in December!

Christmas Read Alouds are the best!

Are you reading a Christmas read aloud? Use your read-aloud for language arts lessons. Do copywork. Pull grammar lessons from the text. Do long narrations with your kids.

This year we are reading Christmas Remembered by Tomie DePaola.

Our Daily Reading for this Advent

This year we are reading Prepare Him Room by Marty Machowski and daily scripture readings with our Jesse Tree Tradition.

A couple of years ago, All Creation Waits as a daily reading book to get us into the meaning of Christmas. We are also using a companion guide with it called Unearthing Wonder and we cannot wait! Each day includes a passage and activity we can do if we choose.

Christmas Math Ideas:

We actually will be doing our normal math lessons this month. We have taken plenty of breaks this fall and I would like to stay on some sort of trajectory to have a good chunk done by May.

Here are some other math options:

• Cut back on some of the regular, daily lessons.
• Add in lots of math games.
• Do quick flashcard reviews instead of full lessons to keep everyone up on their math facts.
• Bake Christmas cookies! And make it into a math lesson.

For math a few years ago, we used Math in Nature: Shapes and Patterns. It’s not Christmassy exactly, but it’s very different than the normal math regimen for us and we are looking forward to switching it up!

Language Arts:

• Tie in grammar and copywork with your Christmas read aloud.
• Create your own spelling lists this month with Christmas words like tinsel and holly.

Our Christmas Homeschool Plans for History (Geography really):

We are using some ideas from Pam Barnhill’s Christmas Around the World. There are tons of book ideas, songs, poems, links to recipe ideas and TONS more. We will not be doing all the things in this guide, but I’ve picked and chosen quite a few awesome ideas!

MORE History Christmas Ideas:

• If you’re already studying a period of history, research some Christmas traditions from that period and read about them.
• Bake something from the time period you’re studying. Idea: molasses candy from the Civil War era!
• Create Christmas crafts based on a certain time period like Pomanders from the Colonial Times.
• We have used Homeschool in the Woods Colonial Life unit study and loved it. There’s a whole chapter on Christmas in Colonial Times!

Science + Nature during Christmas:

This year, we are using Nature Study through the Holidays! This is a wonderful resource and all laid out for mama! Easy peasy for Christmas homeschooling! It is divided into the four weeks of Advent and each week includes scripture readings, nature walk ideas, and tons of activities to choose from.

MORE IDEAS:

• We LOVE Tinker Crate for their amazing projects that my kids can do on their own. I can work on something nearby to help if they need it, but mostly it’s hands-off for mama! You can see how we use Tinker Crate and other KiwiCo creates HERE.

>>Current Deal on Kiwi Crate: Up to $30 off your KiwiCo subscription with code EARLY. Use code: EARLY to take advantage of this deal!<<

Writing Ideas:

A couple of years ago, we had the kids write a newsletter and sent it out instead of our traditional Christmas card. We worked on it for a couple of weeks and got some great writing and editing practice.

We are doing the following activities in December for writing:

Start a Christmas journal and use these story starters for inspiration

Here’s some December writing prompts for teens that look really great!

And some more writing prompts for elementary, too!

Writing a Christmas Haiku looks like so much fun!

Christmas Homeschooling Lesson Plans

If you need some help organizing your Christmas homeschooling lessons plans too, grab my free planning page!

Snag more planning pages like these in my LESSON PLANNER. 

Looking for More Christmas Homeschool Ideas?

• How to Beat the Winter Blues this Year
• 13 of the Best Christmas Read Alouds that will Make the Best Memories
• 70 SENSATIONAL CHRISTMAS PICTURE BOOKS TO MAKE THE BEST HOLIDAY LIBRARY
• 13+ of the Latest Christmas Books You’ll Love
• 103 Unique Stocking Stuffers that Will Encourage Learning

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I hope this season is peaceful and full of wonder for you and your crew!

Now, choose a few items from the list above and have a great time learning with your kids this holiday!!

Merry Christmas!