Holiday Homeschooling: Remembering the Reason for the Season

I shared last week how we count down the days until Christmas.  This year I added two daily activities to our Advent plans to remind my kids of the real reason for all this celebrating.  I wanted a daily reminder to balance out visits with Santa and thoughts of gifts.

Jotham’s Journey

There are three books in this series of advent devotionals by Arnold Ytreeide:  Jotham’s Journey, Bartholomew’s Passage, and Tabitha’s Travels.  The author describes them as an ADVENTure story that will help your family appreciate the true meaning of Christmas.  This is our first year so we’re starting with Jotham’s Journey.  You begin daily readings on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, so we began this past Sunday, December 2nd.  So far my kids are on the edge of their seats and begged me not to stop after last night’s reading.

We didn’t have our own set of advent candles until this year, and this devotional prompted me that it was about time.  It adds special ambiance and symbolism as we read the book by the light of the advent candles.

Jesse Tree

I had read about Jesse Tree devotionals that trace events of the Bible beginning with Creation and leading up to Jesus.  Though it was a wonderful idea I didn’t think I would add it in since I’d already purchased supplies and planned for Jotham’s Journey.  Then I saw that Ann Voskamp was offering a free download of a Jesse Tree Study with printable ornaments.  How could I resist?

She includes the ornaments in color and black and white for coloring yourself.  I used the black and white option to trace the designs onto shrink film.  (Never heard of shrink film?  Remember Shrinky Dinks?  Thin plastic sheets that shrink, becoming thicker, after heating.)  My kids colored them and I shrunk them so we have a nice, durable set of ornaments we can use year after year.

*In the photo the two on the left are full size, the two on the right have been shrunk.*

How do I schedule two devotionals?  We do the Jesse Tree reading and hang the ornament in the morning, and in the evening after dinner we read Jotham’s Journey by the light of our Advent candles.  I’m so glad we’re doing both because we start and end our days during this wonderful season with a Christmas activity that focuses on Christ.

I hope you’re having a delightful Christmas season, and will come back when I share how we keep learning all month while celebrating!