Holidays | His Treasure Seekers

Category Archives: Holidays

Christmas Book Countdown

Posted on December 12, 2013 by Deanna

One of our family traditions (well, we’re only on year two, but we’ll be keeping it up) is to have the kids open up Christmas books each day starting December 1 to count down to Christmas. (I “wrap” them in bags made from Christmas material, kind of like holiday pillowcases tied with red fabric ribbons, and reuse the same wrappings each day.) It started as a way to alleviate disappointment on the day when it’s a sibling’s turn to open the door on our Advent calendar, but the real beauty is that it spaces out the children’s exposure to our large collection of Christmas books. Rather than bringing out a huge box at the beginning of the month and only actually reading a few of them over and over, we get two books a day (since Arianna is now old enough to join in the calendar door-opening) and we read those before adding them to our book basket and going back to other favorites. After the first couple days this year, Ian recognized one of the books and asked me why I’d bought another copy of a book we already had. He readily accepted my answer that it was the same book he’d opened last year and this was just a fun way to look through all our books.

I’m somewhat selective about what books I choose to have in our Christmas collection. I generally only have one qualification: no Santa-related stories (unless they are talking about the historical St. Nicholas). There is just so much focus on that aspect of Christmas everywhere you turn that we try to keep things Christ-centered in our home. Those books that don’t specifically focus on Jesus relate to giving, love, light, or other qualities of Christmas that we want to emphasize. Last year I only did one book a day (an occasionally two if they were board books or really short stories) since just the older boys were participating in our daily Advent activities, but this year I wanted to give two books so I did purchase a few more (usually used on Amazon). Consequently some of the books are a bit redundant (lots of stories set in the stable). Still, there are plenty of treasures that I’d buy again if anything were to happen to our first copies. I’ve marked those absolute favorites* on the list.

Books about Baby Jesus

*Song of the Stars by Sally Lloyd-Jones (I love the excitement in this one. I save it for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, since it celebrates the end of waiting.)
*Mary’s First Christmas by Walter Wangerin Jr. (A long story broken up into 4 chapters about Mary telling a young Jesus the story of his birth. Ian LOVED this one and asked for it repeatedly.)
*The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado (A sweet tale by a wonderful storyteller)
*Jacob’s Gift by Max Lucado
*Christmas in the Manger by Nola Buck (a simple board book with charming rhymes. Our 2-year old brought this to me several times a day)
*Room For A Little One by Martin Waddell (another great book for little ones)
The Little Spider by Sigmund Brouwer
Humphrey’s First Christmas by Carol Heyer (I like that Humphrey ends up with his heart in the right place, but I wasn’t sure my children really needed his example of grumbling and complaining through the rest of the book.)
The Innkeeper’s Daughter by Jill Briscoe
This is the Stable by Cynthia Cotton (I really like this book, which starts out with a structure similar to “This is the house that Jack built.” The only reason it didn’t make it into my favorites is because the author doesn’t stick with that structure. Once I got over that weakness, I enjoyed the fun rhymes.)
Tell Me the Christmas Story by Joni Walker
The Christmas Star by Marcus Pfister
Baboushka and the Three Kings by Ruth Robbins
The Littlest Shepherd by Ron Mehl, Jr.

Books that illustrate or tell about carols/songs

Oh Come, Little Children by Anita Reith Stohs
*The Twelve Days of Christmas: The Story Behind a Favorite Christmas Song by Helen C. Haidle (I love teaching the children about symbolism that points to Jesus. I’d also like to get the version of the song beautifully illustrated by Laurel Long)
Away in a Manger illustrated by Thomas Kincaid
We Three Kings traditional carol illustrated by Gennady Spirin

Books that teach about Christmas traditions

A Star for Jesus by Crystal Bowman
*The Light of Christmas by Dandi Daley Mackall
The Legend of the Christmas Tree by Pat Matuszak
The Pine Tree Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs
Jesus, Me and My Christmas Tree by Crystal Bowman
Christmas Angels by Crystal Bowman
The Candymaker’s Gift: The Inspirational Legend of the Candy Cane by David and Helen Haidle
Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend by Julie Stiegemeyer

Books with stories about the Spirit of Christmas

The Light of Christmas by Richard Paul Evans
The Christmas Candle by Richard Paul Evans
*Penny’s Christmas Jar Miracle by Jason F. Wright
*The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston
*Mouskin’s Christmas Eve by Edna Miller
The Last Straw by Paula Palangi (I’d love to start this tradition in our family one of these years.)
A Certain Small Shepherd by Rebecca Caudill (a longer story that came highly recommended but we haven’t read yet)
Angela and the Baby Jesus by Frank McCourt
The Three Gifts of Christmas by Jennie Bishop
Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo
*The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski
Josie’s Gift by Kathleen Long Bostrom
The King’s Christmas List by Eldon Johnson

Miscellaneous

I Love Christmas (This is an anthology. We don’t read all the stories, but I love “The Christmas Spider“ by Marguerite de Angeli in which the spider’s web covers Baby Jesus)
Christmas Cookies by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

So many good books! I tried to be really choosey about which ones I starred so it didn’t seem like the non-starred ones were no good. I enjoy all of them! If I didn’t, they’d get kicked off the list and passed on to make room for other treasures. If you know of any other Christmas books you think we should add to our collection, please comment!

Other Crew members will be sharing about what they are reading throughout this season so visit the Schoolhouse Crew blog for the Christmas Books Round-Up for more ideas. Merry Christmas!

Posted in Holidays, Kindergarten, Parenting Resources

Our Advent Beginnings

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Deanna

For last two Christmases we were not living in our own home, so our opportunity to start establishing our own family traditions for the Advent season was limited. Now that we have our own home and the boys are old enough to understand what’s going on, we want to make sure that we try to keep the season as Christ-centered as possible. There’s at least one Nativity scene in every room of our house, and the schoolroom has the small tree with all the ornaments we made doing Truth in the Tinsel last year. (The boys were disappointed that we weren’t making all new ones this year, but I promised them that I have other ornament-making plans in the works!) Each day we read a section in The ADVENTure of Christmas by Lisa Whelchel, learning about various Christmas traditions and how they point to Jesus. The kids take turns opening the doors on our wooden Advent calendar or unwrapping Christmas books (See Christmas Book Countdown). Ian and I are also reading through the parts of the Christmas story in Luke and Matthew as we start school each day, and carols are frequently playing on the iPod as we go about our day.

P1020218 My favorite new tradition, however, is our Advent wreath. I’d heard about them before, but I had never had one in my home. I’m not sure what prompted me to buy one this year, but even just a few days into the season I can already tell it’s one of the best Christmas purchases I’ve ever made. Each night when we do “Bible Time” we light the appropriate candle as Eric leads us in a devotion from We Light The Candles, including a Bible passage, an explanation, a prayer, and (my favorite) a suggested carol to sing. (I’ve been very intentional about playing these specific carols during the day so they’re familiar enough for everyone to sing along in the evenings.) The boys have been caught up in the beauty of our family sitting together with only the light of the candle and our Christmas tree, reading from the Bible and singing together. Their prayers as we close are even different than usually, full of wonder and awe.

I don’t know whether we’ll use the same devotions in years to come or look for something new, but I know that our Advent wreath is here to stay. It has already made the season feel extra special this year, and we’re all looking forward to the weeks to come.

(You can read more about what we did for Advent last year in “My *plans* for Advent.”)

Posted in Holidays, Kindergarten, Preschool

The First Thanksgiving

Posted on November 30, 2013 by Deanna

This year we spent the whole month of November immersing ourselves in the history of the first Thanksgiving. It was somewhat familiar to Ian because we did touch on it last year, but this year I wanted him to be able to connect more with the story of the Pilgrims who were willing to sacrifice so much for the opportunity to follow their hearts in worshiping God. We got off to a strong start, but then our house got hit with sickness so things didn’t go exactly the way I had planned. I do think we accomplished my objective, however, so I’m not too upset.

We read lots of “living books” and watched several videos throughout the month. My plan was to spend each week focusing on a different part of the story, and although that got a bit disrupted by illness, for the most part it’s what we did. So here’s what we did week-by-week:

Week 1 – Setting out for the New World

Selected chapters from Stories of the Pilgrims by Margaret B. Pumphrey (part of the Yesterday’s Classics e-book bundle)

Boy on the Mayflower by Iris Vinton
On the Mayflower by Kate Waters (We enjoyed a bunch of Kate Waters’ books this year (pictured below), which are illustrated with photographs taken at Plimouth Plantation and help you feel like you’re really there with the Pilgrims.)
VIDEO: William Bradford
VIDEO: “The Mayflower Voyagers” on Netflix (part of the This is America, Charlie Brown series, which is ridiculously expensive to buy, but it’s also offered as a bonus feature on the DVD A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, a favorite around here)
VIDEO: “Mayflower” on the Scholastic website
VIDEO: The Mayflower and the First Thanksgiving from Learn Our History

Week 2 – The First Year/Squanto

More selected chapters from Stories of the Pilgrims by Margaret B. Pumphrey
Thank You, Squanto by Peter and Connie Roop
Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Metaxas
VIDEO “Wampanoag Homesite” on the Scholastic website

Week 3 – Colonial Life

Samuel Eaton’s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy by Kate Waters (Ian was fascinated by this book and requested it several times)
Sarah Morton’s Day : A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl by Kate Waters
Tapenum’s Day: A Wampanoag Indian Boy in Pilgrim Times by Kate Waters
VIDEO “Pilgrim Village” on the Scholastic website
Dear America (Season 1, Episode 2 “A Journey to the New World“)
Colonial Life for Children: Plimouth Plantation

Two other books we enjoyed this year were This First Thanksgiving Day by Laura Krauss Melmed and Three Young Pilgrims by Cheryl Harness.

We also created a Thanksgiving notebook over the course of the month that included Ian’s copywork from the hymn “For the Beauty of the Earth,” some writing prompts, coloring pages, and a printed copy of Psalm 100 (which we read each day and worked on memorizing all month). And we culminated our Thanksgiving study by feasting at the park with some homeschool friends (complete with homemade costumes)!

For more Thanksgiving ideas check out my Cranberry Thanksgiving post and Thanksgiving Devotional from last year.

UPDATE FROM A FEW YEARS LATER:

I still love and use the books listed above with my younger kids, but as everyone has gotten older, we’ve added a few longer books that I’ve enjoyed. (I’m a descendant of Mary Chilton and her parents who came over on the Mayflower, and my husband is a descendant of and Stephen Hopkins and his daughter Constance, which is why some of these may seem redundant.