When I was a child, I anticipated Christmas because of the family reunions, Christmas parties, and the presents! I was a kid...it's human nature that you get excited for gifts, right?
Now that I'm a Mom, I feel happy for my children when they get gifts. Frankly, I'm also excited to be "Santa Claus" for them.
But I would also like to instill in them that Christmas is first and foremost Jesus' Birthday.
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I have been (officially) homeschooling my toddler for 3 weeks now. We're following The Letter of the Week Curriculum. I use it as a guide, mostly following the Words, Rhymes, and some of the Music, and then I add and improvise with some lessons too.
One way I improvise is including Christmas in our Lessons. Like for the first week, Letter A, I included Advent in our Lesson. We made an Advent Wreath out of a paper plate and art paper. We also made a Holy Family by using paper cups, paint, and some left over cloth. For Letter B week, I included Baby Jesus in our lesson and then we read about the Nativity in his Bible Story Book. Last week was C week, and of course, to be consistent, I included Christmas in our Lesson. We made Christmas Cards by using white crayons and watercolor (which will be given to the grandparents too), wrapped some gifts together, read stories and listened to Christmas Carols.
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| Cutting and Pasting. Making his Advent Wreath. |
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| Watching the Nativity Story (HERE is the link on YouTube) |
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| The Holy Family |
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| So Cute. He Presented his Wreath to Jesus and said: "Happy Birthday Jesus" |
Aside from our Lessons, I remind him that Jesus' birthday is near and we will celebrate it together with family. He asked if he will blow a cake, and now I think we should do that to celebrate the occasion! Why not right?
When he receives presents and he wants to open them, I tell him to wait for Christmas because gift opening is part of Jesus' birthday party so he needs to be extra patient :)
Although he also knows about Santa Claus, because that's what he sees in decorations and in the Cartoons he watches, I tell him that it is Jesus that asks Santa to give gifts because he loves the little Children. Maybe when he's a little older, we'll learn about Saint Nicholas.
How about you, how do you introduce Christmas to your child? I'd love to hear about them. Do Share!
Happy Holidays!
