Sarah Mackenzie (00:00):
It is time, time for Christmas School. If you know what I’m talking about, you’re already squealing with glee probably. And if you don’t, oh my, do I have a treat for you today. Let’s get started.
(00:25):
Hello and welcome to episode 236 of the Read Aloud Revival. This is the show that helps your kids fall in love with books and helps you fall in love with homeschooling.
(00:39):
So here’s the deal with Christmas School. Most of us have too much on our plates before the busy holiday season even begins. I mean, I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t bored or looking for something to fill my time or to fill my kids’ homeschool day before the holidays. And so then December hits and things get real busy and we sort of feel behind on everything, which is sort of a shame because for homeschoolers, especially for Christian homeschoolers, December should be the best month of our entire year.
(01:16):
This is an opportunity to slow down and to savor the season, the holiness of these days, the great gift of Jesus. And on a normal homeschooling day, homeschooling feels like a lot, at least it has always felt like a lot to me. So then adding merrymaking on top of that can feel very overwhelming. So the good news, of course, is that you don’t have to add merrymaking on top of your already full homeschooling schedule because that is what Christmas School is for. Christmas School is a month long program.
(01:50):
It replaces your current homeschooling curriculum just for a few weeks in December to help you wait in joyful hope to savor the season because we want your December to feel better. We want your advent to feel rich and full and like the slow holy time that it is. But we also know that you don’t want to set aside school completely. I don’t anyway. You don’t want to or you can’t put school aside for the whole month while you’ve merry merrymake and you don’t have to. That’s what Christmas School was made to do, and even better, we have taken all the work out of it for you.
(02:31):
It’s zero prep on your part. You just open the guide, follow the plan. Thousands of families around the world are using it. It’s a Christmas curriculum for everyone in the family, no matter their age. I’m going to tell you more about how that works with different ages in a minute. For now, let me tell you, it includes everything in the curriculum except math. Come on now. This is me. You’re still going to want to do your own math. You do not want a math program from me at any rate. So here’s the deal. This is the fourth year that we’ve done Christmas School at Read Aloud Revival.
(03:06):
And I asked those who’ve done it with us before if they might be willing to leave us an audio message telling us what they love about Christmas School. I thought maybe we’d get a handful of phone messages. You guys, we got almost 100 phone calls, almost 100 phone calls from busy moms who called in took the time to tell us why they love Christmas School. Messages like this one from Dawn Wagner.
Dawn (03:35):
My name is Dawn and we have three boys in Wisconsin and we have been members of RAR Premium for a few years and we love it. One of my favorite things about RAR Premium is Christmas School. We take the weeks in December and we only do basic subjects in Christmas School, and we have the best time ever. It is so much fun. There’s lots of great books to read, lots of great activities. We use it as part of our advent leading up to Christmas, and it’s just such a sweet time with my boys and there’s something for everyone.
(04:18):
So if there’s an activity that one of my kids doesn’t enjoy, someone else does, and then a different activity appeals to someone else. Sarah and the team at RAR Premium do such an incredible job every season, but I think Christmas School is the sweet spot for RAR Premium, and I can’t wait to do it again this year.
Sarah Mackenzie (04:42):
I love that so much. Thank you, Dawn. Actually, for the first time ever, we are offering Christmas School outside of RAR Premium. Premium members will still get it as part of their premium subscription, of course. So if you’re a Premium member, you can log into your dashboard, your Premium dashboard, you’ll find it. But if you just want Christmas School and you don’t want to join RAR Premium, you can get it all on its own now. It’s just separate, just Christmas School, and then it’s super easy-peasy. You get the guide, you print it, or you can just access it on your computer or your tablet or your phone, up to you.
(05:15):
You round up the supplies and we’ve made that really easy for you with a week by week supply list. Everything that’s on those supply lists is more or less something you probably have lying around the house. We really choose activities and lessons for Christmas School that don’t require you to go to a bunch of different stores and round up weird supplies that are hard to come by because you got enough on your plate already. So you get your guide and you look over your supply list, then you just follow the daily plan because we did all the prep for you.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Christmas School gives me just the structure. I need to lighten my mental load all while celebrating the season and making memories with the ones I love most. 100% do it. 10 out of 10. Highly recommend.
Rachel (06:03):
Hello, it’s Rachel from New Zealand. We have participated in Christmas School for the past three years, so right from its first year. Last year I incorporated Christmas School into our custom-made advent calendar of activities. I especially remember learning about the meaning behind the Good King Wenceslas carol. So fun to learn new things, and so fun to be accumulating all these memories and connections through rich Christmas stories and warm family time together.
Sarah Mackenzie (06:31):
Okay, so let’s talk about how to use Christmas School with all ages. Christmas School is an excellent replacement for your curriculum for ages four to 17. So how on earth do we pull that off? How are you going to pull that off with a wide range of ages if you’ve got teens, you’ve got younger ones? Well, first, let me tell you, if there’s ever a time for whole family learning, it’s Christmastime, and that’s what we’re going to do here. We’ve integrated subjects across the curriculum including literature, language arts, art, history and geography, science and nature study, grammar and copywork, baking and recipes and more.
(07:13):
You just keep on with your regular math program and we cover the rest. I’ll give you a little more details in just a second on how that looks for each different age. But in your guide, you’ll find simple icons for indicating this activity is best done with older kids, or this activity is best done with younger kids. Then there’s also writing assignments and reading selections for older kids and teens, including this year a selection of classic Christmas stories for your teens, which are especially fabulous.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
Hi, we’ve done the RAR Christmas School for the last few years, and everyone from the little ones to the teenagers has absolutely loved it. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, we are on summer holidays in December, but my children are always happy to do Christmas School. It’s such a delight. It could be used as a complete curriculum for the December if you needed it to be, but we just pick and choose what suits our family. If you’re participating in Christmas School for the first time, I would say that it’s best to order the books and supplies really early so that everything is ready to go at the beginning of December.
(08:13):
This makes for a very stress-free Christmas School.
Speaker 6 (08:17):
I’ve been doing Christmas School ever since you’ve had Christmas School, and it is the only reason why I do anything magical or relaxing at Christmastime because of my type A personality. And now I’ve gotten to the point where I pretty much do Christmas School and math. That’s what we do during December. Christmas School is flexible enough to where if someone wanted to continue their main curriculum, they could pick and choose and substitute some things and still continue with their history in science and math, and it still feel like a very magical time of year.
Sarah Mackenzie (08:53):
So if you’ve got kids under 10, the Christmas School guide is all you need. If you’d like, you could keep going with your math and your phonics if you’re doing kind of reading instruction, phonics, extraction already. It’s not required. Kids under 10 could definitely use the month break for math and phonics without there being any negative consequences there. Taking a month off is often just the break your kids need to come back to those subjects refreshed anyway. So with kids under 10, Christmas School is all you need.
(09:23):
Now if you’ve got kids who are ages 10 to 13 or so, you probably want to continue with your child’s normal math lessons, music lessons if they’re taking them, if you’re doing violin or piano or something. And then you’re also going to want to schedule a daily free reading time. There are some tips in the Christmas School guide for why that daily free reading time is so important, how to make it happen, how to make it easy and enjoyable, and some tips for carving out space for free reading time. Then that’s all you need for your 10 to 13s.
(09:55):
And then if you’ve got high schoolers, you probably want to continue with your math, just like the other ages, music lessons, if that’s a thing that you’re doing, and you’re definitely going to want to continue to schedule a daily free reading time. Again, details on that are in the guide. We’ve also included three classic Christmas stories for additional high school reading, and then we’ve provided links to those stories free online, so you don’t have to buy any additional book or anything for that along with prompts that you can use with your high schoolers for discussions, which is always what I do, or for essays if you’d like to assign some essays.
(10:30):
So we’ve got something for all ages, and it really truly is a whole family program.
Tanya (10:37):
Hey, RAR, this is Tanya from Tennessee, and I would say Christmas School is an incredible gift to any homeschool mom. It’s like a little celebration within your school day for the month of December. It’s so refreshing to set aside your routine curriculum and open a delightful book with a guide to wonderful activities.
Sarah (10:52):
This is Sarah and I’m 10-years-old and I like Christmas School. Why? Because it’s fun and we get to read books, learn and do crafts.
Callie (11:01):
I’m Callie and I’m 15-years-old, and I like Christmas School because I like discovering how the authors utilize illustrations in their books. And I really enjoyed learning about Tommy dePaola as well as Jan Brett.
Sarah Mackenzie (11:14):
Ah, thank you kids. I love hearing your voices. This year, all of our Christmas School books are written and illustrated by the Wondrous Tommy dePaola. For week one, you’ll choose either Country Angel Christmas or because Country Angel Christmas is out of print, Strega Nona’s Gift. So you have an option for week one, either Country Angel Christmas or Strega Nona’s Gift. Now super fun, we got permission to create a read aloud video of Country Angel Christmas for you from Whitebird Ink who holds the Rights.
(11:49):
So it’s me reading aloud and showing you all the beautiful illustrations on a Read Aloud video. You’ll get access to that inside Christmas School. You can use that book for your week one. For week two, you’re going to read Merry Christmas, Strega Nona. And then for week three, one of my all-time favorites, The Legend of Old Befana. Now your high schoolers are also going to read one of those classic Christmas short stories that are included in your guide. Each week I invite your kids to look closely for literary devices, illustrative elements.
(12:24):
I even teach some grammar while we’re looking at the picture books. So these are books that you can read with all of your kids from four to 17. For your older kids, you also want to do the classic short stories that we’ve included, but those looking closely videos will invite your whole family to look. Look more closely and find literary devices, illustrative elements and magic in those pages that you might not have noticed elsewhere. It won’t feel like school. I can pretty much guarantee that.
(12:53):
Welcome to week one of Christmas School. This week we’re reading Country Angel Christmas, written and illustrated by Tommy dePaola. First read the book. You always want to meet a book for the first time on your own terms without someone else like me getting in the way. So first read, then come back here and we’ll talk about a few things I noticed in the book. Ready to do that? Here’s something to know about the author illustrator, Tommy dePaola. If you want December to be the most remarkable time of your entire homeschool year, then you want Christmas School.
Maria (13:35):
This is Maria from Minnesota, and what I love about Christmas School is that it has something for every single one of my kids. I have kids from teens all the way on down to toddlers, and Christmas School has something for each and every one of my children. It takes care of the planning for me. I can look through it, figure out the things that fit our family, and then we just do them. We have made so many memories over the years through Christmas School.
Candice (14:07):
This is Candice Garner in Missouri. Christmas School gives us a break from our typical routine and as ushers our school day into the season with fabulous Christmas stories, crafts and cooking. This is our fourth year to do Christmas School, and the kids and I are excitedly anticipating it.
Sarah Mackenzie (14:24):
Out of those nearly 100 audio messages that happy Christmas Schoolers left us and thank you, thank you, by the way to each of you who took the time. I know you’re so busy. I know you have so much on your plate and so much going on. So the fact that you took the time to call and tell us what you love about Christmas School just made my day so much. Our whole team has been listening to them and enjoying your messages. We got one message in particular that I got a kick out of. Whitney Pansina, take it away, girl.
Whitney (14:59):
I’d like to recommend that you join RAR. The content’s excellent. It hits the highest bar. Just try it for a month. You’ll like it if you do. December’s coming and I have the wisest tip for you. Oh, it’s Christmas School. Christmas School. It’s some of premium’s best. You press print and then the awesome guide shows you the rest, recipes rabbit holes, copy, work and fun. Read the books, look closely, there’s something for everyone. Christmas School is awesome. You’ve got to do it. Thank you so much RAR team for everything. Many blessings this Christmas.
Sarah Mackenzie (15:51):
If you want December to be the most remarkable month of your entire homeschool year, then you want Christmas School. It offers a change of pace. It’s a welcome change of pace. It leads you into the new year feeling refreshed, and it enriches your whole family dynamic from richer, dinnertime conversations to shared memories. It’s just unlike anything else you’ll do in your homeschool. To join us for Christmas School this year, head to readaloudrevival.com/christmasschool or just text the word Christmas to the number 33777. That’s the word, Christmas to the number 33777 and you’ll make this a December your kids won’t soon forget.
(16:37):
See you at Christmas School.
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