Holbrook Heroes: Holiday Craze

I got way behind again. I had forgotten how crazy it gets this time of year, and it's even more so now that the boys are getting older. Trying to homeschool, Christmas shop without kids, do some photo shoot gigs, and carry 7 months of pregnancy wears me out! So, here's hoping things slow down for me a little bit once the new year begins.

I guess I'll try to do a quick summary of what we were able to do this month. We'll be taking the next week or two off so I can regroup, the kids can play, and I can (hopefully) get back on top of things.

I tried to keep a holiday/Christmas theme throughout the whole month. Our letters and letter sounds that we worked on were R, S, T, and U. For the week of the letter R, we read books on reindeer. Letter S week was about snow, snowmen, snowflakes, etc. Trees were the topic for letter T week, and letter U week was pretty much a play week since it was the week before Christmas.

For math, we bounced around subjects, using holiday themes for our work. We did several different worksheets that focused on addition or subtraction or word problems. One activity involved making a "reindeer" with your finger and a long pipe cleaner. We used cheerios to help solve the word problems given by putting a certain amount on each antler/pipe cleaner. For another activity, I had Hayden form numbers out of paper candy canes. Then, he had to write the number word out below the candy cane numbers that he formed.

We did this twice. Once for the numbers 1-5 and once for the numbers 6-10.
Other math activities:

Patterns using Christmas-shaped marshmallows

Snowman Counting Buttons

Hayden had to figure out the word numbers. Sawyer had just the regular numbers written on his.

Five Little Snowflakes Felt Storyboard

The boys love the felt storyboards. I did a couple of things this month using it. I need to do more because they love it so much and want to do it again and again and again.

Another thing we did using the felt storyboard, but was related to spelling words was the Melting Snowman. We did this several times with different words that Hayden has been learning. Sawyer knew a few, but for him, I would ask him to identify a letter, or if it was a color word, he was good at picking it out because of songs that they have learned that spell out these words.

For the Melting Snowman, the first time we played this activity, we did it kind of like hangman. I put blanks on the chalkboard for a spelling word, and they had to guess the letters. If they guessed a letter not in the word, I would take a piece of the snowman away. This went slowly for us, even though they enjoyed it. So, the next time we played the game, I just showed them words that I had written on sentence strips, and they had to sound it out, and tell me what the word was. This went by much faster, and I think they liked it more. And to make it even more exciting for them, I told them if they got more than 15 words correct by the time we were finished, they'd each get a Christmas cookie.

Hayden also did a couple of color-by-numbers using addition and subtraction. He's developed a real interest in the color-by-number activities, so these were a fun thing for him to do. I found the worksheets from www.superteacherworksheets.com. The two that he did, once completed, revealed a stocking filled with goodies (addition) and holiday candles surrounded by holly (subtraction).

Sorry this photo is sideways. This was the addition worksheet.

Some science activities that we did:

We read about snowflakes and made hexagonal prisms out of toothpicks and marshmallows.

Building one segment at a time

The finished product

We also made Borax Crystal Snowflake ornaments which were a LOT of fun. We managed to make about 5 good ones that we hung on the Christmas tree. I got the directions on this experiment here from About.com. There are actually a lot of different directions out there, but these were the ones I went with, and it worked out really well.

We did a couple of fun writing prompts also. The first one was "Saving Santa."

The alert came over the radio. "Emergency! Santa Claus trapped in chimney. Christmas will likely be cancelled." As soon as I heard it, I knew I would have to do something - and do it fast. I quickly gathered my gear and headed out the door.... (here's where Hayden finishes).... and I went to find the chimney. I got there with a rocket sled. Then I climbed up the house with a rope. All of a sudden, the rope broke! There was a ladder and I climbed up it. And then I saved Santa by using a different rope and pulled him out with it. He went off to deliver presents. The End.

The other writing prompt I had Hayden do was "How do you decorate a Christmas tree?" He had to use first, next, and finally for this one. This is actually a little over his level of understanding writing, but he did a pretty good job with it regardless. Plus, I had him write out the whole paragraph. It took him three days. Writing is a very tedious task for him, as I guess it probably is for a lot of 5 year old boys. Here is what he wrote:

Here are some tips to decorate a Christmas tree. First, you put the ornaments on. Next, you put on the star. Last, you put the presents under it. That is some tips to decorate a Christmas tree.

In addition to all that, we baked cookies, did a couple of art projects, and went on a few field trips. We also took turns battling a nasty bug which took up nearly a whole week to recuperate, and kept us from participating in a few fun holiday events, but all-in-all it was a great month. Below are some more photos from our adventures this past month.

Candy cane mice art project with candy canes and hot chocolate for a snack.

Sightseeing train tour in St. Augustine

View of the train from our seat

Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum after the train ride

Outside Ripley's Museum

Two tired boys after a full day

That was a fun field trip with our homeschool group. We missed out on making candy canes with them at Sweet Pete's Candy Shop because of the bug that got a hold of all of us, but we'll be making future trips there sometime in the beginning of next year.

We also took a trip downtown to the Old St. Andrews Episcopal Church where the Gingerbread House Extravanza was going on. Winners who competed in this annual contest were on display there. We got to vote on our favorite display, and we did a scavenger hunt as well. We spent at least an hour there, and then bought a couple of gingerbread men afterwards to snack on.