Here are some ideas for homeschooling your kindergarten child in December! These activities are based on Waldorf and Charlotte Mason education models, so there is no formal schooling yet, such as language arts or math lessons. Instead, the activities reflect the seasonal rhythm of the year to give children a sense of time, place, and connection.
The watercolors I chose for this month reflect the festivals we celebrate and the blue sky over the snow.
Theme and Festivals
Our theme for this month is festivals, since there are so many we celebrate!
Our celebrations this month include Advent, St. Lucia Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, my older daughter’s birthday, and my niece’s birthday.
Every year, we make a variation on an advent spiral, and for each week of advent, we read scripture that leads up to Jesus’s birth.
We celebrate St. Lucia Day because I enjoy Scandinavian culture. I haven’t told my daughter the story of St. Lucia because I feel she’s too young to hear it. However, we enjoy making lussekatter (Swedish saffron rolls) and lighting candles. I’d like to make peg people figures dressed in the clothes the Scandinavian girls wear for this holiday and possibly sew the clothes for my daughters, too.
Throughout the month, we’ll spend a lot of free time making Christmas gifts. I try to tie in recent handwork when we plan gifts that my daughter will give to people. One year, she wet felted Christmas ornaments. This year she might be able to weave something small or roll beeswax candles. We freeze the cookies we bake during the first few weeks of December and then give out cookie plates to close friends and neighbors on Christmas Eve.
My favorite tradition on Christmas Eve is to go to church for the candlelight service. On Christmas Day, we visit family and exchange gifts. We go to my parents’ house on New Year’s Eve.
Here is our December schedule. We follow a four-day schedule because of our Thursday co-op. I can’t share some of the handwork and beeswax modeling we have planned because they come from other curriculums, but I’ll let you know where you can find them. I’ve also created my own handwork resource.
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December Homeschool for Kindergarten
Theme: Festivals
Festivals: Advent, St. Lucia Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, birthdays
Daily homeschool schedule
During breakfast: Bible study; read a poem.
Lavender’s Blue circle time (movements with seasonal songs and verses).
Main activity
During lunch: Folk song, picture, composition, or hymn from Ambleside’s schedule. Then I read aloud. We’re currently working through the free reads on Ambleside’s Year 0 schedule.
Monday afternoon: Nature study
Main activities
Week 1
Monday: Bake Linzer cookies
Tuesday: Watercolor with yellow
Wednesday: Model wreath with beeswax
Friday: Roll beeswax candles for St. Lucia Day
Week 2: St. Lucia Week
Monday: Bake blizzard cookies
Tuesday: Watercolor with yellow, blue
Wednesday: Model candle with beeswax
Thursday: Prep lussekatter
Friday (St. Lucia Day): Bake lussekatter; make Swedish hearts
Week 3
Monday: Bake cutout cookies
Tuesday: Watercolor with blue
Wednesday: Model Christmas tree with beeswax
Friday: Make gifts
Week 4
Monday: Bake chocolate crinkle cookies
Tuesday: Watercolor with red, green, and yellow
Wednesday: Christmas Day
Friday: Pomander balls
Week 5
Monday: Bake gingerbread (and serve with homemade whipped cream!)
Tuesday: Watercolor with red, blue, yellow, and green