Our Favorite Homeschool Resources for Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas

Favorite Resources for Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas

November and December are my very favorite times of the year to homeschool. We tend to take a break from the daily grind and focus on what’s really important — gratitude for God’s providential hand in the founding of America and His grace and mercy in sending His Son to earth.

Today, I want to share some of my favorite homeschool curriculum to help us keep the focus on Him!

Thanksgiving Resources

I recently shared with you about The Pilgrim Story from Dayspring Christian Academy online. The Pilgrim Story teaches the true history of the pilgrims, using original documents Ben is still working through this course and continues to enjoy it very much.

There are also several unit studies we have used and loved over the years. I want to make sure you are aware of these as well.

Thanksgiving from Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett — In this 4-week unit study for K-12, history will come alive as the story of the Pilgrims and Native Americans unfolds before you. Your students will relive the adventures of the Pilgrims, and learn more about their commitment, determination, and deep faith in God. Through Internet links, they will visit the Mayflower and Plymouth Plantation. They will read journal entries of William Bradford, take a virtual tour of a Wampanoag home site, and enjoy Thanksgiving projects for kids of all ages.

Homeschool Share has a free lapbook created just for this unit study!

Speaking of Homeschool Share, some of our very favorite unit studies and lapbooks are housed there. And everything is free!! I’ll share some Advent and Christmas resources, too, but first, click on the banner below for some great studies for Thanksgiving:

Some of our favorite books for our Thanksgiving book basket include:

Cranberry Thanksgiving by Harry and Wende Devlin

Goody O’Grumpity by Carol Ryrie Brink

In November by Cynthia Rylant

The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh

Thanksgiving Day by Gail Gibbons

Several of these books have free unit studies at Homeschool Share. You can find them by clicking on the Thanksgiving Connections link above.

Evan Moor’s History Pockets for Colonial America, Plymouth Colony, and Native Americans are very helpful for notebooking your Thanksgiving studies, too!

Advent Resources

I didn’t grow up celebrating, or even recognizing, the Advent season. But over the past few years, it has become my favorite time of year. Learning about the Old Testaments prophecies of the Messiah, the anticipation of his birth, and finally celebrating the arrival of the newborn King. Just beautiful.

We keep things pretty simple with Advent. I purchased a beautiful Nativity Advent Wreath several years ago, and it’s the first sign of the coming Christmas holiday that will adorn our home.

The candles of the Advent Wreath include:

The Hope (or Prophecy) Candle: This candle represents not only the Biblical prophecies about Christ’s birth, but the very feeling of anticipation which God’s people experienced over hundreds of years as they awaited His coming. Advent is a time when we can, in our own way, join the generations of God’s children in awaiting our Messiah. Of course, Advent encompasses both the arrival of the Christ child and His second glorious coming which is yet to occur!

The Peace (or Bethlehem) Candle: This candle represents the preparations made for the coming Christ child. Bethlehem is an appropriate place to signify preparation because, even though no room was available for Mary and Joseph when they came, God had orchestrated events so that Caesar Augustus called for a census to be taken. Joseph and Mary had to leave Nazareth so that they could register in Bethlehem and the Scriptures below were fulfilled!

The Joy (or Shepherds’) Candle: The shepherds represent the message of great joy that is brought to the world about Jesus’ birth!

The Love (or Angel) Candle: This candle represents the love which God shared with the world when He sent His Son, Jesus! Another theme for this week is sharing–the angels announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds and they shared it with others. The magi also left the baby Jesus and probably shared the wonderful news of the Savior with everyone they met! So this week, as we read through the story of Jesus’ birth from Luke 1 and 2 and light all four Advent candles, remember that the light of Christ can only shine brighter as it does on your Advent wreath if we SHARE the Good News of Jesus Christ with the world!

The Christ Candle: This white candle represents Christ! Our Messiah, Jesus, Light of the World is finally here!

This year, the first Sunday of Advent is December 2. To follow along the days of Advent, we read from one of these three books:

Jotham’s Journey

Bartholomew’s Passage

Tabitha’s Travels

For some Nature Study activities, Shining Dawn Books has the perfect mini-unit — Nature Studies through the Holidays: Advent. While not your typical full-fledged NaturExplorers study, this mini-unit will be just what you need to prepare your hearts for Christmas through a unique, Christ-centered nature study tied into the themes of Advent. For each week of Advent, it provides Scripture references, nature study activities and full-color notebooking pages. Bonus ideas and notebooking pages are included for Thanksgiving and an after Christmas theme about the Wise Men, too. For the month of November, use the code: BOGO to buy one get one free.

And for mom — Jesus Light of the World: Praying the Scriptures Through Advent by Candace Crabtree is just beautiful. Join Candace in 31 days of Praying the Scriptures through the Advent Season. Each day you will read 1 Scripture passage about LIGHT from the Bible, a short devotional reading, a prayer about that Scripture and journaling lines for your own prayers. We will focus on the importance of light and Jesus as light throughout God’s Word and in our own lives. Also included are 2 beautiful printables to remind you that Jesus is the Light this Advent season!

Christmas Resources

For the most part, our homeschooling is finished for the year once we have completed our Advent activities, but I do have one more study to share with you for Christmas. It’s another wonderful unit study from Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett — Christmas.

Just like Thanksgiving, Christmas is a 4-week study for K-12. In Christmas, your family will learn what the world was like at the time of Christ’s birth. Use this study to help your children understand the significance that the coming Savior had for so many people. Read about the prophecies that were fulfilled by His birth, and begin to clearly see God’s hand in history since the very beginning of time.

There are several picture books we always bring out at Christmastime as well. These are our perennial favorites, and I don’t think either of us could imagine not reading them. In the past, I have wrapped one book for every day of Advent and place them in a basket for Ben to choose one to read. It’s because of this practice that we have fallen in love with these books. I remember the first year I did this, I just went to the library and picked any book about Christmas that looked good to me. We found some wonderful (and not so wonderful) books this way, but we were introduced to all of these books with this method. Most of them are now a part of our home library.

I do have a warning for you here. Most of the time, Ben has to take over reading for me because every, single one of these books makes me cry. But we love them so much and I hope you do, too.

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski
Boxes for Katje by Candace Fleming
Christmas Oranges by Linda Bethers
The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Hunt
The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walberg
Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree by Robert Barry
Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant
An Orange for Frankie by Patricia Polacco
Annika’s Secret Wish by Beverly Lewis
The Littlest Angel by Robert Tazewell

Be sure and check out the Christmas Connections page at Homeschool Share for some great free unit studies and lapbooks. Click on the banner below to find those. You’ll find unit studies for two of the books I’ve listed above, as well as a Christmas Around the World unit study and a 12 Days of Christmas lapbook.

Make Your Other Emails Jealous

Thanksgiving Resources

Advent Resources

Christmas Resources