I think we are done with school for awhile.
We have been doing half days for the last two weeks and it has decreased the Christmas stress around here. I also have spent most of the mornings learning about Christmas. We have sang Christmas carols every morning, read a few Christmas books, learned about something, and made some kind of craft. I hope my kids have learned a lot because I sure have!
On Wednesday, we learned the history behind the Christmas tree. I found some sites that explained that ancient cultures would put green tree boughs in their house starting on the winter solstice (which is today, by the way) to remind them that spring was coming and to ward off anything evil. During the 1500's, Martin Luther in Germany was the first one to put a Christmas tree in his house. This started the tradition of putting up the Christmas tree.
It's funny though because it never caught on in England. When the Puritans and Pilgrims came to America, they would actually fine people if they put a tree up or celebrated Christmas in any other way than going to church on Christmas. I can't believe these people- first they killed the Quakers and now they're fining people for decorating their houses! They believed that Christmas was a very sacred event and shouldn't be mocked with decorations.
Then around the middle of the 1800's, Queen Victoria of England posed in front of a Christmas tree in England and then the tradition took off in England and in the new world because everybody wanted to do what the queen did! Can you imagine life back then? If you were German, you loved the Christmas tree, if you were not, you got fined for it. Quite the opposites! I guess I never questioned why I put up the tree- must be because of my German heritage!!
Yesterday I took a break from Christmas and we learned about snow, we talked about how scientists discovered that snowflakes had six sides to it without a microscope. I gave Courtney one of her presents early (magnifying glasses), so we could try to see the six sides and we couldn't, partly because the snow was melting too fast. We did a cute snowman project where we glued cotton balls onto paper to make a snowman, even Christian got to participate and make a snowman! They turned out really cute!
Today we continued to sing Christmas carols and we probably read about five books about the holidays. I then said, " We are done!" Done for the week and maybe done for awhile. We finished up all their schoolwork yesterday and they even sat down and did their homework, so that is done!
I am debating about giving them next week off or to keep moving forward, I guess we will see next week!
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