!1 Copyright © 2014 Vibrant Homeschooling All rights reserved. This series originally ran on VibrantHomeschooling.com from November 21 through December 25, 2014. No portion of this e-book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior permission of Vibrant Homeschooling Owner/Editor Alicia Kazsuk except as a free resource for contributors to the “12 Days of Christmas Teachable Moments” series to share on their websites. !2 Table of Contents Series Contributors and Acknowledgments 4 Series Introduction: Do All (Christmas) Things In Love 5 Day 1: How (and Why) We’re Doing Christmas Differently9 Day 2: Practical Ways to Teach Kids About the Persecuted at Christmas 16 Day 3: How to Celebrate Advent with a Jesse Tree 21 Day 4: How to Pray the Scriptures Through Advent 30 Day 5: Crafting True Christmas Magic: Our Family’s Simpler Approach to the Holidays 34 Day 6: Counting Down to Advent with 25 Random Acts of Christmas Kindness 44 Day 7: Family Craft Project: Easy Christmas Wrapping Paper 51 Day 8: Why I’m So Glad We Made Time for Christmas Memories 64 Day 9: 10 Candy Cane Activities That Keep Christ in Christmas 68 Day 10: 10+ Ways to Learn with Christmas Baking 75 Day 11: Short Term Missions: What My Daughter and I Learned in Mexico This Christmas 79 Day 12: Learning History Through Christmas Hymns and Carols 91 Contributor Biographies 95 !3 Series Contributors and Acknowledgments A huge thanks to all the wonderful women who contributed their time, talents and resources to this series! You can learn more about them in the “Contributor Biographies” section at the end of the book. Bonnie Rose at WriteBonnieRose.com Jenn at SimblissityCottage.com Candace Crabtree at MercyIsNew.com Melissa Camara Wilkins at MelissaCamaraWilkins.com Penny Rogers at OurCrazyAdventuresInAutismland.com Connie Albers at ConnieAlbers.com Kristi Clover at RaisingClovers.com Kim Staten at LifeOverCs.com Angie Mosteller at CelebratingHolidays.com Alicia Kazsuk at VibrantHomeschooling.com" !4 Series Introduction: Do All (Christmas) Things In Love by Alicia Kazsuk of VibrantHomeschooling.com I write these words with hopeful anticipation. Not for all the awesome ideas from the bloggers in this series. But because of the potential here—a potential for a great returning back to what this holiday season can mean for homeschool families. One point I want to make clear: this series is not about asking you to do more. It’s also not asking you to give up your time-honored family traditions. !5 Nor is it’s purpose to make you feel guilty for what traditions you may not be doing. It is simply to say—in the voice of each family represented by each blogger—this is how our family will use the next 5 weeks to allow us to focus back to the true life found only in Christ. These families are saying that Christmas provides so many valuable, much- needed lessons outside the school books… and they’re desiring to dig in and discover those rich treasures. In short, this series is a call for families to discover the true definition of God’s love at Christmas. And there are no two families that will do that in the same way. I do want to caution us (myself being the first in line here) on a critical aspect of this discovery of Christmas love. This caution can be best summarized in 1 Corinthians 13:1-7: If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. !6 Our Christmas activities—even our well-intentioned, Pinterest-worthy ones —are empty and meaningless if they are not in every shape and form about honoring Jesus. That means that I could put together the most beautiful craft project for my kids… and yet, if I am a insufferable, inflexible grouch during the project (“No, we can only do it this way and in this timeframe, kids!!”) then the entire experience is meaningless! Better to step back and let the project just come together (misplaced shepherds in the manager scene and all) or even to stop the project if it cannot be done in a calm, honoring manner to God and to each other (please know that I am speaking to myself on this one). What are we really trying to communicate in this season anyway? That more activities and more stuff is better (no matter how much those activities or things may drain our time, energy and resources)? Instead, what if we simply stuck to a few core, meaningful activities… and did those with great meaning, calm spirits and loving intention? Wouldn’t this (at least attempt to) communicate the depth and height of God’s great love—a message that the world is very open to hearing at Christmastime? Christmas doesn’t have to be a season of busy-ness but instead a season when we let His business rule in our hearts. A time when we drop our own agendas, slow !7 things down a bit and let His Spirit lead us on a wondrous discovery of His love through the story of the birth of His Son, Jesus. None of us can or ever will perfectly do any of the activities we’ll mention. We will mess up this season in one way or another. And yet, even this imperfection points us back to what the manger so clearly reveals: We are all sinners in desperate need of a Savior. Therefore, it’s my prayer that each of these posts would give you practical tools and examples of just a few ways that we can guide our families on a discovery of Christmas love. Read each one prayerfully, asking God if this is one avenue He wants to use to lead you closer to Him this Christmas. I leave you with Hebrews 12:28, which I read this morning afresh with the Christmas story in mind: Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. Yes, let us bow down and worship Him anew this Christmas season. And may many be blessed and encouraged when they see His light—His true, unmistakable love—shining in our hearts. !8 Day 1: How (and Why) We’re Doing Christmas Differently by Alicia Kazsuk of VibrantHomeschooling.com The last few months have been pretty stressful around here. Many of the kids are going through some big life-adjustments, and honestly, it’s taken a toll on our relationships and quality time together. So when my husband and I began talking about the holidays, we knew instantly that we didn’t need an over-done, frantic season of never-ending activities. !9 This Christmas, we decided that we wanted to focus our family’s teachable moments around things that would replenish and refuel. We asked ourselves some hard questions like: • What things would strengthen our family and, most of all, bring glory to Christ in this season? • What areas do we want to challenge ourselves and our kids to grow in? • In our family’s particular life season, what key mindsets do we each need to develop in order to fall more in love with Jesus? • What do we really want Christmas to be about? Honestly answering these questions meant that we’d need to change things up a little from previous years. It meant perhaps saying no to some good things (if they didn't support our overall vision); and being willing to try some new ideas (some that could be a little uncomfortable to implement). But it also meant a commitment to re-focus more intently on other concepts, such as approaching the Christmas story with new awestruck wonder and simple reverence; and asking God to truly show us how to love each other deeply in unique and practical ways. Using these answers as our plumb-line, here’s how we’ve decided to approach the holidays this year. 1. We’re putting the books away at the beginning of December. !10 We’ve always continued plowing through our subjects until around December 18 or so. But this year we’re taking advantage of the fact that our co-op ends on December 2. On December 3, we’re going to step away from our learning plan and just give ourselves space. Space to create. Time to show genuine love where its needed. We’re going to make some simple projects together. We’ll try a few decadent Christmas cookie recipes. A few of my kids want to learn to crochet. I may do some sewing with my daughter.