To Break or not to Break?

Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

This week, the kids and I traveled over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house! Now, we're snuggled up with family, enjoying our time together and eating too much food. I'm forgoing most of the mega deals this year, so no need to brave the Black Friday crowds.

This is the first time, though, that we've gone on a vacation like this and I brought our homeschool stuff with us! *gasp* I know, I know. Usually, I like to take the whole week of Thanksgiving off, or at least only focus on Thanksgiving-related activities.

However, this has been a really rough season for us, health-wise. I was sick for an entire 3 weeks in October, and all 3 of my kids seem to be taking turns getting sick themselves or making each other sick. That's put us way behind in our curriculum.

I'm not really one to obsess over something like that. Correction--I am that type, but I'm learning to overcome that bit of the perfectionist side of me. While I'm not in any hurry to "catch up," I also believe we need to stay on track. So, we're brought a little bit of homeschool with us.

Granted, many of our activities are still Thanksgiving (and starting Monday--Christmas) related--the books we read, the crafts we do, etc. We are still making sure to plunge on in our studies. The girls are enjoying learning about the medieval times and animal habitats in science. In another post, I'll have to share the travel books I made for them, which bits of math, spelling, reading, and history/geography in the form of games! Yes, I'm sneaky like that.

What about you? Do you continue to homeschool through the holidays? Why or why not?

Sharing Thanksgiving Traditions

I am a big fan of the last two months of the year. Halloween kicks off an amazing time of year. As a military family, Veterans Day is very important to us, and then Thanksgiving, which leads into the Christmas season. Two months of love, compassion, thankfulness, and remembrance.

Many people think that Thanksgiving gets looked over, but I don't believe that's necessarily true. Although the original reason for celebrating might get lost in translation, its essence is highlighted even more in light of the Christmas season, which seems to come earlier every year. I tend to see Thanksgiving as the kick-off celebration. Christmas is all about Jesus' birth and what he would ultimately do. Thanksgiving is about being grateful for what we have, thankful for what God has done for us.

The original Thanksgiving was a celebration of a full harvest of food after experiencing a particularly rough winter the year before. Of the men, women, and children who originally arrived on the Mayflower, only about half survived that first went. With the help of Squanto and his fellow Indians, the people learned to plant corn and other crops, to use the local plants, and to hunt/fish. By the time, the next harvest arrived, there was plenty to go around. They then held the feast to celebrate God's provision with their new friends.

Now, we gather together with friends and family for a meal to celebrate our "harvest," whatever that might look like for us. Some years are more bountiful than others, but we always have something to be thankful for, even if it is only the salvation provided by Jesus' death and resurrection.

Being a military family, Thanksgiving looks different every year. We haven't really been able to build too many traditions.

The past few years, though, we've done our thankful leaves. We all write what we are thankful for on leaves cut out of construction paper, and then tape them to the sliding door. The kids seem to have a lot of fun with it, and sometimes it amazes me what they find to be grateful for. There are the typical kids answers like their favorite toy or TV or the like. But, when, without prompting, they say something like Jesus's sacrifice or my family or time with Mommy/Daddy, etc. it just makes my heart melt!

And then there's pumpkin pie and fried turkey. Doesn't seem to matter where we are or who we're celebrating Thanksgiving with, those two items end up on the list somehow. ("Say, have you tried fried turkey--it's just mouth-watering!")

This year, I think I'm going to start a new tradition of having the girls weave our placemats for the big meal. We'll start with construction paper, but maybe when they're older, we'll try some weaving with something else. :)

What are your Thanksgiving traditions? Anything fun or unique?

Round-Up of Autumn Ideas from Our Contributors

At Growing Your Homeschool, we are so blessed to have some fabulous bloggers with fantastic ideas for teaching our children.  Today, I have a round-up of autumn-themed, Halloween, and Thanksgiving teaching ideas that our bloggers have posted on their personal blogs.  Go check them out!

Autumn

Autumn Sensory Box

Autumn Trees - Watercolor

Construction Paper Autumn Tree

Cotton Ball Autumn Tree

Handprint Autumn Tree

Harvest Books

Pioneer Day Part 1

Pioneer Day Part 2

Q-Tip Autumn Tree

Wine Cork Autumn Tree

Halloween

Halloween Fanta

Paper Plate Pumpkins

Pumpkin Activities for Tiny Tots

Pumpkin and Acorn Counting

Thanksgiving

Handprint Turkey Placecards

Pilgrims of a Different Kind

Thankful Tree

Time to Talk Turkey

Turkey Bowling

Thanksgiving Crafts

Thanksgiving can be celebrated all through November! Here are some fun suggestions of crafts and activities you can incorporate into your lessons:

This great book, The Very First Thanksgiving Day, has rich text and pictures that are interesting for all age groups.

My older children have learned from The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh. It personifies 'the pilgrims' in a more personal way.

I also love reading the book Thanks For Thanksgiving to my children. The text is simple but the pictures are so lovely - we enjoy pointing out things happening on each page (which leads us to discover more about what each character in the story is thankful for).

Another great way of helping children to discover the meaning of this holiday is to make a Thankful Tree. This is a fun activity the whole family can participate in, and it can last the whole month of November. You can either create a paper tree to hang on a wall or bulletin board, or secure a branch with several twigs to stand in a decorative pot. Then, have your children make paper leaves (these can be drawn free-hand, stenciled, or a traced hand print) and cut them out. Keep the leaves and a marker by the tree, so each person can write something they are thankful for on a leaf and place it on the tree. The leaves are attached to the tree with tape if it is a paper tree, or hung with ornament hangers if the tree is represented by a stick. This is a fun activity to add to your lessons once a day or once a week until Thanksgiving.

Handprint turkeys are always fun for children! Here is a fun twist on a paper turkey, or you can create this sweet painted turkey.

My children would not want me to forget to mention coloring pages. They LOVE themed coloring pages! Here are some great Thanksgiving ones.

Have a great time teaching your children about Thanksgiving - and thank you for reading our blog!