Yesterday I mailed my Christmas letter & cards – over 200 cards in less than 10 minutes. (Here’s the service I use) To be honest, I spent 20-30 minutes in the morning creating my photo card and writing my letter. Then, I spent 10 minutes in the afternoon, mailing the cards.
I have a few Christmas writing activities I’d like to share with you. I hope they will help you integrate Christmas in your homeschool. Advent & Christmas are the perfect time to take it easy, take a break from traditional school and spend time on what’s important.
When my kids were homeschooling, I had them write parts of our Christmas letter. So, I thought I’d share an easy way to integrate Christmas in your homeschool. I modeled this after writing activities in Teaching Writing Structure & Style
Each of my kids would write one paragraph of the letter, recapping their thoughts about the past year. Here are 5 quick steps you can use with your own kids.
1. List 10 things you remember about 2012
Sometimes we brainstormed as a family and listed everything we could remember on a white board. These do not need to be only activities or events. Maybe you learned a remarkable lesson or grew in a certain area of your life.
2. Choose the top 3 to include in your paragraph & put in an outline
I usually asked the kids to include at least one lesson or idea they learned. As they got older, they often shared what God was teaching them. Get my free “How To Write a Christmas Lettter” outline template below.
3. Write a rough draft
Be sure to include a topic sentence and a clincher sentence that repeat 2-3 of the same ideas
4. Edit your paragraph
a. Add dress-ups &/or sentence openers.
Not sure what these are? Teaching Writing Structure & Style teaches these stylistic techniques in detail.
An example of a dress-up is adding an adverb (ly word), strong verb or quality adjective in each paragraph. Sentence openers are different ways to start your sentences. Get away from using the typical subject/verb pattern. Start with a clause, preposition or adverb.
b. Punctuation, Spelling, Grammar
5. Put away your paragraph. Read it again the next day to approve your final copy.
You’ll have a short recap from each of your kids that you can include in your Christmas letter. All you have to do now is print your letter, stuff it, address it & mail it. If you don’t use the service I use (Send Out Cards) to do this for you, let your kids help you.
If you want my free Christmas Writing Activities – How to Write a Christmas Letter Printable, just enter your first name and primary email below and we’ll send it to you. Check your email!
Question: What other ways do you integrate homeschool or writing into your Christmas celebration?
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