Project 65: Christmas and the New Year

Rather than trying to add an additional project to the hectic Christmas schedule we had a two-week project focusing on Christmas and the New Year. Unsurprisingly, this included many activities done previously (Project 12: Time and Calendars, Project 15: All about Christmas!). 

Once again we made Christmas cookies, taught the children about the nativity, why we celebrate Christmas, Christmas traditions, and how the story of Father Christmas has evolved from older traditions including that of Saint Nicholas. They went to the Christingle service at the Cathedral, the Peter Pan pantomime at the local theatre (see also Project 46: Peter Pan), and even tried to watch The Nutcracker ballet on the TV (although despite knowing the story the ballet didn't engage their attention in the same way as the Hansel and Gretel opera had (see Project 63: Fairy Tales and Folklore)).

Some Christmas 2018 activities

We also focused a bit more closely on the story of A Christmas Carol, reading the Usborne Young Reading Series version, and watching The Muppet Christmas Carol and the very accessible BBC documentary Charles Dickens and the Invention of Christmas. 

We watched a couple of videos on the months of the year, and discussed how the calendar had evolved over time and was based on lunar and solar cycles. It also gave their father the opportunity to have his annual rant on the arbitrary nature of January 1st as New Year's Day! 

Next week's project: The Jungle Book

Project 12: Time and Calendars

After last week's exhausting excursion to Manchester, we picked a smaller project we could do from home this week: Time and Calendars. We did a lot of working on Solomon telling the time, learning his days of the week and months of the year, and why there are different seasons.

As well as the usual workbooks and encyclopaedia entries, we watched a couple of good videos about where the days of the weeks and months of the year got their names.

Solomon did a reusable sticker activity about the seasons, and picked a calendar for the coming year.

Reusable season stickers

Exploring the different calendars available in the shops Solomon established a number of criteria that he wanted his calendar to have. He decided it should be a family organiser, have big pictures, and show the phases of the moon. The calendar that fitted all the criteria was the Sooty one, so he picked that one despite having never seen the programme and there being a Minecraft one available!

2018 Sooty Calendar

Next week's project: Solomon's Family Tree