Slowing Down in December

This week I made the decision to slow things down a little more. I was starting to get grouchy and overwhelmed with trying to add in some new things to our school routine on top of trying to add in fun holiday activities. A good friend of mine shared how they virtually took the entire month of December off and simply enjoyed preparing for Christmas and making memories. By midweek I was a different woman and I'm sure my children appreciated having a more relaxed momma. 

This week the children and I enjoyed reading about all the different types of nests birds have. The picture below on the left, you can see the children working on notebook pages for our science notebook. We are having  unseasonably warm temperatures, so we are going to go on a nature walk soon and see if we can spot any abandoned nests in our back woods.  The older two children have started to focus a little more on their spelling because I am noticing some struggles in their writing. Can you see the doodling my daughter did on Friday during her test? Do you have a doodler in your family? 

We spent one morning making a lot of these coffee filter snowflakes and strung them up in our kitchen and dining room. They make me smile just about every single time I walk in the room and see them, and I don't know about you, but I'm in my kitchen A LOT! I got the idea from a blog post over at Smockity Frocks. You will find several quick and easy Christmas craft ideas, so you might want to check it out if you need to slow down, relax, and laugh a little more with your children this month.

We also started baking our Christmas cookies this week. We are baking ahead and sticking them in the freezer so they'll be ready when we want to share and when we have Christmas guests. In the picture below you will see mint chocolate chip and pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies. Both of these recipes are great and worth trying if you're looking for some new Christmas cookie recipes.

On Friday, after breakfast and a spelling test, Kaitlyn and I headed out to do some shopping. We enjoyed a little one-on-one time together and it was fun watching her shop for her brother, sister, dad, and our dog using her own birthday money.

This week we started reading "The House Without a Christmas Tree." We are enjoying it so far and the kids think they have the whole plot figured out. Our next read aloud will be "The Family Under the Bridge." I'm enjoying these quick Christmas read alouds this month.

How was your week? Are you doing any fun crafts or reading any great Christmas books together as a family? I'm linking up again this week with Collage Friday, hosted by Homegrown Learners.