Unschooling Through the Holiday Season With Baking and Games

Knowing we had a full list of things to complete before the holidays we decided to start our holiday baking today.  We often gift out tins of cookies making sure to have a good assortment of desserts in each.  The boys help too.

The boys and I started our day by baking up some Rice Krispie treats.  We made a whole 13 x 9 pan of treats, let them cool for a bit and then cut them into fun Christmas shapes using our cookie cutters.

We went to decorate them with frosting and realized we needed red food coloring.

 Pretty soon we had a whole list going and so I offered to take a trip to the store if we could stop and hike/nature walk somewhere along the way.

While brisk, these daily walks we've started taking have been wonderful.  It's a great way to unwind from the  Christmas rush, get in some fresh air and exercise, and really connect with one another and nature.  The boys all agreed and we headed upstairs to get ready.

We piled into the car and stopped at the grocery store and went for a walk along the river.  It was cold so we kept our walk brief but we did spy geese, ducks, and seagulls.  The boys climbed on rocks, planned a picnic for the spring, watched the waterfalls, and noticed Ian's name carved into the sidewalk.

We stopped and read about the Quinebaug River and the varieties of fish that are found in it.  We talked about where the river flows and the path it takes, whether it was salt or fresh water and how to tell, why it smells "funny" and is slightly yellow in color.   I think my favorite part of the day had to be when Alec and Evan took off running holding hands.  They had a great time using their imagination to play in the park and it was great to see them being best friends.

We quickly did our grocery shopping and headed home to decorate the Rice Krispie treat snacks we had made earlier in the morning.  Ian helped me make some Oatmeal Scotchie cookies.

 Once done the younger boys headed to play ABCya on the computer and do some reading.

Ian decided to make another batch of chocolate chip cookies from scratch.  He read the directions and assembled the cookies all by himself!  They came out wonderfully and smelled so good.

Evan went up to his room to play Word Monkey on his Kindle for a bit and then asked if he had to read.  Rather than answer his question I asked if he'd like to read another Biscuit book with me.  All excited like it was Christmas morning he ran downstairs shouting "YES!"  I love that we've found something he's so excited to read.  He did awesome again!

When Ian was done making his cookies he set up Scrabble and asked if I'd play a game with him.  Alec wanted to play too but he was busy making some more eggnog cookies.  We offered to wait for him and the boys were pretty patient with the fact that I had to get up to repeatedly change out cookies from the oven while we played.  Our game lasted at least an hour and the boys worked really hard to spell and add up their scores; often trying out multiple words to see which one was worth more.

It was a day full of reading, math, nature, spelling and fun.

We baked so much food and got most of our tins packed up and ready to go.   What can I say it was another idyllic homeschooling day!