As I hear from more and more of you, I am still in the process of setting up a more user friendly “resource” section in our homeschooling blog. Some of you have mentioned that while you like the top 5 format and the themes, you would like an easier way to locate the resources for later reference. Therefore, I am going to start listing themes at the top of the post. When there are enough, we will categorize them alphabetically in the categories. You’ll be able to search there, as well as in the search box on the families.com homepage. If you would like to see anything here, please let me know!
This theme is just in time for Christmas. . .
This website is kind of fun to look at anyways, but if you go to the video section you can see videos of candy canes being mass produced. There are even videos of how it was done 50 years ago and you can take a virtual tour of their factory.
2. Candy Cane Legend and Recipe Ideas
This is a great page for preschoolers because it has a poem about the Candy Cane, and then the ‘legend’ behind the candy cane. (Whether or not the legend is true I leave up to parents to decide. However, it is widely circulated, particularly among Christians.) At the bottom is has several recipes using candy canes, including a candy bark that’s delicious.
Here is an excellent page on the history of gingerbread making. The page includes several links on tips and tricks, patterns, contests, and other ideas for making gingerbread houses. If you’ve haven’t tried this or are tentative to do it with a group of kids, try doing a gingerbread facade (one side of a house) instead of doing the whole house. We’ve done that for a few years now and find it much easier.
4. History of Food in Popular Christmas Stories and Songs
I don’t know very many people who don’t know the proceeding lines of this story. Have you ever stopped to wonder exactly what sugarplums are though? Or what about the ‘figgy pudding’ from Deck the Halls? This started as a project last year when my kids learned “Deck the Halls” and wanted to know if they might like figgy pudding. They didn’t like it at all, but we had fun making it and it was a great history lesson. This website has just about every Christmas food you could think of, and also has links to traditional menus from various countries. This is great for a day right before Christmas where you need to log some school time, but the kids are just too excited for regular schooling.
5. Make your own. . .
Make sure to check out our food blog later today where I will post our own peppermint stick recipes!
Looking for more ideas for the Christmas season? Check out last year’s Homeschooler’s Advent Calendar:
Crafty Activities at Families.com