**** This is a very old blog post. Look at my little Connor, who is now 6’4 and a Senior in College. I was thinking about the J.O.Y Patrol earlier this week as I watched my kids mentoring all of our FLL kids. As 17 year olds, my twins could be doing very different things with their time then serving others, but serving is what they choose to do. This idea of being the JOY Patrol by putting Jesus, and Others before themselves has been foundational to who they have become. It was a quick idea I had one Christmas, but it become much more. The more we teach our kids and provide ways for them to serve, the more grateful, loving people they become. When they are young, we must spur them on and create opportunities for them to be the JOY Patrol, but by the time they are older it becomes their idea. Do the work when they are little and you will enjoy the fruits when they are older. *****
Merry Christmas! Amongst the busyness we’ve tried to keep our Advent traditions going, most with success. One of the advent activities that our family enjoys doing is being the “J.O.Y. Patrol”.
Romans 12:10 says, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.”
John 13:35 says, ” By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you lone one another.”
The “J.O.Y. Patrol” stands for Jesus, Others, Yourself. Using this, my children ( and myself), can remember what our priorities should be. God should always be placed first in our lives, then we should think of other’s needs, and only after that, our own. We’ve had fun making badges, door hangers and even t-shirts with J.O.Y. on them as a helpful reminder. The kids enjoy having a secret name for doing the right thing.
There are many things you can do during the Christmas season as the J.O.Y. Patrol. We bake cookies for our neighbors, give coins to the Salvation Army, make Operation Christmas Child presents, collect canned food for a local charity, make blessing bags for the homeless, shovel walks and generally just keep aware of opportunites to give. We don’t always do big things but hopefully things that show love to others and help to keep our hearts in the right place.
I love Christmas. I love everything about it: the decorations, the baking, the eating, the Christmas choirs, the family meals, the parties, the crafts, wrapping the presents – everything. It is my favorite time of the year. I love to spend time doing all of those things but what I treasure most is delving into the spirit and meaning of Christmas with my family. We love to do service projects, reach out to neighbors and study advent. I really want my kids to carry all of our traditions and memories of our Christmas celebrations into adulthood.
The Christmas season, however, is one of the busiest of all seasons; add homeschooling and you have a recipe for becoming certifiably crazy! Several years ago, after talking it through with my husband, we decided we would take the entire month of December off. We start school early enough in August to allow us the time to do that while still finishing in mid to late May. I wanted to make sure our days were still somewhat scheduled but I wanted the freedom to really enjoy the season of giving so we decided to do a yearly Christmas Unit Study.
We use an open and go curriculum that includes Bible, history, science, art and music for the school year. Using this style of curriculum for the rest of the year allows me the time and energy to plan a great Christmas unit study. I usually have three main elements to our Christmas Unit Study: Bible, read-alouds and crafts and goodies.
What should our Christmas Unit Study Teach?
I like to plan our unit study to tie into the history timeline we are studying. For instance, while studying ancient times we do a unit study of Hanukkah to go with our study of Jewish Feasts and Festivals. When studying Rome, we focus deeply into the events and times surrounding the birth of Christ. In studying the Renaissance, we like to study the 12 days of Christmas and their meanings. We once did a great study of Charles Dickens’, “A Christmas Carol” while learning about the 1800 and 1900’s. For years that we study Geography we learn how other cultures celebrate Christmas. I find it to be a great addition to our regular studies and the kids look forward to and enjoy our Christmas studies each year.
There are many topics of Christmas Unit studies that you could do, just look at your current school subjects to find inspiration! You could find inspiration from a read-aloud such as a “Little House on the Prairie” Christmas study or from your families heritage.
Bible and Read-Alouds
After I have an idea for the subject matter I start to look for the meat of our study. What are we going to learn? I love to look at daily advent studies for kids for our Bible studies. There are many on the market. Everything from Bible-based ornaments that you hang on the tree to a daily advent story book. I also have several Christmas story compilations that I choose to read from based on our topic. You can add a musical element to your unit study by studying and learning traditional Christmas Carols.
Living What You Learn
While I am researching our Bible study, I also try to plan an outreach of some kind. Going to serve at a feeding center, working at a distribution center for Operation Christmas Child, singing or playing at retirement homes, or looking for someone who has been forgotten and needs to know that Jesus loves them. I find that our outreach project is what my kids have remembered most and truly expresses the reason for the season.
Crafts and Goodies
This is clearly the easiest to plan. A quick search on the internet reveals many books on Christmas crafts and goodies. I narrow the books down based on the topic that we are studying and try to plan two crafts and/or baking activities a week. While studying Christmas around the world, we made several nativities in the style of different countries. My favorite had to be the origami nativity, which was very colorful and very different from the nativities that we are accustomed to.
Invite Others
I like to involve and invite others to join us in our craziness. We invite family, friends and even the neighbors! Last year, we celebrated a traditional Las Posada and my neighbors agreed to be the “unkind” innkeepers. Having others involved is, of course, more fun and also has a side benefit of sharing the workload! If you are studying Dickens’ time, have everyone bring a traditional food for the time period and have a potluck. We have had quite the variety of meals from cookies from around the world, to foods that Jesus might have eaten to traditional Christmas meals from the Renaissance times. This is also a great way to witness to neighbors and friends in a very nonthreatening manner. We want to teach our kids to reach out to the whole world to and share their faith.
Often times in our busy homeschooling days we forget to take time to enjoy our children and focus on the true significance of the season. If your house is anything like mine, by Christmas we need the break from our normal curricula. A Christmas unit study is a perfect way to learn something in a fun and engaging way. Your kids might not even know they are still home schooling!
Here are a few of my favorite resources depending on topic. These are affiliate links which help to fund this blog.
Hanukkah – for those using MFW these are great for Creation to the Greeks
Here are a few of my very favorite Christmas Books
Family Celebration of Christmas – we have used this since my kids were little. Make an advent wreath, make the felt tree and you will use them for years.
