Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product in exchange for my fair and honest opinion.
Homeschooling around the holidays can be hard. Not only is it a busy time of the year but let’s be honest, children don’t always have their minds 100% on schoolwork. This year I decided to try something fun but also extremely educational (shh…don’t tell my kids) during the holiday season.
For the past four weeks, we have been using Christmas Around The World Super Bundle from WriteBonnieRose.com and it has been not only fun but very informative. I received the following resources (Level C is cursive copy work)
- Story of Christmas Around the World, Volume 1-Level C
- Story of Christmas Around the World, Volume 2-Level C
- Story of Christmas Around the World, Volume 3-Level C
- Story of Christmas Around the World, Volume 4-Level C
- Christmas Around the World Card Game
- Christmas Foods Around the World Notebooking Journal
- Christmas Around the World Creative Writing Notebook
- Christmas Traditions Around the World Notebooking Journal
- Draw and Explore Social Studies: Christmas Foods Around the World
Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year for us, we love celebrating the birth of Jesus and all the wonderful festivities. A couple of years ago I was talking with my grandmother and began asking her about Christmas when she was younger. She grew up in Germany, and she told us about the different traditions she and her family did. From this talk, we began to put some of those traditions into place at our home.
This led us to wonder how others celebrate Christmas as well. Finding resources on each country can be a very time-consuming task, this is why I was so grateful for the wonderful resource pack WriteBonnieRose.com has available
Christmas Around The World Super Bundle
The Christmas Around The World Super Bundle contains information on 20 different countries! Ever wonder how they celebrate Christmas in Australia or Egypt? Or maybe you’d like to learn about Christmas in a country your ancestors came from but are no longer around to share with you.
Story of Christmas Around the World Volumes 1-4 is a coloring book that also contains information about traditions, foods, decorations, and history. The introduction of each volume shares the Bible verse John 3:16 and that Christmas is celebrated by Christians to honor the birth of Jesus. At the end of each volume are coloring pages that recognized community workers and public service individuals that might not be able to be with their families during the holiday. These “thank you” pages could be given to members of the community who serve during the holidays. The coloring pages have copy work that you can choose either print or cursive. **There is no mention of Santa, Saint Nicholas or gift-giving**
Christmas Around the World Card Game contains 6 cards for each of the 20 countries along with wild cards. Each card has a picture of a tradition, food, or custom and the country name. The goal of the game is to get sets of a country, the one with the most sets wins. You can print these in either color or black and white. Even though my son is a beginner reader (almost 7), he was able to play the game and really enjoyed it! After playing the game, we looked at each other’s cards and talked about the picture and if there was anything we’d like to try or do.
Christmas Foods Around the World Notebooking Journal contains 76 different foods served at Christmas. On each notebooking page are four questions such as ‘what country does the food originate from?’, ‘how is it made?’, ‘how is it part of Christmas traditions?’, and ‘ is it served by itself or with something else?’ Maybe you might find a food you’d like to try with your family.
Christmas Around the World Creative Writing Notebook this is a great way to help your child write a short story or short essay about Christmas in a different country. It contains several questions for each country that your child can research and fill out. This then can serve as a guide for them as they write a creative story or informational essay. For example, my daughter enjoys making stop-motion videos, and she was wondering what she could do for a topic. I suggested having one of her characters explain Christmas in a certain country to the other characters. While this is still a work in progress, I think this serves as a great tool for her.
Christmas Traditions Around the World Notebooking Journal is a fun way to review and learn more about the different Christmas traditions in other countries. There is a black-and-white graphic that can be colored on each page. As we looked through this packet it was interesting to see the different traditions we have in our home and where they originated from.
Draw and Explore Social Studies: Christmas Foods Around the World this resource combines art and social studies. It contains information about ten different foods from different countries. A picture of the food is shown on a grid, then half of the picture is shown on another grid, and finally, just a grid is provided for your child to complete the picture by themselves.
Our Experience
Since we received volumes 1-4, we did a pick-and-choose of countries. The first country we looked at was Germany. This is because we have been learning a lot from my Grandmother about her childhood in Germany. Much of the information I already knew but my daughter and son did not. My daughter has already said that she wants to make Christstollen. Since our copy work was in cursive only my daughter completed this but my son colored the coloring pages and listen to the information.
We also got to practice some words in German. As part of our learning adventure we went and listened to the songs mentioned. My grandmother has also sung Stille Nacht at Christmas, it is her favorite. Hearing it in the German language is my favorite version of the song. Eli likes O Tannenbaum so we found it on YouTube to listen to and try to learn.
While we began to choose other countries, such as England and Italy. This was also a great way to incorporate map studies into our learning. We pulled out our large world map and located the countries. We also talked about how certain places don’t have snow at Christmas due to their location or that is not winter but summertime.
I printed and laminated the colored cards for the card game. We have played it several times and they ask to play it over and over again. We also like it just for talking points. I think there could be many uses for these cards than just playing the game. Using the cards to share facts about a country could be useful, especially for those who recall information visually.
Using the creative writing notebook is going to be an extremely useful tool to help my daughter with her creative and informational writing.
Since we take it pretty low-key going into the New Year, we will continue to learn about different countries’ Christmas traditions. Right now we are learning about England and we have some things to make Christmas Crackers!! I hope we can do it!!
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