Winter Staycationing & Our Next Adventure...

We are enjoying a little family style hibernation as we staycation our way through the winter holiday break. We're keeping Chanukah low key, fun and playful and filling our days with family time, a few fun trips and lots of playing. When I have taught outside of the home, school vacations were vital for refueling my creativity tank. I've found the same to be true for homeschooling, so while my "building" is always open year-round, I make sure to include weeks of un-planned family fun and even "professional development days" off as needed.

We had time for a few simple activities we hadn't gotten to yet, like this contact paper "stained glass" dreidel decoration that now hangs in our front window! If you're looking for a versatile craft staple to add to your stash this season, I cannot recommend a roll of clear contact paper enough. It has endless uses around here!

We are not huge into giving gifts on Chanukah at this point for a variety of reasons. We do try to make each night special with festive meals, family activities and quality time together. He was very excited to eat a dreidel shaped grilled cheese by menorah-light on festive Chanukah paper plates!

Even breakfast is extra special when you make an edible menorah out of bananas, pretzel stick "candles", and raisin "flames" stuck on with a dab of peanut butter.

We had a lot of fun painting and preparing this year's family menorah together. My little guy is so proud to be old enough to help his Tatty light it each night!

In between all of the Chanukah celebration, we had some fun revisiting old favorite activities, like watercolor painting on ice. Then we "recycled" the ice chunk into this snowy small world scene. We always have a lot of hands-on (and messy) fun with this icy cold sensory experience that turns into ooblek as it melts. This time, the little Arctic Explorer wanted a hammer to go with it...

So what's up our sleeves for January? Well, I am very eager for our next adventure! We are about to embark on the journey of a lifetime without straying too far from our living room as we explore an Around the World theme! I planned out all of my themes for the year back in August and this one was one I was immediately eager for. That said, as the January page in my planner started creeping closer and closer in, I started to get a bit anxious. You can easily spend a year of teaching through this theme. I've seen and participated in amazing units on cooking/baking around the world, animals around the world, art around the world, holidays and celebrations around the world, music around the world, buildings around the world, children's literature around the world. There is just so much world to see! Over the past few days, I got busy searching, organizing and planning our upcoming month of learning and playing together and I am quite excited for what we have in store. Follow along with us as we travel across the globe in a multi-sensory learning approach that will include pre-reading/early literacy, music, science, math skills, art, cooking, dramatic play, and more!

Join us in:

• Mexico as we make a musical Mariachi band and a fun family fiesta!
• Brazil where we will explore the rain forest 
• England where we will try our hands at painting with tea bags, building bridges and preparing finger sandwiches for an afternoon tea party
• Ireland as we explore the wonderful world of castles
• \France as we continue building on previous themes and explore the Eiffel Tower and get in touch with our inner artists in the style of Claude Monet
• Italy where we will get our aprons on and explore the culinary delights of an Italian style Shabbat menu
• China where we will build our own great wall and dig in to some fine-motor and sensory fun with chopsticks, rice and more. While we're here, we'll learn about the Chinese New Year as well.
• Japan as we use some of those great fine motor skills for arts & crafts, sushi-rolling, and origami paper folding...
• India where we will engage our senses with spice painting and some sweet snacks
• Israel for some Dead Sea style relaxation, dancing and dining...
• Australia for some wildlife exploration and amazing animal arts and crafts and Yoga
• Africa where we will craft our own souvenirs to take home...
• and finally back home to the United States of America where will complete our unit with some patriotic painting

Well, our bags are packed and we're ready to go! I look forward to sharing the experience here as we head on our way. Happy New Year, Happy Playing and Happy, Safe Travels along the way--whether or not you actually leave your living room!