December Resource Round Up
A reflection on our December with a full book and resource list. Scroll down for special offer at the end!
Hello readers!
Apologies for how quiet it’s been over here recently. Looking forward to get back into writing and sharing as 2024 progresses!
Now, to December…
Right when life was ramping up with holidays and commitments, December asked for something entirely different from us. It started with a cough and became 3 weeks of forced rest. That in all honestly was probably very much needed after some extremely full months.
Being knocked flat in what is often the busiest and most intense seasons was certainly a disappointment in so many ways. All the Christmas activities we missed, the time with family we had to sit out on, the energy I didn’t have to make all the magical christmasy goodness happen.
And yet, despite all the snot and misery we found rest and togetherness regardless.
Learning, of course, shifted as well. Just as it does with each month and season, and sometimes even each day. We find an entirely new flow, we find the rhythm that suits, and sometimes we realise it’s not working anymore and we change things until they do. And sometimes that normal rhythm is disrupted by sickness or travelling or someone having a bad day. It’s all changeable. And for us, it suits us well having this flexibility.
December was definitely a more screen based learning month for us. If you’ve been here for a hot minute you will have realised that I’m very pro screens. If that makes you uncomfortable, I get it! Screens have been so demonised in our culture and finding a balance and approach that works can be tricky. You’re totally allowed to approach this topic differently to me and be happy and content with it, but for me screens are wonderful learning and entertainment tools and in December they were very helpful!
For context, I have 3 children 8, 6 and 2. We live in a caravan and are slow travelling Australia. Currently based around Sydney.
Tv shows we watched this month:
Curious Crafting (abc kids / iview)
Go Jetters (abc kids / iview)
Wallykazam! (abc kids / iview)
Hilda (Netflix)
Pop Paper City (abc kids / iview)
Gardening Australia Junior (abc kids / iview)
Young Sheldon (Netflix)
We have been reading:
Alice-Miranda and the Christmas Mystery by Jaqueline Harvey
How Winston Delivered Christmas by Alex T Smith
Spider-Gwen (graphic novel)
Claris the Chicest Mouse in Paris - Holiday Heist by Megan Hess
Atlas of Ocean Adventure by Emily Hawkins
We have been listening to:
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson (audiobook)
The Horse and His Boy by C.S Lewis (audiobook)
Fireworks in Fairyland by Enid Blyton (audiobook)
Homeschool History (podcast)
We have been playing:
Coral Reef Ecosystem (board game)
Museum Suspects (board game)
Block Ness (board game)
Math Snap (card game)
I don’t think I have mentioned this previously but one of my Children has had quite a noticeable speech delay. Before we were traveling we were seeing a local speech therapist initially weekly and then fortnightly. It was a wonderful experience and we definitely noticed improvement! As we have been travelling the intention has always been to continue with the games and exercises from our speech therapist and we have tried but it’s proven more difficult than I expected. This month as a way to continue working on speech and sound development we have been trying out some new apps.
Speech Blubs
Mio
We still miss our speech therapist but hopefully these apps and continuing to utilise the resources she gave us will help!
Have you had a child with speech difficulties? Have you found any resources that have supported them? I would love to hear!
We have also been swimming, gardening at our house-sit, building Lego monster truck jumps with magnet tiles, Christmas shopping, build your own monster truck kit, nature journaling, decorating clothing with fabric markers and even fit in a zoo trip or two. With the last few days of December road tripping up the coast to spend time with extended family.
We could write this month off as holidays, as for most children it is anyway. But personally I prefer not to think about it in those terms because even in the slower moments - there is still learning.
As a start of year deal I’ve decided to offer my subscriptions at 75% off for the month of January! If you’ve been wanting access to my entire catalogue and all future paid posts this year - now is the time! My heart is to support other homeschoolers and mothers with ideas and thoughts and I truly believe these resource lists are worth checking out!
Stay tuned this month for more book related content - I’ve got my December book list and I’ll share my top reads of 2023 - how am I going to narrow it down? I have no idea! I’ll endeavour to add in a few extra publications this month to make up for my quiet time last month.
I hope the year is starting out fabulously for you!
Much love!