December Fun, Part 1

December is always full of fun, festive activities. We've been having fun with all the Christmas performances, crafts, and celebrations. 

As soon as Thanksgiving was over, it was time for Christmas dresses! It's one of my favorite things about December. 

At the beginning of December Katherine had a parent observation for her gymnastics. She did a great job. She looks forward to her gymnastics class every week. 

This girl is always asking to pose for photos. 

Katherine isn't the only one who looks forward to gymnastics every week. Elisabeth does too! She has a couple of good friends that she plays with every week while the younger siblings are in their class. 

Elisabeth and Samuel are working hard in their gymnastics classes too. They're improving on their skills every week.

Homeschool is still going well. I feel like we've hit our groove and have gotten into a good routine. There are still hiccups and struggles, but we've been having fun and I've enjoyed seeing their progress. 

We've done a couple of fun science projects this month. We dyed milk and investigated how taco sauce cleans pennies. 

Elisabeth has made huge improvements in her reading. I'm so proud of her!

Nathan took a GT class this semester all about inventions. He had to come up with his own invention and advertise it on Shark Tank. He made a cool Lego movie to advertise his Shoe Extender to help kids be tall enough to ride roller coasters (a problem we ran into with Elisabeth at Silver Dollar City).

We went to the Broken Arrow Christmas parade with friends. 

Katherine was happy with all the candy she accumulated. 

And more Christmas dresses for church!

Cold, dark nights mean less walks around our neighborhood pond and instead mean hot chocolate and family game nights. One of my favorite things about the kids getting older is getting to play "real" games with them! We're training them to love board games as much as we do. 

The kids have been playing with kinetic sand a lot lately. They've been getting creative with their creations. That's another unexpected benefit I've noticed about homeschooling- more free time equals more creativity. 

Of course December means a trip to Rhema to look at the Christmas lights. The kids' favorite part is always playing in the "circles." They pretend they are their houses and they move to new houses and visit each other. Sometimes I don't know why we even look at the other lights. They always just want to play in the circles. 

Elisabeth had her winter dance performance and requested a new hat and scarf to be extra festive. She's in a daytime homeschool class this year and has lots of friends in her class. She loves her teacher and the small class size. She's always coming home showing me her new dance moves. I'm happy she's having such a great dance year. 

Some of her best friends are in her class which makes it extra fun!