I’m not sure how we already are approaching December, but here we are, just a short 2 weeks away! I think December is my favorite to plan for because we get to slow our pace and focus more intentionally on Advent in our home. Our Morning Collective has truly become a cornerstone rhythm for our homeschool and it’s because it’s centered around family connection, read alouds, truth, beauty, and of course food and drink!
You can read more about what morning collective is and how we enjoy morning collective in a previous blog article, here. In December, I love to shift our attention to Advent, the anticipation and the heart of our Christmas celebration.
Maybe you’re looking for simple and life-giving ways to make your own morning time a little more special during the holiday season? I hope this blog article can be an inspiring outlet to guide you to select and curate your own morning collective for your family. You can even take these exact resources I’m laying out in this post and celebrate alongside us this Advent season! I’m going to share some of our daily rhythm and December morning collective up close on Instagram in the coming weeks, so come follow along over there if you want!
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What I’m Including In Our Morning Collective:
Names of Jesus Advent Calendar Cards
I created these Advent Calendar Cards last Christmas and we really enjoyed using them! It’s such a simple way to memorize scripture together while learning the beautiful names of Jesus placed throughout scripture! We plan to hang and use these cards each morning, revealing a name for Jesus and reading the scripture together.
Read Alouds
Read alouds are the heart of our morning collective and really make the time spent with my children so magical. Some of our favorite Christmas books will include The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, Mortimer’s Christmas Manger, and Cobweb Christmas. We will also be diving into The Best Christmas Pageant Ever chapter book and A Little House Christmas: Holiday Stories from the Little House Books. I will be sharing more of our read aloud selections on my Instagram as the month goes on.
Poetry
Over the month of December, we will memorize and recite one poem together, but I will also read a handful of seasonal poems from the Ambleside Online December and Christmas selections because they are all so rich!
The poem we will memorize together over the month will be Christmas Chimes by Julia Swift.
Music
We will be listening to a variety of Christmas music throughout the season, but I just love that Ambleside Online has a dedicated page to Christmas music selections, which I will be pulling from throughout the month to enjoy. Spotify also has several Christmas/Advent playlists to listen from which makes it so simple for me to just press a button and let it become the backdrop melody of December.
Family Advent Activities
Over the last couple of years, we have done an advent calendar filled with little gifts or an activity to be done together as a family each day leading up to Christmas. We are continuing this simple family tradition of presence over presents. I’ve made a free download printable of the activities we plan to do together this season, and you can grab your family advent activities printable here or just click on each picture below! Print and cut to store in your own advent calendar or store in a little basket and pull from it each day.
If you decide to use the resources from our December morning collective plans, be sure to tag me on Instagram @ourcoopernest if you share! I’d love to see how you do morning time in your home! 🙂
