Our Advent Plans {and a Review of Celebrate Jesus, Light of the World}

*This post may include affiliate links that help support my family. Read my full disclosure here.*

December 1st marks the first day of Advent. Many people don't know what Advent is, so let me explain... Advent is a season we celebrate as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. Typically, people begin their celebration on December 1st and continue up until Christmas Day. Why celebrate Advent? Well, my answer would be to bring my children up with the mindset that Christmas is not about gifts or trees or parties. Christmas is about celebrating the Savior who willingly came down from Heaven and lived among us to become the living sacrifice that is our salvation. Yes, it's that serious.

This year we are using Homeschool Encouragement's Celebrate Jesus, Light of the World Advent journey for families.

I have read through the book and am so excited with the "meat" of this product. It requires thought, time and actual effort. I love that! Daily scripture reading and questions, candle lighting, reading the history of hymns, baking and of course crafts and activities are all included. The book has great suggestions for each day of the Advent Season. My children range from 1 to 14 years old so I needed a good mix of easy and more complicated; therefore, I decided to come up with my own calendar of Advent Activities. Copy work pages with Christmas verses are available at the end of the book for multiple ages. Really, this book is a great springboard for a unit study for all ages.

When I first got this book, I intended to use it as a light addition to our normal Christmas activities. However, that all changed once I really got into it. I have centered the entire month of December for our family around Advent and this book. Every day of the month we will be doing the suggested scripture readings, hymn research, singing and candle lighting along with the activities in the calendar I created. Yes, I realize that's a lot. That's why we are doing minimal schoolwork (just math and reading) in December. Our focus will be on Jesus, family and serving- that's it.

I hope this will be a new tradition for us. We each made journals and the kids made prayer chains. The prayer chains have 24 links (one for each day of December up to Christmas), each with a name of someone to pray for written on the back. Each morning, as a family, we will open that day's Advent tin, revealing what activity we will be doing.

I had planned to write the date numbers on the white circles but hadn't done it before I took the picture!!

 

So, thanks to Celebrate Jesus, Light of the World, my family and I are looking forward to a month of digging deeper into God's Word, spending relaxed time together and sharing His love with others.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough! It's only $4.99, go get it!