Advent Sun Calendar: Day 1

We started our Advent Sun Calendar today and I couldn't be more excited!

With our center focus around the coming of the light this year I've planned weekly topics that I will get more specific on as we go. I'm not much for making hard and fast plans with the kids. Things seem to unfold organically over here. So with that in mind, each day the kids will find an activity, exploration, book, craft, etc. based on the following topics:

1. Backyard Exploration

2. Winter Solstice Children's Book

3. Learning about how an animal or plant adapts in the winter

4. Winter Solstice Yoga

5. Giving

6. Family Activity or Adventure centered around the theme of Light

7. Handmade Christmas

Please feel free to follow along! I would love to hear if anyone does and if so how it works out for you. Please share!!

I mentioned that things kind of just evolve when I'm home with the kids. One thing leads to the next and before I know it I'm knee deep in the backyard digging a hole to China. Or at least that's what happened today! : )

My son woke up this morning asking about the calendar and anxious to open his first little brown bag. I told him about the theme of the Calendar and what the Winter Solstice was. A beautiful discussion to start to the day...

For December 1st we went with the "Backyard Exploration". I've been watching BBC's Nature Series with my son while my younger daughter naps recently. They almost always lead to some type of follow up discussion, adventure, or connection to something we've seen or done. I love them! Today he chose to watch the episode on Caves and it couldn't have been more interesting. In my mind of course it was very appropriate, the drop into darkness as they entered the largest caves in the world, and it's connection with the winter season.

After the show, we started talking about how deep caves are and as we looked out the back window he asked what was under the grass in our yard. He wanted to know if there were caves. This led us to me giving him a brief rundown of what could be there and sharing a childhood story. I told him I used to dig holes and hope to get to China but alas I never did. I could see the light shine in his eyes at this because he is also an avid digger of holes. He's also been interested lately in what is under the ground and the many layers of the earth, particularly the hot lava in the middle.

So off we went to dig a hole to the center of the earth in our backyard. And when my daughter woke she was more than happy to share in the adventure. We eventually found clay and shiny black rocks that made the whole thing a pretty cool experience because of course both of those things that we found were evidence that we were getting close to the lava layer, right?