Advent Sun Calendar: Day 6 "The Cycle of Giving"

Turning our Advent Calendar from Passive to Active has been such a rewarding experience so far! We are centering the countdown to Christmas around the theme of "The Coming of the Light". I love that this widens the interpretation of the Holiday season and allows room to educate my kids on the natural roots of the 25th, being the celebration of the Winter Solstice as well. Although the planning has been a little heavy on my end, at the end of the day I couldn't be happier. Actively infusing nature into Christmas this year is bringing so many learning opportunities and so much joy into our little family ~ love it.

The interesting thing that I've noticed with this calendar is that it is actually turning into somewhat of a curriculum. I have a list of goals to cover each week and plan daily themes, activities, reading, and adventures that set each day in motion. Before this December we were playing and learning in a less structured way. And although I still allow things to unfold somewhat organically, the loose structure has really been useful in allowing me to reflect on how I want my children to understand the world around them, including the Holidays.

With my oldest son just starting preschool this year, my husband and I have been pondering just how important it is going to be to supplement our children's formal education with what we choose to teach them at home. While I don't want to say that I am going to "home school on the side" or anything, I do want to play an active part in teaching them, particularly core concepts that are important to us but may not be covered in depth at school. As my thoughts evolve on this I will give more of a deep dive into that in later posts...

But today, I wanted to share a bit about "The Cycle of Giving" and how we touched on that topic through our calendar activity! To sit a 1 1/2 and an almost 4 year old down to have a conversation on any given topic may seem somewhat impossible, right? I think it is totally plausible, yet we have to shift our general definition of the word, "conversation". I want to share what we talked about but also how I approached it so that some of my message came through AND was responded to by my young kiddos.

One thing that helps with broaching larger topics such as "Giving" is to incorporate a slow flow of information over a few days. It also helps to ask questions to start conversation instead of just delivering facts. Using objects and activities allow young children to learn through doing, which gives them a chance to process information at their own pace and in their own unique way. I've also found that any conversation is more fun when you are either doing something at the same time OR sitting in a place that is unusual for a conversation (hear me out on this one!).

On Sunday afternoon the whole family bought some birdseed and shortening and set out to make our own birdseed ornaments to hang outside for our backyard friends. After making these treats we popped them into the freezer to set overnight and we were onto the next thing. Monday came and we took out an ornament to string while my son played legos at the table and my daughter slept. We realized that the string was slipping right through the shortening and perhaps we'd have to lay the ornaments out instead of hanging them.

My son continued to play and we talked about why we were giving these to the birds and squirrels. That perhaps they needed a little help from us during the colder months. Then over lunch, we talked about how during the winter animals do one of the following: Adapt / Hibernate / Migrate. We made of short list of some of our backyard animals and looked up which one they might do over the winter. Then we talked about giving some of them a little food or a home to live and how that might help them adapt.

That leads us to today. After getting ready for the day, I sat my kids down in the upstairs hallway to talk. This peaked their interest because, "why is mom sitting us in a circle in the hallway?". The weird aspect of this place sparked giggles and questions so they went along with it! I asked them what "Giving" meant. Then I gave them each a hug ~ more smiles. I said that giving was something we did for someone else but that it also made us feel good at the same time.

The conversation ended in the hall there but continued a few minutes later during a diaper change. My older son laid on the floor of my daughter's room waiting for me to finish and we talked about how trees can give us something too. This lead to a conversation about the air we breathe. I told him that nature gives back to us. It is a big "Giving Cycle". And he thought this was really cool. : )

Before school we went out back and set out more birdseed ornaments, noticing crumbs in the place of the one we set out the other day. Yay! And we hung up a small birdhouse that we had inside and had never gotten around to hanging before. All set, our backyard is all set up to give back.

Then off to school, time to nap, and time for mommy to write this post. Hope this wasn't too long or drawn out but I wanted to explain how our calendar is really working for us.

Hope this helped paint a bigger picture and inspires some conversation and actions in your home too! Let us know how you are "Giving" with the kids this Holiday Season. I'm sure we could all use ideas on how to incorporate more of this cycle into our day to day. Thanks!