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{December Gratitudes}

On December 31, 2018June 6, 2019 By JessicaIn Gratitude Journal

Gratitudes December 2018 | The Open Home — For seasons greetings and a cosy, quiet Christmas.

December Gratitudes 2018 | The Open Home — For my Moana moment and stepping outside of my comfort zone.

Gratitudes December 2018 | The Open Home — For a whole new world of imagination.

Gratitudes December 2018 | The Open Home — For simple pleasures and the blessing of age.

Gratitudes December 2018 | The Open Home — For faith, hope and trust (and little bit of pixie dust!).

Gratitudes December 2018 | The Open Home — For my intrepid explorers and the lifestyle we love.

These are the inserts from our gratitude journal during December, reminding us that God is good and we are blessed.

What have you been thankful for lately?

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Welcome

Hello, I’m Jessica. A minimalist homeschooling mother of two living on the British island of Guernsey. I’m also a nature lover, letter writer and journal keeper that wants to to live life with an open heart. Welcome to my blog.

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“The giver of every good and perfect gift has called upon us to mimic Gods giving, by grace, through faith, and this is not of ourselves.” - St. Nicholas of Myra . Yesterday was St. Nicholas Day. Did you mark it in any way? We did. I love this little tradition of ours, it’s so simple. Boots filled with chocolate coins plus a golden @lindt bear and mini St. Nick, followed by a reading of Just Nicholas. . . I highly recommend this book for families who like us don’t really do the Santa thing for Christmas. We still enjoy books and movies and parties that include the big red guy and his fantasy world but he is not the focus of the season for us. The girls don’t write him letters, they don’t ask for what they want, they know we get their Christmas gifts and yet Christmas is still magical for them and still special for us. Plus I love that it makes the message of the real St. Nick feel all the stronger for us and the meaning of the first Christmas all the more poignant. . . #advent #activityadvent #stnicholasday #saintnicholas #stnick #saintnick #stnicholas #saintnicholas #justnicholas #anniekratzsch #tessajanes #christmas #christmastraditions

It may be advent but it’s technically still autumn until the 21st of this month. We’re savouring autumn as long as we can here whilst simultaneously enjoying our advent activities. This pile of plush leaves we found in Candie Gardens earlier this week was just too irresistible and simply had to be jumped in... and rolled in... and lied on... and kicked... and thrown! 🍂 . More snapshots from our autumn nature study up on the blog today. Link in bio. 👆🏽 . . #thegirardgirls #theopenhomeblog #homeed #homeeduk #homeeducation #homeeducationuk #homeeducationguernsey #homeschool #charlottemasonhomeschool #charlottemasoneducation #charlottemasonuk #naturestudy #naturewalk #autumn #autumnleaves #autumndays

Happy Advent! . . Our advent decorations are up (although we always wait a little longer to put up the tree) and we’re already getting stuck in with our activity advent calendar and Jesse Tree readings. It’s a busy season but one I love. This chalkboard quote is actually from last year, for some reason I never got round to sharing it, still deciding what quote to use this year. Any suggestions? 🤔 . #advent #christmas #christmasdecor #christmasdecorations #chalkboard #chalkboardart #chalklettering

Oh just look at this pic of 5 year old Blossom that I snapped on a daughter date in November last year. Such a sweetheart, but then I am rather biased! . . #thegirardgirls #daughterdates #daughterlove #raisinggirls #girlmom #guernsey #cobobay

One of the things I love about home ed is that learning and friendships are not stuck within a specific year group. Our Nature Explorers group currently ranges from age 3-9 year olds and its lovely to see how the friendships unfold, with a 6 year old often pairing up with a 3 year old, for example. . . Bubbles only joined the group back in September, a transition I was a tad nervous about knowing that some situations like noisy groups or wet weather walks can result in some sensory overload for her. In all honesty, I ended up worrying myself unnecessarily about how she would fit in and what the other mums may think, despite knowing deep down that we’re all just a lovely bunch of eclectic and supportive people. . . Well last Monday whilst out on our nature walk with Nature Explorers we’d got to the pond we were aiming for, my 4 year old straggling at the back by this point tired, hungry and getting a little cranky. The older kids were happily stamping in the mud and would have done so for much longer when one of the other mums declared it was time to leave as the littler ones were getting tired and hungry. It was clearly my little one but the older kids accepted this without arguments and as we turned to walk back one of the older girls in the group slipped next to my daughter, smiled at her sweetly and took her by the hand. The smile on Bubbles’ face was so endearing and it was a wonderfully reassuring moment for me. . Acceptance. Inclusion. Understanding. We learn a lot more than just nature stuff at Nature Explorers. . . #homeed #homeeducation #homeeducationuk #homeeducationguernsey #homeschool #homeschooling #charlottemasonhomeschool #charlottemasoneducation #naturestudy #naturewalk #natureexplorer #thegirardgirls #acceptance #inclusion #understanding

Back in September I introduced British history to our weekly schedule, one of the formal lessons I’ve been eager to introduce since Blossom turned 6 back in May. We started things off with prehistoric history, mainly focusing on the Stone Age and we’ve had so much fun!!! . . The Stone Age is such a great place to start when it comes to history as there are just so many great read alouds, picture books, movies and craft ideas for all ages, not to mention the many field trip opportunities here in the U.K. and even just on Guernsey. . . We’ve dabbled with cave art, we’ve painted pictures of mammoths, we’ve made salt dough bone necklaces, we’ve created models of Stonehenge with building blocks and we even made our very own Stone Age cave! . . We also visited 12 neolithic sites in total, including 2 stone circles, a long barrow and burial mound whilst in the U.K. and 8 of Guernsey’s very own dolmens - 5 I had never seen before, so I’m learning lots too! . We just have a couple of crafts to finish off next week and maybe a quick museum visit to add in, but we’ve wrapped up our readings this week finishing things off with the Iron Age and the arrival of the Celts. We’ll pick up our British history studies again in the new year, next time focusing on Roman Britain. . We’re reluctant to get rid of the cave though and will definitely leave it in situ a little while longer as a certain 4 year old is looking forward to having a Stone Age birthday party with her cousins at the end of the year! . . #homeed #homeeduk #homeeducationguernsey #homeschool #homeschooling #charlottemason #charlottemasonuk #charlottemasoneducation #charlottemasonhomeschool #history #historylover #britishhistory #prehistory #prehistoric #stoneage #stoneagecave #caveart

Getting all these autumn pics up before advent starts and it feels like I’m too late! Love this one of the glorious ginkgo and my gorgeous girlie. Visiting the ginkgo has become an autumn tradition for us, it requires great patience, observation and perfect timing to ensure we visit when just enough leaves are on the ground. Keep an eye on my stories for ginkgo pics from the last couple of years. . . #autumn #autumndays #autumnleaves #ginkgo #ginkgotree #candiegardens #guernsey #naturelover #naturewalk #natureexplorer #thegirardgirls #homeed #homeeducation #homeeducationuk #homeeducationguernsey #homeschool #homeschooling

This piece of autumn mail was sent out a couple of weeks back now and has hopefully made an appearance in the U.S. although I’ve not had much luck lately! One celestial piece of mail took over 2 months to get to Germany (!) and another nautical piece is still lost somewhere on its way to the U.S. 😢 It’s always my favourites that seem to go missing too. Just one more piece of snail mail to go, this time an advent piece and then that’s a wrap for this year letter writing. No more mail art until 2020! . . #snailmail #happymail #showandmail #sendmoremail #mailart #outgoingmail #penpals #letterwriting #keeplettersalive #postallove #guernseystamps #guernseypost

It’s been so wet and windy here this autumn that I didn’t hold out much hope for our beloved ginkgo tree. The weather dried out just in time though and thankfully we got to see the golden leaves blanketing the ground before the gardeners blew them all away. . . #autumn #autumndays #autumnleaves #ginkgo #ginkgotree #candiegardens #guernsey #naturewalk #natureexplorer

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