The Advent season is almost upon us. “Advent” means simply, “important arrival” and of course refers to the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. According to Webster’s 1828 dictionary, it means,

A coming; appropriately the coming of our Savior, and in the calendar, it includes four sabbaths before Christmas, beginning of St. Andrew’s Day, or on the sabbath next before or after it. It is intended as a season of devotion, with references to the coming of Christ in the flesh, and his second coming to judge the world.

One of the special things about celebrating Advent in particular is that it can help keep the focus on the Christ, and how the world groans awaiting for His return. Interestingly, the season of Advent seems to have more significance in Germany, where a plethora of activities take place and a number of songs specific to Advent are known as well as the most common Christmas carols. Now that Advent calendars are getting more commercialized and can be found containing chocolate and even legos, they are spreading in popularity even here in the United States. There is one available online…and you can’t peek, so begin visiting on the first advent to see what each new day brings. Dawn of Day By Day Homeschooling is even offering a secular advent calendar on her blog.

Last year, we started a new tradition to bring some more focus on what the coming of Christ means to the world. After learning about the Jesse Tree, we decided to try it. The name comes from Isaiah 11:1, “a shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots.” It is essentially a walk through scripture to prepare the heart for the coming of Christ and give focus to the season.

In 1599, the words to a beautiful folksong, Es ist ein Ros entsprungen, were first published in Cologne, Germany which began with a paraphrase of the beginning of Isaiah 11. The English version is also good, and the site provides the melody. We will be learning this song this season, and we may learn the first verse in German as well.

We started making ornaments out of Sculpey clay which turned out very nice. It is a simple process and my children enjoyed it. We fell behind, however, and did not finish them all. If you are interested, here is the post about the process of making these ornaments. We got the images used from this site which has a simpler story to follow, suitable for younger children.

And from around the web:

Palm Tree Pundit shares her Advent Jesse Tree. And the origins of her family tradition sound like a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

Cultivating Home is trying to faithfully post a story and craft idea each day. And you can listen to O Come, O Come Emanuel while you read.

And, last but not least, a long time virtual friend of mine is hosting Eleanor Zweigle’s free Advent study using the inductive method. I have not looked at it, yet, but PrincipledMom is also using it.

Related Tags: homeschooling, Advent, Jesse tree, ornaments, Sculpey, Christmas