Welcome to the 12th installment of my Teach Them Diligently series. If you’re new here and would like to see the other topics, click below.

January [ironing]

February [the oven]

March [saving]

April [safety]

May [purging]

June [written correspondence]

July [cleaning the bathroom]

August [planning]

September [shopping on a budget]

October [rest]

November [reflect]

One of my goals for this year is to continue teaching my children some skills to make them more independent of me. A focus of our learning around here is to take full advantage of all the learning we can in and around the home. In addition to math, science, and languages, I feel it’s my duty to help my children learn to care for their own needs.

Each month of this year, I am focusing on a different skill/chore and taking my time to instruct my children. This isn’t earth-shattering news. These aren’t difficult skills. No doubt generations of mothers before me have been doing this since the dawn of time. I have been slowly showing and teaching my children these things since they were tiny.

First it was to put away toys into baskets and bins and over the years that has evolved into doing their own laundry, loading and emptying the dishwasher, and making their own beds. As they are growing, so, too, should their level of involvement around the house.

Our kids do earn “commissions” for a few set chores each week, but the skills we are working on this year are “just because” skills. Right here I usually state my monthly objective with words like, “They will learn….because…” but this month, it’s more of “I hope to model this because it is vital in life…”

My theme and focus for December is simply: REJOICE.

You see, in the thick of parenting (and even on this series) sometimes I get a little off balance. Sometimes I get a little too task-oriented and neglect some important aspects of life.

For the month of December I decided that our focus would be on the idea of rejoicing; rejoicing in what God has done in our lives; rejoicing in the birth of Jesus at Christmas; rejoicing in the everyday.

Here are some of our moments of rejoicing in the month of December:

Happy December! Happy 2015!