When will your Christmas presents arrive? Don’t ask Amazon, ask NORAD! The North American Air Defense Command’s annual Santa Tracker is up, and you and your homeschool students can watch the countdown to Christmas Eve midnight when NORAD’s radar will start to follow Santa and his reindeer as they deliver billions of presents all around the world.
Beginning over the Pacific Ocean (which is where Christmas Day itself first begins), Santa’s course will be on display in real time right here:
You can learn more about NORAD and the Santa Tracker (and even get some ab fab NORAD-Santa merchandise) at the special Santa Tracker website:
NORAD has been tracking Santa for more than sixty years. Here’s an amusing three-minute report from some of the children of NORAD service-members that explains how it all works:
What grand geographical explorations and gigantic global excursions will you and your students be making in your homeschool this Orion Term?Β π Β π
β‘β Come, here’s the map: You can use this fun annual event to teach some informal geography lessons! Just get out your family atlas and have your students put a little post-it markers on the map to designate Santa’s route across the time zones. (And you can use it to learn about time zones, tooΒ β there’s a whole atlas plate showing the world’s time zones!)Β π‘Β π Β πππ
β‘β There is magic in it: This is one of our occasional Homeschool Holidays & History posts. Add your name to our weekly mailing list and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year.Β π«
β‘β Homeschool calendars: We have a whole collection of free, printable, educational homeschool calendars and planners available on our main River Houses calendar page. They will help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. Give them a try today!Β π
β‘β Support our work: If you enjoy our educational materials, please support us by starting your regular Amazon shopping from our very own homeschool teaching supplies page. When you click through from our page, any purchase you make earns us a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for helping us to keep going and growing!Β π
β‘β Join us! The aim of the River Houses project is to create a network of friendly local homeschool support groupsΒ β local chapters that we call βHouses.β Our first at-large chapter, Headwaters House, is now forming and is open to homeschoolers everywhere. Find out how to become one of our founding members on the Headwaters House membership page.Β π‘