Every December, your student walks through the biggest economics lab of the year. This study teaches them to see it: who decided what Christmas looks like, how a gift crosses an ocean, who works so everyone else can celebrate, and whether giving presents is a waste of money. Even economists disagree about that one.
The Fourfold Method is four moves that turn study into something a student keeps. In economics, Gather means recording the numbers and where they came from. Test means checking a claim against real prices, real labels and real people. Connect ties it to your family’s budget, your town and history. Commit means putting it in your own words, then using it. Each lesson also practices one of Lisa Nehring’s 5 Common Topics: Definition, Compare & Contrast, Circumstance, Relationship or Authority.
Inside:
- 12 lessons, about six weeks: What Is Holiday Economics?, Marketing, Supply Chains, Holiday Jobs and Gig Work, The Holiday Budget, The Economics of the Feast, The Gift Economy, Local Business, Digital Marketing, Why We Buy, The Cost of Waste, and What Is Wealth?
- A real investigation in every lesson: a scavenger hunt, an interview with a shop owner, a shopping survey, pricing your own Christmas dinner, and testing whether Coca-Cola really made Santa red
- Free readings only: Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi,” “I, Pencil,” the PNC Christmas Price Index and more, plus It’s a Wonderful Life
- Lisa’s hands-on activity, holiday tradition and service idea for every lesson
- A capstone: a real holiday budget, a gift plan, a service project and next year’s Christmas Club savings plan
- Reading at a Glance, a course map, an hours log, vocabulary pages and a model course description for the transcript
Pairs with The December Homeschool, which covers the history of the American Christmas.
What you receive
A 108-page PDF (including cover), 8.5 by 11, black and white for a home printer. Parent pages explain layered learning and Lisa’s 5 Common Topics, plus how to award credit: about 40 hours, which most families count as a parent-awarded 1/4 credit in economics. Your family license covers every student in your household, every year. Your PDF is delivered on the download page only.
A first edition, shaped by the families who use it
Written by Gina Steffy, from Lisa Nehring’s holiday economics unit study. This is a first edition, and your feedback shapes the next one. Every purchase includes free updates to future editions.
Lisa Nehring and her husband, Dr. David Nehring, a Clinical Psychologist, and Biblical Scholar speak together on a wide variety of topics, including education, classical education, vision, mission, parenting, marriage, and more.
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