Here’s How To Bring The Holidays Into Your Home Classroom
There’s something magical in the air once the holiday season hits, it makes us more joyous, a little less irritable — but admittedly a tad distracted. With gifts, dinners and celebrations around the corner, it can be hard to balance the excitement of the holidays with productivity and education.
To keep your student’s online learning on track — while also getting in the holiday spirit — here are some things you and your child can do. It’s time to get festive AND educated:
Decorations
Make your child’s workspace festive! Do some DIY activities with your student to help bring some holiday spirit to their work area. Maybe hang some ornaments around their workspace — it’s really up to you and your student.
Play Music
Seasonal retail workers may beg to differ, but playing some holiday music is a key element of upping those spirits! Have your student make a playlist to listen to while doing their homework. If your student finds it a distraction, blast the music during their lunch break while you two are putting your meal together!
Stay In Pajamas
Take advantage of the lack of uniforms in a homeschool setting. Make Friday a pajama day, or stay in pajamas a little longer on Monday mornings! There’s nothing like learning in comfort.
Get In The Kitchen
On their lunch break, or once the school day wraps up, do some fun baking activities with your children! Plus, baking is a great math lesson in fractions. Making Christmas cookies? There are so many ways you can turn the activity into a delicious lesson.
Have them do some festive activities
There are tons of printable activities and worksheets available online on education sites and homeschooling blogs — make the most of them. We actually have our own free Christmas reading guide available to download, which is the perfect thing for you to bring into your home classroom this season!
Make The Holiday’s Educational!
Bring some holiday education into the curriculum! Opt to teach the background of the different holidays that are celebrated around this time. In fact we even have our own downloadable lesson plan that goes through various Holidays from around the world. Simply download it here.
Take A Field Trip
Head outside to enjoy the winter wonderland — take a recess and toboggan in a nearby park, or hop in the car to go pick out a Christmas tree. Have a contest for who can build the best ‘Olaf’, anything that gets your kids out of the house!
Have A Movie Day
Online schooling is incredibly flexible, which means if you plan well enough you can integrate some extra activities into a day — much like a movie day! Set aside two hours to watch a holiday friendly movie. To make it educational, have your student answer a couple of comprehension questions after.
Get An Advent Calendar
Make incentives with an advent calendar! If you want to get crafty, make one yourself — and have the prizes be things your student can apply to their school work. For example, one day the advent item may be an extra break during the day, or a later start to the school day. Take your pick!
