For those of you that homeschool you have probably heard from your kids something regarding doing holiday parties like their friends do at school. While this may not always be possible there are certain things that you can do to acknowledge holidays and celebrate! Here we will offer a few ideas that will hopefully inspire you!
- Decorate! – get the whole family involved. Make it part of your homeschool art curriculum and let the kids have fun with it. Remember that everything doesn’t have to be perfect or match your chosen color scheme. Art is all about expression and there are no rules there as long as things are respectful.
- Make it! – Your kids should grow up knowing that it truly is the thought that counts. Show them the example of making gifts for others as well as being joyful about gifts you receive from others.
- Serve! – There is nothing better for any one’s state of mind that to get out and help someone. Take the opportunity regularly to have your children serve others. This could be helping at a local library with literacy issues. It can be helping at a soup kitchen or something as simple as picking up litter in a place that needs it. Opportunities to volunteer our time and resources are everywhere. It is important for kids to see that if they have the means, they can share and even if they don’t, they can give of their time. It takes all kinds.
- Cook! – Celebrate each holiday with traditional dishes that your family enjoys or with foods that are the colors for the holiday. At Christmas you could eat red, green and white foods. On Valentine’s Day you could eat pink foods. Whatever you want! Have fun with it. You can even make your milk green for St. Patrick’s Day!
- Read! – Read stories that go along with holidays. Learn about people, customs and what people in other countries do for the same or similar holiday. It’s always fun to learn the origin of a holiday and how it has evolved to be what it is now. This should be included as homeschool geography or history.
- Link it! – If you are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day learn about the Irish or someplace in Ireland. If you are celebrating Valentine’s Day study the heart. There are many things you can correlate with each holiday to make it fun and memorable.
