How will your kids keep learning this holiday season?
The holidays have almost arrived! After a stressful first term of learning, students are ready for a break–the last thing kids want to do during their school break is homework. They want a vacation–and so do you. Taking a break from the normal routine is normal and healthy, but too much time away from the normal learning routine can negatively impact students’ learning momentum.
Luckily, it’s easy to incorporate learning-focused activities into the holiday schedule and help kids avoid losing their learning momentum. With these holiday learning tips, when students return to school in January they are sharp and ready to learn from the first class back!
12 Days of Holiday Learning Tips
Check out our 12 Days of Holiday Learning Tips for fun ways to keep the learning momentum strong this holiday season!
- Tip 1: Crafts. Crafts are a great family holiday activity. They reinforce many important school skills like attention to detail, following instructions, and maintaining focus. These activities also encourage creativity and imagination. Plus, kids end up with a great craft that they can feel proud of!
- Tip 2: Take a Hike. Take advantage of the holiday weather and go on a family hike! Chase the kids around. Have a snowball fight, or walk around the neighbourhood and look at the lights. Physical activity helps increase blood flow to the brain which increases memory function as well. To put it simply, once you get the blood pumping, you get the wheels turning.
- Tip 3: Read. Reading is one of the greatest ways to work on school skills over the holidays. Books not only tell stories of great adventures, but they also help children unplug. Reading also helps children develop their vocabulary and improve reading comprehension. These are all great skills and necessary in the classroom
- Tip 4 Play Video Games. If you’re up for the challenge, pick up the controller and get your child to teach YOU how to play a video game! 🎮 When kids play teacher, it allows them to think logically about the game and how they play it–a great learning skill!
- Tip 5 Research Something. Task kids with an online research project! Any topic they are interested in goes. Ask the kids to locate the information for you, and then have them tell you what they discovered. Self-directed learning helps kids build learning motivation!
- Tip 6 Play a Board Game. Playing board games can help kids develop critical thinking skills like strategy, analysis, and planning. They also help improve basic school skills such as addition, subtraction, and reading comprehension.
Tip 7 Follow a Routine. Studies show that children actually crave structure and routine. Over the holidays, use an agenda to stay organized and focused, and to get a head start on January assignments.
Tip 8 Visit a Museum or Other Cultural Center. Whether online or in-person a visit to a museum, science centre, aquarium, planetarium, or cultural centre is always a rich opportunity to learn something new! Science, history, or nature, learn more about some of the cultural areas of interest in your area.
Tip 9 Write. Writing has a lot of health benefits for kids–from providing stress relief to helping to sort through thoughts. Journals can be about anything at all! They can be used to sketch, to make lists, to keep track of favourite quotes. Writing in a journal is about putting aside some time every day to think actively and document the thought process.
Tip 10 Puzzles. Jigsaws, sudoku, crosswords, search-a-words…puzzles are a great way to challenge the brain over the holidays.
Tip 11: Work on A Project Together Organizing the garage, putting old photos into albums, donating old clothes… with extra time on our hands it’s the perfect opportunity to tackle a project around the house that can involve the entire family and help everyone build skills such as organization, creativity, and communication.
Tip 12 Send Thank You Cards. Combine spelling skills, writing and penmanship, along with gratitude for the many gifts we received by sending thank you cards! You can even take it to another level by incorporating some holiday vocabulary. Or, put your crafting skills to the test and craft a card, include a hand-written note and send it to someone you might need a pick-me-up over the holidays, such as seniors at your local long-term care facility
Learning over the holidays doesn’t have to mean completing math assignments or writing an essay! There are plenty of easy, family-focus holiday activities that incorporate learning, are fun for children of all ages, and keep kids on track for the new year!
