With a slew of holidays coming up, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hannukkah and Christmas, you have a number of great learning opportunities at your fingertips. What could be better for a homeschooler than researching their favorite time of year?
Whether you celebrate these holidays or not, it can still be a great way to get kids learning about why these days have become so important in our culture. You can do this in a few different ways.
Research: Why not get your kids to work together on a presentation of their chosen holiday? They can look into the history of the day and see how it’s changed since its origin. You’ll find that most holidays are now drastically different than when they started out! If you celebrate, why not incorporate a few of the older traditions this year?
Stories: Add a language arts twist and have your kids write a story using what they’ve learned about the holiday. You can also assign storylines. What would a child of their age done 100 years ago for Christmas, for example.
Start new traditions: Maybe this is the year to change things. It may be that your kids decide on their own that Halloween is not worth celebrating when they realize what the origins are. Or maybe you will want to change the way you look at Christmas this year. Brainstorm with your kids to come up with some ideas for new traditions.
What’s your favorite holiday? Do you incorporate it into your homeschooling?