TLN shares effective tips to support children learning during the holiday season.
As the holiday season sets in, keeping many families busy with numerous activities, it’s easy to get so occupied that one has little or no time at all to maintain learning momentum for the kids.
However, learning during this period provides structure to children’s holiday experience, making it more likely that they’ll stay engaged and focused on productive activities, and out of trouble. More imperative, it keeps their academic skills refined and polished, and in some cases, makes it easier for them to get ahead.
Holiday season exercises, such as working on writing skills while creating holiday cards, or practicing logical thinking with a find a matching task, can keep your child’s mind working and better developed over the break.
But how do you ensure you keep your child learning during this holiday season?
In this post, The Learning Nest (TLN), a leading Miami Preschool, shares some valuable tips to ensure your child stays engaged in learning by reinforcing what they are taught at school while they are at home.
12 Tips to Keep Your Child Learning Over the Holidays
1. Engage them in shopping
Central to every child’s learning experience is the ability to read, write and solve simple mathematical problems. You can hone your child’s reading skills through a series of activities such as asking them to search for recipes. Writing skills are required to create a shopping list for the needed items. The child needs math skills to create a budget for the items they’re buying. Depending on their age, you can engage them to research prices on a variety of items in your community. Finally, a family trip to a mall or grocery store helps them learn how to compare prices and read labels to make the right choices.
2. Spend some time in the kitchen
Kitchen chores such as cooking and baking are a great way to bond with your kids during this holiday season. Engaging them in the cooking process, such as measuring ingredients, reading recipes, or learning about temperatures will not only avail them to observe how the family's delicious treats are prepared, but also sharpen their reading and math skills.
One of the learning focus areas at TLN is autonomy and self-awareness where children learn and develop basic skills that will be useful throughout their lives. Examples of such activities include pouring liquids and solids, hand washing, and preparing snacks. Engaging them in these activities can significantly enhance your child’s development of hand-eye coordination, fine motor control, balance, sense of order, concentration, and independence.
3. Learn as you travel
For many families, traveling is more or less a holiday tradition. If you plan to head out of town during this holiday, that can be a great opportunity to teach your child new things such as the name of your vacation destination, including a well-known history, trivia, and landmarks. You can also create interesting worksheets or quizzes that your child can complete based on what they observe around them. This experience can improve their knowledge of social studies like history, government, and geography.
4. Gain insights from the weather
The change in weather is a great way to get your children interested in meteorology. You can improve their observatory and science knowledge by asking them questions about local weather, and what they think about it. Have them list out their observations about rain or snowfall, temperature, frost, and other climatic issues.
5. Get them Enrolled in a Holiday Camp near you!
You can search for camps in and around Miami and check that one that has the best set of activities that will keep your child productively engaged. Many camps help children to discover the fun of learning arts, sports, music, and social skills. This option is most especially helpful for parents who are working while the children are on holiday. By choosing the right camp, you can feel peace of mind knowing your child is in a safe place, making new friends, and learning in an inclusive environment.
6. Wrap some presents
If you have the intention to present gifts to people this Christmas, then you’ve got to get your child actively involved in the process. You can ask your child to create a spreadsheet to keep track of the prospective recipients. This should include their names, addresses, and the gifts you’re giving them. Once the gifts are bought, the kid can put their math skills to use by measuring and cutting papers to wrap the gifts.
7. Send holiday cards together
You can improve your child’s writing skills by creating simple but creative holiday cards for family and friends. This is a great time to teach your child how to address envelopes and mail letters, where to send the stamp, and more. Once the child learns that, they can later apply the same skills to write and mail “thank you” cards. This doesn’t only improve their writing and creative skills, it also helps them to learn the importance of gratitude.
8. Interview family members
Sitting down with old members of a family and talking about their lives and experiences together is a great way for children to learn some vital communication skills. Multi-generational conversations can help the child to improve their very and nonverbal communication skills. You can encourage them to write down the questions and the answers. Such experience will not only improve the child’s language arts, but it will also help them create stories they will cherish for years to come.
9. Don’t Forget Story Time
The holiday season doesn’t mean you have to put a pause on reading. In fact, it’s the perfect time to become more consistent. Schedule quality time to read to your kid and model good reading strategies. The reading shouldn’t be another boring monologue. Instead, the child should be encouraged to actively participate, probably by asking them to read their favorite winter or holiday stories to you. After you are ready, ask good comprehensive questions and be sure to correct them in a very constructive manner.
10. Prepare and Perform Homemade Pageant or play
Children learn a lot of social and linguistic skills when they read the stories they’ve read. During the holiday, you can set aside a day where you encourage your children to perform a show or a play for guests at your holiday get-together. Before the D-day, ask them to create a storyline for their performance.
They can create their own authentic story, or they can recreate a movie. The kids should be encouraged to write their lines on a piece of paper so they can practice. Costumes can be planned based on the available clothes or have puppets created using craft supplies around your home. It’s important to encourage them to rehearse their presentation before the actual performance.
Getting them interested in performance can help them develop confidence and eschew stage fright from them as they grow.
11. Ask your children’s teachers for input
While there are countless resources online to support your child’s learning during this holiday, you need assistance from your kid’s teachers to make your work a lot easier and more effective. This is especially important if the child has a worksheet or project that is due after the holiday. Contacting their teacher to hear their thoughts will go a long way as you guide your child through the task.
12. Show appreciation to your kid’s teachers
Teachers do a lot in ensuring the proper mental development of their students. Before resumption in January, ask your child to write a nice letter to their teachers. You should work with them to help them practice grammar, sentence structure, diction, and more. Encourage them to talk about what they appreciate about their teacher. A beautiful card or small gift is also a good idea to show appreciation.
Taking Action
Deliberate learning during holidays is an effective way to prevent brain drain or learning loss in children. Following the above tips can keep your children learning while they’re having fun with family and friends at the same time.
More importantly, the holiday season is the perfect time for the kids to recoup and rest. While preparing them for the next curriculum and ensuring their learning isn’t halted, you also want to make sure that adequate attention is paid to their needs and mental health.
If you need more information to keep your children actively learning this holiday, don’t hesitate to reach out to TLN for helpful tips and resources. TLN is a leading preschool in Miami that offers a full preschool program from children of 18-months to Kindergarten in Miami.
Additional Information about the City, Miami, FL.
Miami is the 44th-largest city in the United States and the core of the nation's eighth-largest metropolitan area. The Miami metro area is by far the largest urban economy in Florida and the 12th largest in the United States. Miami was named in 1896 after the Miami River, derived from Mayaimi, the historic name of Lake Okeechobee, and the Native Americans that lived around it. The city’s nearby attractions include the Wynwood Walls, Zoo Miami, Dolphin Mall, and the Bayside Marketplace.
