Here is your permission to play HOliday hooky!
Homeschooling during the holidays is just too much for most of us! Ditch it.
Learning still happens.
Playing hooky helps learning because our brains are wired to seek novelty, and a subsequent dopamine release.
When we are engaged in a new or different way, we are usually in an open and receptive space where negative emotions and stress that impair learning are offline. The break from the usual also gives our brains time to stretch in new areas while the worn out ones repair and reorganize information.
Ditch the stress you’re feeling. Those to-do’s are not as important as you think!
5 areas holiday hooky grows learning
These are inspired by the areas of learning Maria Montessori classified for her classrooms. Watch a video here for how to organize this without a list.
- Practical life
- Sensorial
- Language
- Math
- Cultural
practical life
Examples include cleaning and organizing, maintenance, cooking, following directions, delegating, hygiene, caregiving, habits, manners, and social emotional skills. These are arguably the skill-set used most by the majority of us.
Holiday hooky applications may look like this:
- Decorating
- Cleaning
- Baking or Cooking
- Card Addressing
- Babysitting or Eldercare
- Shopping
- Wrapping
Sensorial
Anything that engages the senses. Hint: everything engages the senses. Did you know that providing plenty of sensorial input opportunities is key to improving the 3 R’s (reading, writing and arithmetic)?
- Tactile (touch) – play, crafts, puzzles, music, games, cleaning, cooking, Lego, small world play, etc.
- Gustatory (taste) – eat! (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami)…when you eat, you are smelling what you eat as well.
- Olfactory (smell) – bake, cook, craft with evergreens, citrus, cleaning…smell goes directly to our whole brain – create happy associations (memories)!
- Audible (hear) – music, sing, play, instruments, audio books, converse, outside walks, movies, quiet time.
- Visual (sight)– read, craft, cook, decorate, clean, visit, Christmas lights, nature walk, explore, experience.
- Proprioception (where you are in space) – heavy work, carry wood, boxes, trash, rake, shovel snow, jump, climb, pull sled or wagon, build snowman, fort, dig, vacuum, sweep.
- Vestibular (strength + balance) – spin, fidget, go against gravity, upside down, tumble, swing, dancing, sledding, rolling down hills.
- Interoception (internal cues) – hungry, tired, hot, cold, toileting, emotions. Notice and name to your child if they have difficulty here.
language
Language arts are simply communication. When you are in-person, it is typically oral. Writing is to transfer communication across time and space. Acting, symbols or objects are also forms of sharing ideas (communicating). Holiday language arts may look like:
- Themed word puzzles – crossword, word search, word jumble.
- Kids direct, costume and act out a play/pageant.
- Imaginative play is visual creative storytelling.
- Read all the seasonal books!
- Music lyrics, caroling, singing together.
- Vocabulary is rich and diverse with so much to talk and ask about during the holiday season.
math
Logic found in the relationships of numbers.
- Count everything – days til Christmas, cookies, candy on gingerbread houses, ornaments, presents!
- Measure everything – ingredients, light strands, trees, wrapping paper, ribbon.
- Geometry – wrapping, gingerbread construction, jigsaw puzzles.
- Fractions – cooking, serving sizes, slicing pie.
- Finances – shopping, returning, selling, game play.
- Logic/Strategy – board games.
Cultural
Content knowledge that builds our understanding of ourselves, our environment and our history.
- Family history – stories, traditions, photographs or home video.
- Culinary traditions and geographical origins.
- Religious practices and history.
- Other holidays history and practice.
- Service and volunteerism.
- Weather – solstice and seasonal.
- Science of flight and speed with Santa tracking.
- Astronomy – All 5 naked-eye planets and two meteor showers are visible this month.
- Be prepared to carry out the stated consequence.
That’s quite a course of study, isn’t it?
give yourself the gift of presence this christmas
Renew your connection with your family and resume your regular programming (or not) in the New Year!
