The holiday season is finally here! Get into the festivities with these fun educational activities for kids.
Shopping for presents!
Giving your child the opportunity to “shop” for presents or gifts for their siblings, parent, or family members is a wonderful learning experience – in many more ways than one! Even with younger children, encouraging them to pick out toys and gifts for their loved ones builds emotional intelligence and empathy. In addition, this activity helps kids to form closer bonds with their loved ones by showing them they recognize their interests and care about them. As the old saying goes, “it’s the thought that counts.”
But that’s not all! As kids get older, this activity can also double as a math game. Even if it’s only a small amount of money, this encourages kids to budget their funds effectively and practice smart shopping. We even like to frame it as a word problem: “You have this much money, and you want to buy a gift for your brother and sister. How much can you spend on each?” If you’re looking for real-life applications of math skills, it’s hard to find a better example!
Gift wrapping.
This is an excellent follow-up to the last activity and also provides multiple benefits! Wrapping gifts and decorating the presents further encourages feelings of gratitude and thankfulness, and kids will enjoy choosing decorative paper and trimmings that suit the recipient of their gift.
In addition, gift wrapping itself is an excellent educational activity that emphasizes hand-eye coordination and working with measurements in a three dimensional space. Again, it’s hard to think of a better real life application of mathematical principles – in this case, geometry!
Volunteer events.
The holidays are the perfect time to give back to others who may be less fortunate than we are. In addition to the large number of food drives, one we particularly recommend for kids are clothing donations. As it turns out, kids grow up quickly – and many of them have garments from the year before that are now too small! Encouraging your child to help other kids by “slimming down” their own wardrobe is a wonderful way to get into the holiday spirit and teach about the power of giving. And if you already know your child is set to receive some new clothing this year, this is a great way to free up closet space ahead of time!
As an added bonus, holiday gift drives are also a common seasonal event, and gift wrapping is a core part of those efforts. As many kids will surely agree, half the fun of getting a present is opening it up! Gift-wrapping events help give back to communities and are a lot of fun for the whole family to attend. If your child enjoyed the first two things on this list, we’d definitely consider looking into this option!
