Every September, we have a day that we celebrate as the first day of our homeschooling year. For us, we usually celebrate on the same day that school starts in our area because Stephane is a high school teacher. It’s a natural start for us since it’s his first day of school too.
But exactly how do we celebrate?
Have a Special Breakfast – It’s a great way to start the day!
Take a Picture – It’s an annual memory for the first day and marking milestones in their life.
Curriculum Gift Bag – Take all their new supplies and curriculum, put it in a bag and let them open it. Because everyone likes getting gifts.
Go On a Field Trip – Since everyone is back to school, you can take advantage of the empty science centres and museums and zoos and go on a field trip.
Go On a Picnic – Pack a lunch, head outside and have a picnic. We look for a place with a park or splash pad to make it extra fun.
Library Visit – Start the new homeschool year with some new library books.
Get Creative – Do an art project with the kids. Bonus points if it has the potential for getting messy.
Have a Game Day – Gameschooling is huge! Why not ease into the year with a day full of games. Great, easy option if your other plans get rained out.
Start a New Read Aloud – Pick a new book or novel and get reading. We start our new novel right before bed. It’s a great way to end our not-back-to-school celebration.
There are lots of ways to celebrate! Pick as many or as few as you want. These are just some ideas that you can do, but I encourage you to build traditions that your kids love. Every family is different. Make your celebration work for your family.
This easter is going to look a little different. Ok, a lot different.
With all the social-distancing and self-isolation, this holiday is going be unusual for a lot of people.
We aren’t going to church on Good Friday or Easter Sunday. We aren’t visiting the grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins. Even our plans for a big family Easter dinner has been put on hold.
With all these changes, along with the inability to find all the traditional Easter fare, this holiday will be different from those of the past.
But that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun and exciting. The Easter bunny has been cleared by the World Health Organization and even deemed an essential service in our province. He’s still making the rounds just doing so s safely.
If you want a great letter from the Easter Bunny, explaining the whole situation to kids and how he’s keeping everyone safe this year, feel free to download our free PDF letter here! It’s punny and cute and perfect for little ones.
Since this is going to be a different Easter season, we’ve come up with a few simple ideas to make this Easter “egg-citing” even in quarantine.
Decorate the Windows
This has been one of the best trends to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic. People every where are decorating their windows. Some are taping paper hearts or drawings up. Others are painting the windows with washable paint (mix either water-based paint or acrylic paint with a drop of dawn dish soap, to make your own.) It’s a great way to great creative, do something different and decorate for the holidays.
Scavenger Hunt
Who doesn’t love a scavenger hunt. We’ve done one every year. It’s how the girls find their Easter baskets. Growing up, it how we found our large chocolate bunny. And it’s so easy to do.
Just make a series of clues that lead from one room to another. We used some post-it notes so we could stick it where ever we wanted without worrying about the tape damaging the walls or surface. Then send the kids on their way. It’s a simple way to add some extra “egg-citment” to the morning.
Puzzle Hunt
DO your kids love puzzles? Mine do! Take a puzzle, and put a peice (or a few) into plastic eggs. It makes for an awesome activity. The kids don’t know what puzzle it is until it done. You can do this with a new puzzle or one you already have. We got a new puzzle at Walmart, where we do our regular groceries for $1.25 and it would be perfect for this Eastery activity.
Substitute Snacks
Can’t find you favourite Easter snacks? I get it. Alexie has lots of food sensitivities, which means we’ve been substituting snacks since her diagnosis last year. We’ve gotten quiet creative with what we fill our plastic eggs with. In the past we’ve filled them with:
dry cereal
gummies from the “lunch snack section”
mini granola bars
any type of candy
boxes of raisins
chocolate chips
freeze-dried fruit and yogurt drops
gift cards
nail polishes
basically anythign small that fits in your plastic eggs.
Remember that it’s about the excietment of looking for eggs, not just what’s inside them.
Tea Time
We are huge fans of poetry teas and what better time to have one, than at Easter. Put on your favourite outfit (perhaps your facniest Easter dresses?), gather your Easter treats, pour a cup of tea (or iced tea) and read. Whether it’s a book, a favourite poem or the biblical Easter story, it’s a simple and fun way to make learning and literacy part of the day.
With this year being a different holiday, lots of things won’t be the same. But that doesn’t mean they have to be sad or boring. A little fun and excitement can be good for the soul, especially in these troubling times.
Last year’s Easter Baskets filled made especially for kids with Food Allergies and Sensitivities
This might surprise many people, homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers alike, but we don’t homeschool during December. Yep, that’s right.
During December, we don’t do any work in our workbooks, journals, or flashcards. We even take a break from our novel studies. This might seem odd to most, but it’s a very conscious decision on our part.
You see, December is just so busy.
There are Christmas concerts and parties, storytimes with Santa and family dinners. Then there’s all the holiday stuff like decorating the house, shopping for presents, and holiday baking. Then there are all the fun things you want to do during the holiday season like writing letters to Santa, decorating gingerbread houses and making ornaments with the kids. In the past, I’ve tried to do it all. And I just end up exhausted, frustrated and overwhelmed.
Last year, we decided to take the month off of homeschooling and it was the best decision we could have made. Instead of doing everything and feeling overwhelmed, we decided to lean into the holidays and focus on all the festivities for a few weeks.
But just because we aren’t homeschooling during this time doesn’t mean that we aren’t learning.
We start the month with our advent activity calendar. It’s filled with activities, crafts, and events for us to do for the 24 days leading up to Christmas. Some of it is educational like baking and letter writing. Some of it is fun, like the Christmas carol dance party. But, it gives us a chance to pick and choose what we will do during the month.
We also read a lot of Christmas books. We pick a different storybook every night from under our Christmas tree and read a lot. It’s fun to have festive seasonal books at this time of year. We also go to concerts, plays, visit Santa and spend lots of time with our friends and family.
Taking a break, especially during the holiday, can be a great blessing for your family and homeschooling.
Last year we started a tradition. During the month of December, the girls really look forward to two things. They love to do their daily advent activity and they love their daily Christmas book.
You see, on December 1st, the girls wake up to find the advent calendar set up and 24 presents under the tree. Each present is a book — a fun and festive book for us to read together.
Now, I don’t buy 24 new books. But, what I do is wrap up 24 Christmas books that we already have. Since my teaching days, I’ve slowly built up my collection, adding a book or two every year, stalking up when they go on sale after the holidays. Now I wrap up 24 of those books. We’ve got classics like “The Night Before Christmas” and “The Nutcracker.” We’ve got some wintery books, like “Frosty the Snowman.” There are also fun and quarky books, like “Saumari Santa” — which is a favourite around here.
We wrap up each book and put them under the tree. On odd days Alexie opens the advent calendar and Zoé picks a book, any book under the tree. The next day, we alternate. Once we open it, we put the books in our book basket (kind of like a reverse book basket) and we read them again and again over the weeks leading up to Christmas!
Here are the books that will be under our tree this year!
These are the books that we will be wrapping up this year. What favourite holiday books are on your list? I’ve always got my eye out for some new great books to add to the collection.
Every year during the month of December, we do an activity advent calendar. It’s become a favourite family tradition and something the girls look forward to each day.
Since we don’t do any homeschooling during December, this activity calendar helps keep us busy and entertained.
It does take a little planning. I try to match activities to plans we already have during the month. For example, Friday night is usually movie night, so it makes sense to schedule a holiday movie night on a Friday. Or maybe we have a concert coming up. Then I make sure that the activity calendar has “Go to a concert” on that day. While it’s a surprise for the girls, I write all the activities in my planner to help keep me organized so it’s not a surprise for me. I can also make any “educational connections” in my planner too. If we are writing letters to Santa, then it’s literacy. Baking cookies is all about math and science. Buying Christmas presents is about math, money and budgeting.
If you are looking for some ideas, I’ve got 40 here for you! Pick and choose which ones you like. You can also click here to download printable cards with the activities. Just print, cut out and fill your calendar. Done!
Send a nice thank you note to pastors/teachers/coaches
Donate to a charity
See the Nutcracker
Christmas carol sing-along
See a Christmas play
Volunteer
Make snow angels
What’s your favourite holiday tradition? Is it on the list? Let us know! We would love to add some other fun activities to our calendars in the years to come!
We have a tradition. Every year for Mother’s Day, we get Mom some petunias for her front step flower box. Why petunias? Well they provide lots of colour, are easy to take care off and they handle the full day sun really well.
But in order to give Mom some flowers, we need to go and buy some flowers. Which means we need to go visit our local greenhouse…and the girls love it so much.
Once we had our flowers, we had to plant them in the planter. It’s always such a fun project.
And Mom totally loved her flowers! They are really livening up our front porch and adding a great pop of colour to the house.
The Easter Bunny is coming this weekend. The girls are very excited about his arrival, especially Alexie who really remembers the excitement of searching for eggs. But I’m sure Zoé will jump right in, gathering eggs as soon as she realizes what’s up.
This year is a little different because Alexie was recently diagnosed with some pretty severe food sensitivities, which includes dairy, grains, nuts, corn, oranges, and potatoes just to name a few. This makes finding chocolate and candy a little tricky. While I did manage to find some Enjoy Life Chocolate Chip packets and some organic jelly beans, the Easter candy will be very limited this year.
Instead, we put a little more effort into making really nice Easter baskets for the girls. Baskets filled with things they need and want for the upcoming spring and summer months. I’m sure they will love finding these on Easter Sunday morning.
We try to be practical with our baskets by including mostly things they need and then adding a few fun things in at the end.
It’s a nice balance of things they need and things that they want. But it’s also allergen-friendly which means we don’t have to worry about Alexie being itchy all day.
What are you putting in your Easter Baskets? We would love to know!
Growing up, decorating Easter eggs was an annual tradition. We tried all kinds of different kits and techniques as kids.
This is the first year that Alexie is really old enough to decorate the eggs. We decided to start with the classic approach and do a more traditional technique.
Last year, a few weeks after Easter, I was wandering through my local Michael’s craft store when I noticed a bin of discount bags. Each bag was filled with random Easter stuff and cost $10. I sifted through the bin until I found a bag that was worth my money. It had 6 Easter egg decorating kits as well as 2 cake pans (a cross and a bunny). Well for $10, I couldn’t pass it up. I stored the kits in a cool dry place until we were ready to use them this year.
I hard-boiled a dozen and a half eggs earlier in the day so they would be cool enough to work with, especially for little hands. We used some regular crayons to decorate the eggs with our own special designs. Then, following the instructions, we made the dye. We placed an egg into each cup of dye and let it sit for 3-5 minutes. We pulled them out and let them dry. Then we added either the shiny paint or the glitter to the eggs. These were the bonus items in the kits.
Decorating eggs may seem like a strange thing to do, but it’s actually very educational. We counted eggs and cups of dye, learned about colours and how dyes work. And then there’s the artistic side of things. The kids got to express themselves on an egg. It’s really the perfect blend of tradition and art.
We have a little holiday tradition. Every year, since Alexie was only a few months old, we’ve made a special homemade ornament. We make three ornaments, give one to each set of grandparents and keep one for ourselves as a little memory. We’ve made a couple different ornaments over the years, including salt dough handprints, monogramed blocks and glitter footprint balls.
This year we made some cute little fusilli pasta wreaths with a photo in the centre. They turned out so cute and were really easy to make!
Using a glue gun (and adult supervision) we glued some pasta around the edge of mason jar lid. Really you could use any firm circle shape. Then, we used some green spray paint to paint the whole thing green. Next, we cut out a picture to fit the hole in the middle and glued it in. Add a hook, and you’re good to go.
These ornaments were a hit with the grandparents this year. We know they loved the photo in the middle. And they’ll make a great keepsake on our own tree, year after year.
Every year, the pajama elves visit our home on Christmas Eve. They deliver a box with special, magical pajamas. It’s a great tradition that we started when Alexie was first born and I think it’s one of the kids’ favourites!
If you want to see all the details about our Christmas Eve boxes, what’s inside them and how we do this particular tradition, you can find it here. We love searching for our boxes on Christmas Eve and it’s so much fun to put on the new magic PJs before bed! It’s just another element to a fun but simple Christmas.
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