December Theme
Dec 19th, 2011 | By Wendy | Category: Family TimeKeep It Fresh With Themes
It can be a challenge to come up with ideas for fun activities to engage your child in learning. Let’s face it, some days you just don’t want to pick up another flash card! Having a theme for each month can help to keep your activities current with the world around you. If it sounds like too much work to come up with monthly themes, that’s okay – use ours!
December Theme:
Colors – Silver and Gold
Shape – Star
Focus – Christmas
Family Activities:
- Bundle up your gang and head out for a night walk around your neighborhood to admire all of the Christmas lights displays. Pick an evening when the sky is clear and remember to take in nature’s light show. How many stars can you count? What did the wise men think when they spotted a new bright star?
- Window Shop at your local mall. Many times we are in a hurry and just want to find and buy what we are looking for that we don’t take the time to notice the decorations and Christmas displays.
- Attend a candlelight service or hand bell choir concert. Your local newspaper or library is a great place to check for events being held in your community.
- Visit a favorite place that you normally wouldn’t visit at this time of year. Many amusement parks and children’s museums have special holiday events and activities.
Stories, Movies and Family Traditions
How about having a family story and movie night? You could choose from The Grinch, A Charlie Brown Christmas or The Polar Express and read the book and then watch the movie. Then discuss the differences between the two; your favorite parts or what was left out or added.
Create your own Holiday movie marathon. Choose from The Santa Claus trilogy, Home Alone series or Veggie Tales. Pop some popcorn, make some hot chocolate and sit back and enjoy family time and some laughs during this hectic time of year.
If your holiday to-do list is longer than Santa’s and you think you don’t have time for movie watching, it’s okay to bring your Christmas cards to the couch with you and write them out, work on your gift list or wrap a few gifts. Your family will understand and they will just be glad that you joined them instead of you once again saying – I wish I could, but I’m too busy.
Christmas Books aren’t just for young children; older kids can get in on the holiday genre as well. There are plenty of holiday books with familiar characters. Pick up a few new titles to give as gifts or to pull out on the long car ride.
And don’t forget to schedule some extra browsing time at the book store and chose an early present for you!
Start some Christmas family traditions:
The Christmas Holiday is all about traditions. If you haven’t started any up until now, this is the year! You can begin with things that are extremely simple.
On Christmas Eve before bedtime, read The Night Before Christmas. Many illustrators have paired their drawings with the classic poem by Clement C. Moore. To narrow down your search we’ve featured a few.
Another simple tradition is to purchase (and not forget to use!) an advent calendar. If you have young children, it will help them to visualize just how many days are left until the big day. Each day as you read or open a flap or add a piece, the excitement will build as you realize how quickly the day has passed and you are one more sleep closer to Christmas.
Another great tradition is to start an ornament collection for each child. Each year when you break out the decorations, everyone will race to claim ‘their’ ornaments, find special places on the tree to hang them and show off their collection to visitors.
