5 Ways to Maintain Learning During the Holiday Break

Establish a Daily Routine

One of the best ways you can assist your child with their learning over the break is maintaining a daily routine. Children thrive on routines because they keep days consistent and predictable. This is especially important for the mental health of your child, and will ensure the first few days coming back from break are smooth! It can be difficult to maintain a daily routine with the excitement of the holidays, but there are blocks of the day that you can try to keep as consistent as possible in the hustle and bustle of the season!

Consider maintaining these…

1. Morning Routines (wake up times and getting ready for the day)
2. Evening Routines (wind down times and getting ready for bed)
3. Meal and snack times
4. Time for reading or educational enrichment

Read more about the importance of daily routines at healthychildren.org

Schedule in Time for Reading

We have often heard how beneficial it is when children have their recommended independent reading time for their age category, and how difficult it is to incorporate this time into the classroom along with the expected guided lessons. Teachers especially can only hope their students will go home for break and continue their personal reading time. Research shows that children need constant and consistent exposure to reading to learn this important skill.

Read more about how to help your child with independent reading from the Washington Post here.

For young readers, you can do several things to aid in their excitement for reading. Make the reading experience guided and engaging. Ask them to help you identify parts of the book such as the title, author, and how to hold the book. Model following along with the words by tracing the words with your fingers and ask your child questions about what has happened and what they think will happen next. Help them recognize clues in the pictures and title of the book.

For independent readers, 1st grade and below, the recommended time for reading daily is 30 minutes. For children 2nd and above, try for 40-60 minutes.

Consider subscribing to GetEpic for the month of December, an online library full of books written for children. One book per day is free, but there are so many to choose from your child will want to check out several and for $10 they can do just that!

Have a Game Night

Children learn best when they feel they take ownership of their learning and the learning is FUN! There are so many games that require your child to use their learning in fun ways. Play a few rounds of Monopoly and challenge your children to take turns playing the banker! Play a round of scrabble to test their vocabulary. Challenge them to think outside of the box with Taboo! Use the fun to get them pumped up and practicing their skills without even realising it!

Write a “12 Days of Christmas” Book Together

As you are busy planning all of your holiday traditions and parties, have your child document the holidays! Set them down for a time of journaling each night in their very own “12 Days of Christmas” where they can record their memories from each day of their break. This can be a combination of pictures and writing samples and will exercise their writing and creativity. Challenge them to make it into a song!

Invite Kids Into Baking

Recipes are a great way to sneak in some math practice while making memories that last a lifetime! Consider reframing these recipes into child friendly language so that measuring is easy and attainable for them!

For example consider the following directions

Place ¾ teaspoons of flour in a small mixing bowl.

Instead, try having the measuring spoon ready in front of the ingredient, and using colored mixing bowls to turn the instruction into

Place 3 scoops of the flour into the small blue mixing bowl.

At Sprout School Supplies, we are passionate about helping service our schools and families! If you have a question about getting your community involved in our services or have a topic you would like us to tackle in our next blog, please click here to let us know!