Kids may love the idea of a snow day simply because there is no school, but just because school is out doesn’t mean kids can’t enjoy a fulfilling learning experience at home. The bottom line is, parents can do much more at home than teachers can at school, therefore, taking advantage of a snow day is beneficial to children. The following ventures will get your kids learning while you get to spend valuable time together.
Get Creative in the snow
That first snowfall of the year is a great time to let your kids’ creativity fly. The snow offers a perfect, white canvas for all sorts of creativity. Read a story to you child and have them make pictures to go with the story in the snow. Or, better yet, create your own story with pictures included on your white canvas. Sticks or fingers can be great drawing tool and writing utensils and a flat hand makes a great eraser. Use paint or food coloring to color in your pictures.
Practice Writing Skills in the snow
Instead of using a paper and pencil, get your kids out in the snow. Snow makes an ideal canvas for practicing spelling words, stories or other writing skills. Again, fingers and sticks make great writing utensils and your child will enjoy a unique way of learning. Give your child various spelling words, and have him or her write each one in the snow. Write a simple story or comic strip in the snow for others to see as they walk along the sidewalk. You can have your child learn comical idioms to write or have them come up with an inspirational quote to design in the yard. Using paint or food coloring can create a vivid display while bubble letters and different fonts add individual creativity.
Splash some color in the snow
Fabricate your yard into a canvas for artistic expression. Paint, powdered chalk dust and food coloring are several ways of getting color onto the snowy canvas. Using different utensils for these items such as spray bottles of watery paint or water and food coloring, or chalk reels for colored chalk create different designs and effects in the snow. Get creative and let any idea flow into a vivid work of art.
Practice math skills with snowballs
Math is ubiquitous, including right outside in the snow. For counting practice, make a race with your child to make a certain number of snowballs. If your child needs some multiplication practice, tell them you’re going to make 20 snowballs, and you want them to make 4 times that amount (story problem and multiplication). A great way to practice dividing skills, is to make a bunch of snowballs together, and have your child divide them out to each family member, equally, for a challenging snowball fight. After you’re finished creating, multiplying, dividing and adding your snowballs, be sure to have a record-breaking snowball fight!
Practice spacial skills
Due to lack of time, and high demand for results, spacial skills and engineering skills don’t come to the forefront of classroom instruction. And, lets face it, engineering and spatial skills can be fun, especially if you’re designing an igloo, fort or hide out in the snow! Research some intricate designs with your kids online. Find a fort, igloo or hideout that looks like something you could both make together and use your spatial and engineering skills to build it out of snow. Your child won’t even know he or she is learning, but this may be the start of a career in engineering if your child enjoys it.
Interesting and enjoyable learning is lacking in both school and society. A snow day is a quintessential way to reunite learning and fun as well as spend valuable, quality time with your child. Enjoy a day of learning in the snow, and don’t forget the essentials like building snowmen and making snow angels.