It may well be difficult to keep your children engaged over the holidays. Between cooking Christmas parties and getting the house ready for visitors, you’ve got a lot on your plate. If wondering how you can keep your children engaged while managing the craziness that comes with the holidays, we’ve got you covered with a list of fun Christmas activities for kids to keep them busy.
Keep reading for a list of activities to keep your child occupied this holiday season (and, yes, teach him some basic math concepts too).
These holiday activities for children are simple to put together and have fun with. They’re not only enjoyable, but they also help your chile develop fine motor skills and keep them occupied.
Silver Bells Memory Game
This activity is amazing!
Supplies Needed: A pack of Hershey kisses, dot stickers, and a scissor
- Now, write your letters on the stickers. You could do anything with numbers, shapes, sight words, or colors!
- Stick the letter stickers on the bottom of each Hershey kiss. They fit perfectly!
- Next, lay them out in a grid on the table.
- Take turns letting your little one turn two over at a time, and then you do the same.
You got a match! Hooray!
Christmas Ornaments Matching Activity
Different varieties of Christmas ornaments will be required.
Explain to your child that they have to sort through the ornaments and put them all back together in their pairs. You could talk to them about the criteria for sorting⏤it may be color-based (red, green, white, etc.), size-based (small, medium, or large), material-based (foam, glass, plastic, etc.), or just about anything else that you could think of.
You could even try having them sort the ornaments based on their type, that is, bells, baubles, angels, stars, etc.
Teaching your children mathematics is as simple as 1+1=2. By going beyond the pencil and paper, you can make math a pleasant learning experience for you and your children. These simple tactics will assist you in teaching your children math and turn them into mini mathematicians.
Use Common Household Items
Everything you’ll need to start teaching your child about math is already in your hands. You can count the number of buttons, coins, money, books, fruit, tin cans, trees, and cars you have on hand. When you consider all of the actual items you can count, add, subtract, and multiply, math is simple to teach.
Everyday things can also assist you in educating your child that objects in math don’t have to be similar. Counting apples is a fun math lesson, but counting apples, oranges, and watermelons at the same time broadens the mind. Instead of playing a standard numbers game with 1, 2, 3, the child is tying counting to a diverse array of items.
Make Math a Part of Your Everyday Life
Once you include maths into your daily activity and set objectives that your child can accomplish, you can help them get the most out of their math studies.
To begin with, ask them simple questions that require simple mental calculations, and then proceed through the levels as their confidence grows.
You could try some of these to begin with:
- How many black cars do you see at a red light?
- How many packets of chips can we buy at the supermarket if we only have 100 rupees?
- How much of our meal would be left if we only ate 1/4 of it?
- How much will the grocery bill cost after a 15% discount?
- How much do the digits on the license plate in front of us sum up to?
- How many clothes do you have in the washing machine right now?
When you show your child how much fun math can be, they will develop an interest in learning that they can apply to other topics. There is no stopping children once they like studying.
Did you know that you can decorate your Christmas tree in a mathematically correct way?
The University of Sheffield’s Maths Society offered a Christmas miracle, a set of formulas (and a magic equation) that, if followed accurately, would ensure your tree looks picture-perfect, from an exquisite tinsel-to-tree ratio to a star or angel that’s just the proper height.
Using their “trigonometry” formula (that’s what they like to call it), they calculated that a 215cm (approximately 7 feet) Christmas tree would require 44 ornaments, 1098cm of tinsel, and 675cm of lights with a 22cm star or angel on the top.
Want to know this festive formula? Read Ahead.
Length of the tinsel = 13 x 𝛑/8 x (where x’ is the height of the tree in cm)
Number of ornaments = √17/20 x (where x’ is the height of the tree in cm)
Height of star in cm = Height of the tree in cm ÷ 10
If you’re not Pythagoras, you can find a calculator here (Sheffield.ac.UK) courtesy of Sheffield University to do the above sums for you. Just enter the height of your tree.
So go ahead and use this festive method to ensure that the lights, tinsel, and ornaments on your Christmas tree are in the proper proportions.
Fun Facts About Christmas Trees
At 2,600 feet tall, the world’s tallest Christmas tree would require over 16,000 ornaments, over 4,000 meters of tinsel, about 2,500 meters of lights, and an 80-meter-tall star.
This year, the tree in Trafalgar Square is around 25 meters tall, which means 515 ornaments, almost 100 meters of tinsel, 78 meters of lights, and a 2.5-meter-tall star are required.
Learning is not limited to our homes; it may blossom in your garden as well. While your children are getting some much-needed fresh air, you can teach them math and science fundamentals. To keep track of plant growth, have children measure water into a watering container, count seeds, start tracking days on a calendar, and make notes (If you don’t have a garden, start one with your children on a countertop. They can make observations, count and sow seeds, anticipate which seedlings will sprout first, and measure dirt into little pots).
We hope you have some new ideas to try with your children as a result of this blog. Stay tuned for many more upcoming educational blogs by BYJU’S FtureSchool.
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