educationalactivities

The holidays are a time for the old familiar family traditions. But if you are looking to shake things up a bit, and expose your children to a more global outlook this season, here are some fun and easy traditions from around the world that are easy to integrate into your merriment.

More than milk and cookies.
One of the easiest ways to get kids excited about new cultures and traditions is with food. And there are as many different dishes from around the world associated with this time of year as there are elves in Santa’s workshop.  In Mexico, it is traditional to celebrate Christmas Eve with delicious tamales. In the UK, Santa doesn’t get milk and cookies, it’s sherry and mince pies that warm his late night sleigh ride (makes sense no!?).

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elp your little ones understand the meaning behind Thanksgiving with this fun and super easy craft project. Your kids will create a Thankful Turkey and be able to list the things they are thankful for. Before your family digs into your Thanksgiving feast, pass the Thankful Turkey or Turkeys (if there are multiple) around the table and ask everyone to share at least one thing they are thankful for. This is a great activity to bring your family together and share the meaning of Thanksgiving.

Supplies needed for each Thankful Turkey:

• 1 large pinecone
• 3 sheets of different colored construction paper (1 yellow and any other colors)
• 2 large googly eyes
• 1 red pipe cleaner
• Different colored markers
• Scissors (child proof)
• Tacky glue

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his weekend as I cleared out the basement in hope of making some room, I found a box full of baby clothes. I was too attached to give it all away, but didn’t really want to continue to have it sit in the basement collecting dust. A brilliant idea came to mind: I decided to give my daughters, Eva (4) and Maya (2), some of the newborn clothes to play with and dress up their dolls. Seeing those sweet items around the house once again reminded me of when they were oh so tiny! It turned out to be a big success, the newborn onesies fit their Ikea dolls perfectly and were the highlight of the day!

What your child will learn:
– Fine motor skills: practicing to put on shoes, tying laces, buttoning onesies, buckling overalls, etc.
– Pretend play, which builds skills in many essential developmental areas.

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This weekend we made a colorful and tasty bouquet of marshmallow flowers. It’s really easy and fun to make with your kids.

Here are the 4 steps:

1. Buy straws, jumbo marshmallows, and decorative icing in tubes or pens.
2. Place marshmallows on the straws
3. Use icing in a tube or a pen to decorate
4. Put in a glass or a small vase to dry
5. Enjoy with your kids! 🙂

Simple, easy and fun!

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