Surviving Winter... things our family love to do in this cold weather!

On Februray 2, Groundhog Phil saw his own shadow which means we have to endure six more weeks of the cold snowy winter.  It is only February and temperatures are continuously to be below freezing, it seems that there is snow storm advisory almost every week and schools days are extending beyond mid-June (which is not really a major concern as homeschoolers).  Being from a tropical place, I still struggle to survive in this wintry condition.  Below are some activities that we did so far (I have to dig for more ideas for the next six weeks), to keep my kids and my self sane. I have to make a conscious effort not let winter stop us from having FUN while LEARNING at the same time!

1) If you can't beat the cold, join it!  With the help of my down coat, and layers of clothing, I was able to join the kids with some outdoor fun even in the freezing or sometimes below freezing temperatures.

Everyone loves snow man.  To make it more fun (and learn colors and spell words too), we did some snow painting using various food colors, squirt or water bottles and water.  The kids raced on who can 'dress up' their snowman first.  The final verdict... some colorful masterpiece!

Aidan experimenting with colors

A fun way to practice spelling or in this case writing a nice note to mommy.

"Dressing up" their snow man

We punch a hole to the cap of an 

empty water bottles and use it 

as our 'water brush'.

The kids also ventured into making snow caves, snow fort, snow angels and playing snowball fight or just simply going to a local place to enjoy snow sledding.

Believe it or not, the best time (at least for me) of the year to go on trails are during late fall and winter times since you don't have to deal with bugs or bugs spray.  I find this a great way for the kids to spend their energy and to check out some forest inhabitants at this time of the year.  In addition to enjoying nature, going on trails is a perfect venue to investigate tracks left by wild animals or even try some wild edibles that are only seen in the cold weather.  Make sure to check out events in your local Audobon Society or nature parks websites for similar events.

A nice and quiet spot at Betty's Neck
(East Freetown, MA)

Exploring of what's left from
an old barn in Frank Knowles/
Little River Reserve (Dartmouth, MA)

2) Keep warm and cozy! There are days that we just feel staying indoors in our PJ's.

One of the thing we all love doing is cooking besides eating the food we made.  Who doesn't love the smell of freshly baked bread or cookies or pies or whatever is simmering on the stove.  The kids love to help in the kitchen and get their hands dirty.  Cooking, baking, measuring and cutting stuff come pretty handy in teaching my 6 year old fractions and my pre-schooler counting.  Involving kids in the making of their own food also teaches them about eating healthy, safety in the kitchen, builds confidence and promotes creativity.

"I  scream for an ice cream"
Healthy option using yogurt, frozen
berries and some milk and honey.

Getting their hands dirty mixing dough while
learning fractions, how to divide the dough
into equal parts.

Teaching them about fire safety.
is best achieved by letting them experience
 first-hand cooking.

Rolling bread dough for our "Sun"bread
helps Aidan to improve his fine motor skills

Practicing their knife skills 

 

The kids prepared this fruit platter for our breakfast.

Read, Build and Create!

We started to adapt a "Five-In-A-Row"  (find out more about this program from fiveinarow.com)  culture in our learning as a way to approach certain topics of interest.  Currently we are doing Volume 1 of the FIAR series but in addition to the listed books in this series, we also borrow books from the library that the kids want to explore.  After reading a book (could be many times), we use the information that are presented in the book to explore other subject areas such as but not limited to:

• geography-setting of the story, locating it in a map, popular land marks, topography
• history- time period when the book was written and how it is evident in the book, historical characters or events in the book
• social studies - culture ans traditions of a particular place, values and morals of the story
• art -medium used by the artist, type of art, symmetry, or craft connected to the book among others
• math -looking for patterns, counting images in the illustration, symmetry
• science -cooking food related to the place and time period of the book, plants and animals (habitat, behavior, adaptations), buoyancy, senses etc.

We use this world map to identify various places in the books we read.
Coloring  a blank map/countries and drawing a prominent feature
of that place is also a nice alternative to identify various places  from our readings.

From the book "The Story About Ping"  we looked at various ways
to denote movement in drawings, reflection  on water
and lines.

The kids also tested buoyance of various materials in water
as part of our "Ping" lesson.

We read several versions of the "Nutcracker"
and watched a play of it afterwards.  The kids learned
to love the characters in the book so the play
became an enjoyable experience for everyone.

 

 

To celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. We read this book about the struggles of black people just to learn to read and write.  We also used the book to discuss how we are fortunate to have free access to education and tied it with Dr. King's speech through the "I have a dream...mobil shown above.

After reading the "Sun Bread" book, the kids got inspired to make their own sun bread (recipe at the end of the book) which we enjoyed for lunch later that day.

 

In this book "Madeline" the kids explore to divide to make equal groups, the symmetry in art and making their own art showing symmetry, the various structures and architectures in Paris, classic literature among others.

 

Since our visit to New York City couples of years ago, my son was fascinated by the Statue of Liberty.  He was really curious how it was built.  We were fortunate to find this book in our library which has very good illustrations, and thorough discussion of why and how it was built.  The boys also got some very good inspiration from this book in building things using cardboard boxes, Knex, Lego or even using Minecraft creation mode.

It doesn't matter what kind of books interest your child, fiction or non-fiction, modern or classic books,  you will always find ways to extend and connect these books with various subject areas or real life experiences that would have a more lasting impressions in your child's mind (plus the fact that they will develop the love for reading).

Also check out the unit we did for China and Chinese New Year
http://dasilvahomeschooljourney.blogspot.com/2014/01/celebrating-chinese-new-year-with-bang.html

How do you try to survive winter?