The week of Thanksgiving is always a busy week, but if you homeschool it’s doubly busy when you’re fitting school time into the mix. (See Barbara Frank’s simple solution below!) However, there are plenty of learning opportunities and combining the two can make things go a little smoother (I said can...). I’d like to share a few ideas of my own, and then I have some monster resources for everything from Thanksgiving printables to lesson plans for teaching the origins of the holiday.
Kid’s Holiday Recipe Notebook
Aside from a few extra Thanksgiving crafts, most of your time spent on Thanksgiving usually involves cooking and baking. So beginning a notebook with all your family recipes for your children can be fun and provide a lasting treasure. Any 3-ring binder and a batch of 3 ring transparent sheet covers is all you need. It can be as simple as printing a recipe by hand or off the internet and placing it into a sheet cover.
If you really want to capture some memories, you could take pictures in the kitchen while baking a family recipe and include them with the recipe in the book. How much would you like to have pictures of your mom cooking the family’s favorite pumpkin pie when you were little? (or maybe not..) You could add some of your children’s own artwork or the Thanksgiving clip art listed below instead.
Keeping Little Ones Busy
Keeping little ones busy with some measuring cups and flour or some other not too messy food has worked for us at times (depending on ages and time constraints). Rice or beans work if you know they won’t try to eat them. Set them up on a cookie sheet (one with sides) to contain the mess, and let them scoop out with smaller measure cups (1/4 or 1/3) and pour into a 2-4 cup measure, counting as they go. A plastic knife works good to practice leveling flour in a measure cup. Making playdough “food” is another good past time…if you have available work space.
If you’re not that ambitious, having some Thanksgiving coloring pages printed out ahead of time can be a quick solution when little ones start to get under foot but you would still like them to feel a part of the Thanksgiving preparations.
Teaching Children To Be Thankful
Teaching children to be thankful in our world that so much is taken for granted isn’t always easy. I guess I’m thankful for a national holiday to remind us to make it an issue! One of the most meaningful crafts that we received one year was done by my daughter’s three children. They made the ‘turkey with a traced hand’*(see link below for a how-to) for each guest expected at the table Thanksgiving Day. Then, mom, dad, and each child wrote one thing they appreciated about that family member (or friend). This grandma loved those so much they were prominently displayed for almost a year.
Also, see the “Say Thank You In 100 Languages!” below:
Choice Online Resources For Thanksgiving Day Ideas:
About.com has a list of Thanksgiving Day resources for the homeschool family, including everything from printables, suggested books, poetry, activities and more. Their guide to Family Crafts has an list you’ll love for Thanksgiving craft ideas, too.
About.com also has a great, concise explanation of the first Thanksgiving, AND another page of activities from Terri Mauro’s Guide to Special Children.
These are all websites you’ll want to bookmark, About.com is one of my favorite sources for good ideas.
Lesson Plans For Thanksgiving:
You’ll find a wealth of ideas from the National Education Association. I especially like the “Say Thank You In 100 Languages!” and some really cute Thanksgiving placemat ideas.
Teacher Vision has an amazing list, but appears to be a paid subscription site. However, there is a free trial you can take a peek with! Let us know if you have any experience with this site, we’ll have to do a review on it soon. It looks really good.
The Lesson Plans Page has a list of great T-day teaching ideas. They also have the instructions for the *‘turkey with a traced hand’ I mentioned above*.
Kaboose.com has a list of Thanksgiving books organized according to age.
Mahalo.com has quite a few resources you’ll like
Some
cute Thanksgiving clip art:
http://www.webweaver.nu/clipart/thanksgiving.shtml
http://www.designedtoat.com/thanksgiving.htm
http://holidays.kaboose.com/thanks-clipart.html
http://www.andynortnik.com/royaltyfreethanksgivingclipart.htm
Best Advice To Simplify Thanksgiving For Homeschoolers:
And last but not least, if you are having Thanksgiving at your house and you homeschool, Barbara Frank has some excellent advice: Don’t do school this week! She also has a schedule to help you plan and simplify Thanksgiving, children helping.
My biggest problem with keeping Thanksgiving simple is attempting too much. The Martha Stewart syndrome is contagious, and the more I look at all these sites for ideas to share, the more I want to do! My kids are always reminding me that they would rather have me sit with them and talk or play games than have anything else.
I am VERY thankful for that.
What are your best suggestions for simplifying Thanksgiving?
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Hey, Debbie, thanks for sharing my article. So glad you liked it! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
For any other moms looking for random holiday ideas now that their kids are home for winter break, the burger crafts I found on this recipes for kids site went down rather well if I do say so myself!
My brother recommended I might like this websiteHe was totally rightThis post actually made my dayYou cann’t imagine simply how much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!
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