Enhanced – with website links
hese ideas to make winter learning fun are perfect for all kinds of winter days—from mild to cold and for indoors or outdoors.
1. Create Some Paper Crafts.
Paper crafts are a fun way to work with your children on following instructions, using fine motor skills, developing problem-solving skills, encouraging creativity, and more! Try this 3D Paper Craft Festive Winter Scene, this 3D Paper Craft Cozy Winter Scene, or make a beautiful quilled snowflake.
2. Do a Winter Bird Study.
Try doing your own winter bird study. Or participate in the Great Backyard Bird Study that happens each year in February and is sponsored by the National Audubon Society. (Yes, it seems like February is a long way off, but it will be here before you know it!)
3. Read Books Together.
I read aloud to my children all the way through their high school and teenage years. We loved it!
hese ideas to make winter learning fun are perfect for all kinds of winter days—from mild to cold and for indoors or outdoors.
Paper crafts are a fun way to work with your children on following instructions, using fine motor skills, developing problem-solving skills, encouraging creativity, and more! Try this 3D Paper Craft Festive Winter Scene, this 3D Paper Craft Cozy Winter Scene, or make a beautiful quilled snowflake.
2. Do a Winter Bird Study.
Try doing your own winter bird study. Or participate in the Great Backyard Bird Study that happens each year in February and is sponsored by the National Audubon Society. (Yes, it seems like February is a long way off, but it will be here before you know it!)
3. Read Books Together.
I read aloud to my children all the way through their high school and teenage years. We loved it!
Or you might enjoy these Top Winter Read-alouds and 10 Awesome Read-aloud Books to Beat the Winter Blues!
4. Do an Autumn Science Experiment.
Sometimes we spend the winter fighting off one kind of sickness or another. Encourage your children to get in the kitchen and develop healthy habits by making some Homemade Fermented Foods.
And, if your family deals with the flu this winter, you may want to explore some natural remedies to help you deal with it (or help prevent it).
5. Take a Field Trip or Try Some Hands-on Ideas and Activities.
If you live in an area where summers are long and hot like I do, you know that some field trips work better during cooler weather. If you live in an area with long, cold winters, you may choose to do virtual or indoor field trips during the winter. Thankfully, there are lots of winter field trip ideas available!
If you’d rather spend time with your kiddos doing things at home together, there are all sorts of winter printable packs you can work on together.
6. Do a Unit Study or Use These Ideas for Homeschooling During the Holidays.
Unit studies are a fun way to incorporate different subjects into whatever you’re doing. For a long list of things you might want to research and study during the cooler months, take a look at this article about 50 Things to Study This Winter.
You might want to study a different culture, learn more about how animals live during winter, find out more about winter photography, or even delve into historical events that happened during winter months.
Or, if you’re interested in ways to homeschool during the holidays, you may want to consider ADVENTure schooling, holiday-related lessons, arts & crafts, and serving others!
If you have older students, you might want to get a jump on preparing for Christmas gift-giving! Here are some ideas for teens who would like to make Christmas gifts for friends or relatives.
7. Get Physical.
It’s important (for physical and mental health) to stay active during winter. And there are lots of fun ways to make it happen! Find some fun exercise or yoga videos on YouTube. Take an afternoon to go sledding or build a snowman. Construct an igloo. Or play a motion game using your game system.
8. Try Some Winter Science.
You don’t even need snow to try this fun science activity that’s all about snowmen! Or you may want to learn more about snow by looking up information, doing some science experiments with snow, and watching YouTube videos.
If you’d like to make winter decorations and do some STEM at the same time, grow your own crystal snowflakes!
9. Do Winter or Holiday Writing.
Go outdoors and work with your children on a fun winter writing activity that involves all five senses and lots of fun! Come up with your own ideas or try this How to Describe Winter with All 5 Senses activity.
Christmas writing prompts are a great way to lead up to December and Christmas. And they’re a perfect way to sneak in some writing that seems like more fun than work!
If you take time off from formal schooling during the holidays, spend some time with your children working on a group writing experience related to telling your family’s stories. Not only will you spend quality time with your children, but you’ll have pages of family memories to read and reminisce over for years to come!
10. Be Grateful and Bless Others.
Many families take a break from formal learning between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but we all know learning doesn’t end when we put the books away!
Instead of “doing school,” create a thankful tree or make family gratitude jars.
Or use this Christmas Kindness Calendar to find a whole month’s worth of ways to share kindness with others.
And of course, spend some time in the kitchen baking some of Santa’s favorite cookies! Give some away and eat some too!
endy Hilton is an introverted extrovert who lives in the South. She’s been married to Scott, her high school sweetheart, for thirty years, and they have two adult children and one teenager who all homeschooled. She loves writing and editing, reading, and working out and teaching classes at her local gym. She also loves Jesus, her family, homeschooling, and her dog. To read more from Wendy, visit one of the websites she co-owns along with Trish Corlew. You’ll find her at Hip Homeschool Moms, Only Passionate Curiosity, and Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.