Have you ever heard of Christmas school?
It's when you hit pause on your regularly scheduled plans and set aside some time for holiday-themed activities. It's a super fun way to embrace the chaos that typically surrounds this season.
In our own homeschool, we have looked at Christmas celebrations around the world, we have studied the Nutcracker Suite, we have looked at the different Christmas symbols, and more.
But one thing I have always found lacking in the pre-planned Christmas units is the science part of the plans. I'm guessing that I am not the only one out there who has run into this.
And I know that the solution is to usually drop science from your plans altogether - it's OK, I promise I won't throw eggs at you if you have done this in the past.
But let me encourage you this year to not drop science, give the gift of wonder and amazement instead!
In that spirit, I wanted to share with you all a few options for how to handle homeschool science during the holidays.
How to handle homeschool science during the holidays
Option #1 - Add science to your holiday homeschool plans.
As I said before, most of our holiday-homeschool units have lacked science, so as a solution I just added them in!
Sometimes I have just thrown in a weekly holiday- or winter-themed science project. You can see a few of our favorites in December's tip of the month.
Sometimes I have actually taken the time to pick and choose science activities that relate to what we are studying. We have a great seasonal science Pinterest board that you can mine through for ideas:
Follow Elemental Science 's board Seasonal Science Experiments on Pinterest.
Option #2 - Create a full holiday unit around science projects.
You guys know I love science! And I am all about letting science take the lead as the rest of your plans line up behind it, which is exactly what we did for our son's preschool.
So, why not do the same for Christmas?
Last year we did this with three holiday-ish materials - snow, cookies, and evergreens. We started our week with one of these Christmas-themed science activities and then added in math, reading, art, history, and music that related to the science material for the week. It was a blast!
You can do the same this year, or you can choose to use these daily Advent science ideas from Inspiration Laboratories.
Either way, letting science take the lead for your holiday homeschool plans is a sure way to provide heaps of holiday cheer!
Wrapping it up
There are so many wonderful holiday-themed science projects that I know your students will love. I trust that these two options will help you add a bit of science to your holiday festivities!
Be sure to share your favorite holiday science projects in the comments below. I'll leave you all with a bit of Pinspiration!
