Festivals can be used as a great learning tool with your homeschooling class. As most festivals revolve around specific events (such as Independence Day or Thanksgiving)or individuals (such as St. Patrick’s Day or Christmas) your child can be taught about this cultural history in a fun filled manner.
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Spin a Tale
The best way to teach a child about his heritage and culture is to make it a story rather than a lesson. After all we always remember exciting stories told to us by our grandparents and manage to remember a lot more details that way about history than when we read about it in a boring history book which insists on giving us years and dates to remember.
So try and tell them a story about the festival. Make it more about the real people who were involved in the sequence of events than a general overall view. Its always more interesting to hear about how the Indians helped the Pilgrims than to read about how much hardship the Pilgrims suffered.
Get the Hands Busy
Doing activities related to the festival can be entertaining and educative. The simplest activity would be to make a card themed with the festival. Make them come up with all the symbols of a festival and then draw them up on the card. For instance if they are making cards for Independence Day they could draw up the flag, or fire crackers.
If its for St Patrick’s Day make them think green with leprechauns and four leaf clovers. Add some rainbows with pots of gold. There a lot you can do with Christmas as well, think Santa, snowflakes, snowmen, the tree, gifts and so much more. Each festival has special symbols and you can use any of these to help the children make their cards.
Enact Plays
Dramatics is a great way to get kids involved. Make them write a script and then design their own costumes. Involve other home school students you know and make a production out of it. It does not have to be an elaborate event, just one where the children can have some fun and learn a bit more about their history and culture.
Article Inspiration: About Homeschooling
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