Schoolwork / Housework or Both!
Are you finding it harder to perform everyday tasks while your kids are at home? Maybe you don’t have time to make dinner anymore because you are too busy helping your kids with school work. You can’t get the laundry done, because someone is calling for your attention. Try making this situation work for you. Make every chore double as a school lesson.
Reading and writing
Your kids are capable of helping you in the kitchen. Have them look through books of recipes in your kitchen and have them copy out recipes they would like for dinner. Have them check in your pantry and write out all the food that you currently have on hand.
Math
There is so much math involved in cooking, whether that is teaching them about measurements or figuring out how long an item needs to bake for or counting out ingredients. Depending on how old they are, you could even teach them about conversions, but don’t miscalculate or you could end up with really dry bread. You can talk about shapes when you fold the laundry. They can work on addition and subtraction by helping you balance your checkbook.
Science
Everything that you cook or bake can double as a science experiment. You can teach them about heat by cooking an egg. You can watch bread rise from yeast. You can even experiment with salad dressings and test how the flavor changes when certain items are blended together. Cleaning can be a science experiment too. You can mix baking soda and lemon for a home cleaner, or watch while as cleaning supplies slowly dissolve grease and grime.
Geography/History
Sit down and plan a family vacation while looking at a globe or map. Lookup a few interesting historical facts about each place you want to visit. Talk about your family history and what each generation remembers about growing up. You kids will remember Covid-19, what do you remember about your childhood: 9/11, JFK’s assassination?
Art/Physical activity
Yard work easily doubles as giving your kids exercise and a lesson in nature’s art. Talk about all the colors you see and the sounds that you hear in nature. If you are picking up sticks in the yard, have your kids form their own structures in one place and take a picture of their designs. If you want to get a little messy, make some mud and talk about how animals camouflage themselves in nature.
There is a lesson in everything we do, it just takes a little imagination to see it come to life.
