3 Easy Ways to Promote Literacy at home this Christmas!
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We love Christmas! Just thinking about it makes my kids happy and, as a parent, I might as well take that opportunity to promote literacy at home over the Christmas season, right? Even if you don’t have a homeschooling family, it definitely won’t hurt to take advantage of the many ways there are to promote literacy at home.
Ever since I was little, I’ve always loved reading & writing stories, so I’m trying my hardest to encourage my kids to enjoy it just as much. While we can’t go on vacation everyday, our minds could go on a little vacation through a story we write or a book we read, right? What better time to enjoy the magic of literacy than at Christmas time?
Here are 3 easy ways we promote literacy at home during the Christmas season!
Read Stories
Ahem, yes. I know this one is a little obvious, but stay with me a sec. While I’m always game for the traditional book, consider alternative ways to expose your kids to literacy this Christmas! YouTube has tons of videos of holiday-themed stories being read aloud. If you have a reluctant reader, you could pique their attention by introducing a new book through a video.
Along the same lines, consider signing up for apps that provide digital versions of books! The epic! app is pretty loved in my home. Not only do you get access to thousands of digital books (some are even exclusive to epic!), but many even have a read-aloud option. Parents can track the books their child has read, so you’ll get an idea of how well your child is doing and learn about any potential new interests. It’s pretty reasonably priced and new subscribers can even get their first 30 days for free (Sign up now and read FREE for 30 days!).
If you live in an area where it’s not terribly cold during the Christmas season, go out to visit your local library or find a nearby Free Little Library for a new-to-you book to read! If it’s too chilly to go out and you prefer to have your books delivered, Amazon has a TON of Christmas-themed books to choose from!
Write about Christmas
As a homeschooling mom, it’s one of my goals to have my kids complete a writing prompt each day. Not only does it help them to improve their handwriting, but it also gets those creative juices flowing and gets them ready for a day of learning. Sometimes my boys will go for generic writing prompts, but, they seem to really like when I give them a seasonal or holiday-themed writing prompt. In this case, they’ll use these Christmas writing prompts I created. I print out the entire packet and they’re good to go for the entire month of December. Easy peasy. As a bonus, I’ve included a Christmas-themed Reading Log and a set of printable Christmas-themed bookmarks for a complete literacy set!
In addition to writing about Christmas, you could promote literacy at home by encouraging the kids to write letters to family and friends (who doesn’t love some good old fashioned snail mail?!). If your kids are still little enough to believe in Santa, have them write letters to Santa!
Create Christmas Crafts
I love this idea because it combines art and literacy! Have the kids go through magazines, newspapers…pretty much any piece of literature you’d be ok with them cutting up for their project…and create a Christmas scrapbook! They can find images and words that remind them of Christmas and could even include photos of the items on their Christmas wish lists. Provide them with some fun art supplies and let them scrapbook to their hearts content.
Not only will you end up with an art project, but you’ll have a sweet memento to look back on in the years to come.
If scrapbooking doesn’t interest the kids, they could make Christmas cards. Have them look up Christmas poems or sayings online (or, even better – they can make up their own!) and let them create their own Christmas cards that will be sent to friends and family!
There you have it!
While there are PLENTY of ways to promote literacy at home during the Christmas season, these are three ways that we do so in our own home. I hope these suggestions have been helpful! Promoting literacy at home doesn’t have to be time consuming or super complicated – there are opportunities all around it! If you take the opportunity to make it fun and engaging for the kids, I bet they’ll have a blast. They may even ask for more literacy activities!
If you’re looking for more seasonal fun, check out one of our favorite Christmas traditions that actually makes the holidays easier on ME! The kids love it!
