Keep your child’s skills sharp over the Christmas break

The Christmas holidays are almost here, which can often mean homework takes a back seat to celebrating. Even though a break is well-deserved, it’s also important that your child doesn’t lose any skills gained in the last academic term, especially as we all know how much hard work went into learning those skills. Here at Tutor Doctor, we’ve come up with some festive ways that you can help your child stay on top of their reading, writing and maths skills during the winter break.

Christmas Cooking

Chances are, there will be lots of cooking and prepping taking place in the kitchen on the lead up to Christmas, so why not get the kids involved? Invite them to help you measure out ingredients, count pigs-in-blankets and even work out when items need to go in the oven for everything to be ready at the same time. All the tablespoon and half cup measurements offer great practice with numbers and fractions.

Writing Christmas Cards/Thank-You Notes

Getting your child involved in writing Christmas cards and thank-you notes is the perfect way to fit in some writing practice without making it seem like schoolwork. Not only will this activity help them polish their writing, spelling and handwriting skills, it’ll also help them understand how to show appreciation and learn about gratitude.

Family Game Night

The Christmas holidays are the perfect time to host a family game night. Most board and card games require counting, reading, writing and drawing- so it’s an excellent opportunity for your child to maintain these important skills. It’s also a lovely way to bring the whole family together, have fun and get everyone’s brains active and thinking!

Reading

The winter break is full of opportunities for your kids to read, so encouraging them is super important. Why not head to the local library and find some festive stories or let them choose a few books they can read in the chilly winter evenings? Libraries can be very inspiring places for children to visit, so letting them have a little free reign is bound to make reading much more exciting for them. Encouraging relatives to give books as Christmas gifts is also a great plan — just make sure you’re providing enough quiet time for reading to take place. Try to involve the whole family so that everyone can pick up and book and develop their reading skills!

Writing a holiday story

Asking your child to write a short holiday story is a fantastic way for them to practice their creative writing skills as well as use their imagination. To keep their reading skills sharp too, you could even ask them to read it out loud to the whole family on Christmas Day — chances are everyone will enjoy it!

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