Some people associate autumn with the “death” of summer. I see it as a gorgeous, vibrant, colorful time where fiery reds, oranges, and yellows compete for our attention. Crisp wind lively plays among the fallen leaves. Warm cocoa and crackling fires chase away the cold at night. Fall is my favorite season, can you tell? Thanksgiving is a great time for homeschoolers to dust off the old craft supplies. Although the traditional turkey hand tracing can be loads of fun, there’s so much more fun to be had. Why not try a turkey greeter or bouquet of thanks? There’s tons of fun autumnal crafts begging to be made at Kaboose. Click around to find them.
Thanksgiving List
It might seem obvious, but the main objective this Thanksgiving season should be to actually give thanks. It’s sad how distracting our lives can be, that we forget to remember how blessed we are. There are many ways to show gratitude to our Lord and Savior this season. You can spread paper across any surface, a table, refrigerator, or wall. Then, equip your homeschoolers with crayons. Each day, have them add something for which they are thankful to the list. On Thanksgiving, you can have each child read his or her contributions aloud in order to share them with the rest of the homeschool family. You can cut out leaves in construction paper instead of writing on a list or draw pictures instead of writing out words. Be creative!
Leafy Fun
For most families, fall means leaf-raking time. Have your homeschoolers help out with the lawn care this year by making it family endeavor. Let them run around and jump in the leaves. At night, you can even burn up the leaves in a brilliant bonfire. Don’t forget to bring the hot cider and hot chocolate!
Family Football
For a lot of dads, Thanksgiving is a time to settle down in the living room and stretch out for a few hours of quality football. Don’t just watch football this year. Get outside and get that blood pumping! It will be a great opportunity to throw the pigskin around with your family. You can even plan for a halftime mini-game, inviting other homeschooling families in the neighborhood.
Play a Thanksgiving Party Game
Think about ways to attribute Thanksgiving imagery to existing games. Consider Mayflower Memory:
Everyone sits in a circle. The first player says, “I am sailing on the Mayflower and I am taking Apples. The next player repeats the phrase, only instead of apples, thinks of something that begins with the letter “B”. The game continues this way until players can no longer think of words. If a player can’t contribute an item, he or she must leave the circle. The last person in the circle wins!
Use your imagination! Give Duck Duck Turkey a try!
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, children?s rights activist, author, and Founder and C.E.O. of online education company Learning by Grace, Inc. Rothschild and her husband of twenty-eight years reside in suburban Philadelphia with their eight children.
Feeling that ?our current system of education has broken its promise,? Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. to provide families with Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children all over the world.
In addition to her twenty years of experience as a homeschool mother, Rothschild has written a number of books dealing with education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Daily Education News Articles consist of feature stories on online homeschooling and alternative education.
