For a lot of families going on holiday is a chance to relax, have fun and escape from every day life. It might not necessarily be a time that is thought of as educational but as we are homeschooling and a lot of the kid’s learning is done through living, everything we do becomes an opportunity for them to learn new things.
Holidays can be the perfect time to do this as you are in a different place, whether that be a different part of the UK or somewhere else in the world.
Here are a few things you can do before, during and after your holiday to make it as educational as possible, whilst still being fun of course!
Before..
– Find where you are going on a globe, atlas or map. Is it an island? Compare the size of the county / country to where we live. It’s easy to forget that children don’t have the same knowledge as us when it comes to where places are.
– If going to a country that speaks a different language then look up a few basic words.
– Research into what kind of food they eat so it’s not such a surprise when you get there and it’s all a bit different.
– Research into the history of the country / place for any interesting facts.
– Look at ways people travel around there, do they use mopeds, boats? Do they use similar cars?
– Are the animals the same?
– Compare the weather of where you are going to our own.
– Buy a notebook and some pencils to take.
– Take a camera for the kids to use.
When there..
– Listen out for the basic words you learnt, turn it into a game to make it fun.
– Make a chart and write down all the new foods you tried.
– See if there are any National Trust places or museums that will allow you to look at the historic facts you learnt in more detail.
– Look around to see what looks different to where you live at home, take lots of photos of anything you notice.
– Draw the things you see that look different in a book you can keep full of holiday memories.
When you get home…
– Print out some photos and add them to your holiday book.
– Talk about what food they liked / didn’t like. Try cooking some of their new favourites.
These simple ideas can be even be used on package holidays, even if you plan to spend the entire time on the beach then you can still take notebooks and draw what you see or talk about differences, the most notable one probably being better weather!
Do you have anything to add?
In collaboration with Expedia.
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