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Would you like to inject a little bit of learning into your holiday festivities? Here’s a great list of free activities that you and your children can enjoy together this holiday season.
ABC Snack: G Is for Gobble, Gobble
This adorable turkey snack from our ABC Snacks series is a perfect way to begin your holiday feast. It will add just the right touch to your Thanksgiving or Christmas menu! Try our yummy snack and practice letter G with your little one!
Brrr! It’s time to bundle up! Our full-color Polar Bear Pack contains 30 printable pages of delightful reading and spelling activities that are positively popping with polar bears. Download our fun-filled Arctic activity collection for free!
Favorite Picture Books for Christmas
Take time out from the busyness of the season for family read-alouds! Whether it’s the story of a magical journey to the North Pole or a life-changing moment for an ornery camel, you won’t want to miss even one! Download our library list!
Around the World with Holiday Picture Books
The holidays are a special time, and this wonderful collection of picture books celebrates the rich diversity of holiday traditions practiced by people all around the world. Check out a few of our favorites. Download our library list!
Create a Christmas Book Advent Calendar
If you’re looking for an extra special way to incorporate read-aloud time into your holiday festivities this year, why not create your own Christmas Book Advent Calendar. Read our post and download printable advent calendar tags.
Jólabókaflód: A Tradition for Book-Loving Families
Jólabókaflód is a “Christmas Book Flood”! It’s a wonderful Icelandic tradition that you can enjoy this year with your family. Read our blog post and discover eight different ways to bring the love of books into your home this holiday season!
Ready to light up the holidays? Illuminate your child’s love of letters with this festive lowercase letter craft! This cheery string of colorful lights will brighten up any room. And it’s bound to light up your preschooler’s face, too!
If the snow is piling up in the yard, it’s time to build a snowman! This collection of sweet picture books will inspire you to create some wintertime magic with your children. Download our library list!
Wonderful Picture Books for Winter
Ahh…winter! There’s just so much to love—especially curling up in front of a crackling fire with a blanket, a cup of tea, and a wonderful picture book for winter! And speaking of books, download our Library List and grab a few of our favorites!
ABC Snack: M Is for Marvelous Mittens
When winter arrives and the snow piles up, it’s time to break out the hats, scarves, and mittens! But not ALL mittens are for wearing. These mittens are for eating! Warm up with our yummy snack and practice letter M with your preschooler!
What’s your favorite way to add learning to your holidays celebrations?
Lynn
says:I am going to use the Polar Bear Pack for recalling detains when reading or listening to informational text. Winter is long in Wisconsin, so there will be plenty of time to use.
Lauren Kimball
says:We have loved continuing with a lighter version of school through the holiday season. AAR press offering special packs to give families fun activities to work on together and break up the regular routine gives a nice break to the regular routine.
chARLES Michael
says:I love ABC Snacks
Rebecca Lulay
says:We love our slower paced, cozy Christmas school. Thanks for all the ideas.
Nicola Wiles
says:Love all the lists!
Linnea Benda
says:Awesome ideas to liven up and make learning fun during the holiday season instead of just slacking off!
Emily
says:These are all such great ideas to help keep learning fun during the holiday season!
Valerie
says:For the last 2 years, I have read to my kids every single morning. To lighten my load a little, I have chosen fun yet educational books for morning read aloud. Since my kids are still young enough, I can easily incorporate science, religion, etc without having to stress my load the rest of the day. I pick Monday through Friday, kids pick on Weekends and evenings.
Sheri
says:Word mapping is an important part of the reading process!
Bridget
says:Great to keep the learning going through the holidays!
Emma Edstrom
says:I love Christmas school!
Kristeen
says:Thanks for all the Christmas season book lists!
Aaron
says:Lots of good ideas!
Sami
says:These are great ideas!
Rebecca
says:Thank you for these adorable ideas!! You just convinced me that it’s ok to take it slow and enjoy the Christmas season with my littles all while learning through play!
Dani Koschak
says:I love the wrapped books for little ones. The surprise of not knowing what it is is so exciting. Who can’t use more storybooks.
Nicole
says:All about reading is working for my son and love using it.
Kara
says:I love the ideas for Homeschooling through the Holidays! It’s easy to slip off the learning cycle during the busyness of the holidays. Through the years we’ve learned to pivot and embrace the chaos of this time by adding in fun learning activities.
Sara
says:Thanks for all these ideas!! We love to keep up with a few seasonal learning activities through the holidays because if we take too much time off it can be miserable starting back up. So thanks for these fun ideas!!
Jeanette H
says:We’ve done the boom advent calendar, kids really enjoy opening a Christmas book to read! Thanks to AAR, I’ve got good readers and readers learning!
Nikita
says:I love love love AAR blogposts. Always my go-to for my next library run. I thank and think of every one of you who’s helped in creating, writing and compiling each and every list of books.
Crystal Grubb
says:So many good ideas for the holidays!
Anna K.
says:Picture books are one of our favorite ways to celebrate the holidays! Great list of ideas.
Laurie
says:We love reading books and doing activities that go along with them! Hot chocolate is always a win! Thank you for the book recommendations!
Kristen Trout
says:These are great tips. It is hard to figure out ways to “school” during holidays. I like the idea of just being intentional while doing holiday things. Nothing extra. But still impactful.
Heather
says:I do love a good reading list! Thank you for the lists as well as the other fun ideas and activities!
Kate Lintag
says:It’s my favourite time of our homeschooling year! We love making a cozy spot and reading all day with hot beverages!
Jacqueline Smith
says:Love how this program is a wonderful guide for retired teachers assisting in a tutoring program.
April H
says:Wonderful, cozy things to do over our Christmas break!
Stephanie Smidt
says:Love fun holiday suggestions! The more the merrier! All about spelling has unlocked a love for learning how to spell and has given two of my children confidence for the first time in spelling! Thanks for these fun ideas we will try some of them!