With the holidays comes a huge helping of pre-Winter Break pressures as school quickly winds down, followed by lots and lots of family time. For teachers, spending time with your own kids can be a big transition from teaching those in your change at school. For families, the typical busy morning and afterschool departures and returns are suddenly replaced by a seemingly instant 24-7 holiday schedule.
Being with family and friends is part of what makes the holiday season so special. However, fast transitions and too many to-do lists often add to the stresses of the season. They can also take a further toll on even the best-planned budgets and spending strategies. So, the team at FUTURES is sharing some ready-to-use ideas in today’s blog post that reflect the creativity in the FUTURES Financial Literacy Program. Full of great ideas about personal finance, economics, entrepreneurship, and investing, FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™ is FREE, and that’s a plus to any budget!
Plan for Progress
It takes a lot of time and effort to shop smart, cook well, and donate generously before the season’s festivities begin. As to-do lists grow the time left dwindles, so this blog post focuses on enlisting the help and support of even your youngest charges. By applying a few inventive ideas, not only might you save some time and money, you might also increase awareness and maybe even invent a new family tradition or two!
You might just discover some eager and energetic helpers right under your nose—literally. Set yourself and your family up for success by thinking ahead and considering a few of these suggestions so when it’s time to engage and work together on some of your pressing holiday activities, you’re ready!
Fabulous Family Helpers
Foster excitement and enthusiasm by asking your kids to help you this holiday season with quick, simple responsibilities that help keep you on track and also help your kids form some super executive functioning habits along the way. In addition to specifically asking kids to jump in, you can also challenge your kids to think of even more ways to help you, and by extension, how they can help others. When you ask even a simple question, you can spark a whole conversation that could enhance their perspective and share some undetectable vacation-time learning with your kids.
The Inline Wrapping Game!
After you’ve assessed what’s left to wrap, invite your kids to play this game. Kick off your idea casually. “So, how do you guys think we can get all of these gifts wrapped in time for the party at Aunt Sarah’s? I was thinking we could do an assembly line! Have you ever been part of one? It’s fun! First, let’s set up our assembly line by getting all of our supplies and deciding who will do what parts.”
Divide up the tasks based on age and skill.
Little fingers are often better at peeling off the backing on those stick-on bows than anyone else! Besides, what fun for them to put on the finishing touch.
To avoid waste and confusion, match each gift and box size and pre-stage those ahead of time.
Assign each individual family member a specific task. Tasks might include making boxes, adding tissue, having tape pieces ready, measuring paper, and peeling off price tags, making gift tags, and even recycling.
Once this is done and your line is formed, your team can be ready for action.
Choose an economical paper instead of expensive wrapping paper.
You can even remind kids that they can even piece together wrapping or construction paper scraps to make a fun design.
Supermarket paper bags turned inside out makes a great drawing surfaces so pull out the crayons and markers to have everyone sign and decorate the gifts.
As you are working together, you can talk about famous assembly lines and discuss that even cars are made on assembly lines.
You might even suggest that some local fast food spots prepare food in that manner.
Invite your kids to think of other familiar assembly line ideas.
And remember, cleaning up a part of the assembly line process!
Don’t forget to take a few pictures.
Super Saver Shoppers
There are lots of money-saving and time-saving tasks you can invite your kids to do with you. Some will even give them a bit more math and literacy practice.
Ask kids to scour newspapers and online ads for sales on food, supplies, or other household items you might need. Savings math is great practice. “How much are we saving with that brand?”
Making a shopping list while you dictate is a great chance to practice brave spelling. It also makes a wonderful keepsake.
If you’re out shopping, ask them to keep an eye out for any sales or specials.
Discuss price comparisons for some fast subtraction practice.
Remember, kids are amazing helpers in self-checkout lines, too. This could be another way to reinforce an assembly line. One child can hand the items to you, another can place them in bags, etc.
Charitable Chefs
Extra family time can present some fun opportunities to create together in the kitchen—for good. Cookie baking can be great math and measuring practice, not to mention a fine artistic outlet when it comes to the decorations. It can also become a special way to introduce charitable giving at your family gatherings.
In the kitchen, incorporate your kids into your meal-making process, encouraging them to look out for what you might need next. This is powerful sequencing practice.
Recipe reading is great literacy practice.
Measuring cups mean math in action.
For older kids, you might use this together time to talk about how much it actually costs to make those cookies.
Why not even inspire budding entrepreneurs? Just because it’s wintertime, entrepreneurship can still play a part at your family events. Transform the summer lemonade stand idea into a quick hot-chocolate shop at a family holiday party.
You might let your younger kids set up a small table with their well-decorated baked goods for an impromptu family bake sale—with a built-in set of invited customers!
Once kids do their hot chocolate and cookie math, they can donate their proceeds.
Before the event, be sure kids research their charity of choice.
You might even quietly encourage a relative to offer up a matching plan: for every dollar your kids raise, perhaps a familial benefactor will provide a matching gift.
Why not encourage this kind of matching plan by offering up a special prize for any matching gifts like extra marshmallows?
Even Bigger Giving from Littler Givers
One of the more difficult lessons to impart to kids is key to what the season is about: giving. While children might be used to getting presents from family, friends, or even Santa, it can be more difficult for them to understand that others are not as fortunate. Begin conversations this season to explain that giving can mean a great deal to others.
The holidays are the perfect time to invite your kids to share some of their gently-used extra toys, books, and clothing. Together, choose a local charity or community center. Make it a special activity to collect, fold, and prepare items. Then, together you can donate them to those who need them. Giving and sharing items that are familiar can more effectively underscore the act of giving. Shopping for toy drives, working in soup kitchens, and visiting senior centers, and volunteering are all ideas that help to grow the awareness of the power of giving in your kids.
The Gratitude Attitude—With Our Compliments!
Finally, remember that giving does not need to be about shopping and spending money. Instead, for both kids and adults, giving is also about giving of one’s time and sharing special sentiments. One gift that costs nothing? Give a Compliment! Take time this season to write even a short thank-you note to let those you see and work with all year long know that their efforts matter and were noticed.
Fold some plain paper into a notecard by folding it twice. Write tour note on the inside and then invite your kids to draw on the outside of the cards or otherwise decorate them with handy craft supplies.
We hope you enjoy a happy and healthy holiday season. We’ll be back with some savvy end-of-year charitable giving ideas in our next post before the new year. Until then, think about your bigger FUTURE and explore FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society.