Family Fun Inspiration for January 2019

Happy New Year! There’s something exciting about the promise of a new year.  I always have such a renewed energy at the start of the month. To help inspire you, here’s our bucket list for the month of January. We’re embracing the dark days, exploring the weather, learning about aerospace, uncovering new healthy favorites in the kitchen and working toward our learning to read resolution. 

P.S. If your small-fry are fans of PBS KIDS, Odd Squad has a new one-hour special. Check out Odds and Ends anywhere you watch PBS KIDS beginning January 21.

MAKE

• Build snow people bagels for a cute and satisfying snack
• Measure the weather and make a wind vane
• Study the sun with a DIY sun dial
• Kiddo-friendly kimchi (recipe to come)
• Weather chart
• Colorful pinwheels to blow in the wind
• Healthy snacks and comfort food with The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs from America’s Test Kitchen (review to come)
• Cozy hibernation hangout
• Peace dove garland in honor of MLK, Jr. Day
• Create a diorama of a room in the house 

EXPLORE

• Study cloud conditions
• Study maps and learn about directions with a compass
• Explore museums for free on a less than perfect day of weather. Learn more at King County Library System and Seattle Public Library.
• Teach the kids about the life and civil rights work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other activists:
  • All About the Holidays: MLK, Jr. Day
  • Books for MLK, Jr. Day (PBS Parents)
  • Children’s Books about Activists and Community Leaders (Seattle Public Library)
• Get outside! Check out my post on Linda Akeson-McGurk’s book “There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather.”

LEARN

• How Caring for Living Things Helps Kids Build Empathy
• The Importance of Household Chores
• How elements of hygge can help fighting winter doldrums
• New dance moves at ballet class
• How to build a rocket and how airplanes work at Junior Aerospace Engineer class 
• Math function basics: add, subtract, multiply and divide
• Ways to crack down on clutter around the house
• How we interact with nature and how to preserve it
• Book club: “Sarah Plain and Tall” by Patricia MacLachlan
• “Phonics Practice Readers: Series A, Set 1, Short Vowels”
• “Home Learning Year by Year” by Rebecca Rupp
• “Sharing Nature with Children” by Joseph Bharat Cornell
• “What Chefs Feed Their Kids” by Fanae Aaron
• “The Young Chef” by Mark Ainsworth

PLAY

• Ready Jet Go! Rocket Ship Creator
• Chef Leo’s Crazy Kitchen
• Peg + Cat’s Symmetry Painter
• UNO Card Game
• Operation Game
• Sequence for Kids
• Twister

What’s your family like to do in January? Let me know in the comments below!