7 Fun Ways To Homeschool In The Snow
Love it or hate it, winter is almost here, and for many of us, that means snow. Whether it’s light and fluffy or dense and heavy, this frozen, wet, and white precipitation can make winter seem merry and magical. It can also be a great excuse to put the books down and take a break as you venture outside to homeschool in the snow.
Heading Outside For Some Homeschooling Fun
As many homeschooling families already know, homeschooling is a great way to give our kids a personalized education. Without the confines of mainstream schooling, we are blessed to have both the time and the freedom to teach our children in the way that works best for their learning style, our homes and schedules, and, of course, our budget.
We can get creative with lessons, experiments, projects, and more as we explore more than the pages of our favorite textbooks.
Seasonal learning always makes for a great reason to get outside and make learning fun. Spring homeschooling affords us the opportunity to learn about frogs and flowers as life blooms anew. Summer homeschooling grants us the chance to explore water, fireflies, and long summer days… or perhaps summer vacation. Fall homeschooling presents the hustle and bustle of a season that is filled with color, crunch, and crafty opportunities.
And winter homeschooling opens up the chance to learn about the Arctic, polar bears, and even dog sled racing as you learn outside and have some fun with homeschool in the snow.
Why You Should Take Your Homeschool Out Into The Snow
Winter homeschooling is the perfect time to bundle up and venture outside as you exchange an indoor homeschool room for one with snow.
While it may be tempting to stay inside and cozy up with books for a read-aloud or bake the afternoon away, getting outside in all kinds of weather, even winter weather, is so good for you and your kids. Getting outside, even when it is cold, is good for both physical and mental health.
And when the cold winds blow and the snow falls, it presents an amazing opportunity to study weather, snow, cold temperatures, migration, hibernation, and other cold-weather habits, activities, and winter facts.
Plus, let’s not forget that sledding, skiing, ice skating, and more outdoor activities are not only fun but can be a great asset to your homeschool year as you take your homeschool out into the snow with some exciting winter homeschool activities.
7 Fun Ways To Homeschool In The Snow
The more fun you make going out in the snow to learn as part of your homeschool, the more likely your kids will be happy to get outside even on a cold day. These fun ideas for homeschooling in the snow will help make the most of each snow day.
Observe Snowflakes
We all learned growing up that each and every snowflake is unique but nothing beats seeing it for yourself. Observing snowflakes can be a bit difficult with how packed snow gets and how small each snowflake is. To do this you will want some black paper or fabric that you can hold out into the snow. For the best results chill this before you begin by placing your black base in the freezer. This will keep the snowflakes from melting when they land on the surface you are using.
Use magnifying glasses or even a portable microscope to observe the snowflakes outside. If you want to take a good look at snowflakes indoors where you can warm back up you can have your kids use a camera with a macro lens to get an up-close shot of the snowflakes you catch to observe when you go back inside.
And if you want to get really creative, perhaps even look into how to make snow and then observe the flakes you create!
Build with snow blocks
Building blocks of snow can be a lot of fun to make. The easiest way to make them is to buy molds for making bricks. These can be used for both snow and sand giving you options to use them again in lesson plans out on the beach. After you make your bricks you can then use them to work on building. Build an igloo. when learning about the Inuit people or try building bridges in different shapes and forms to see which styles can hold weight better.
You can make your snow bricks stronger or help glue the structure together by spraying your bricks lightly with cold water and letting them sit overnight to turn into ice. This is a great way to really get hands-on with building and creating.
Of course, you could also go old school and simply teach your children how to make snowballs as well. 😉
Test the effects of freezing
While you can test how things freeze any time of year with your freezer it is a lot more fun to get outside and see the effects of freezing. Gather up some supplies from around the house. Bananas, onions, salt water, vinegar, rubbing alcohol, and other items from around the house will all freeze at different rates and different things will happen to them when frozen.
Place your samples outside and leave them overnight. In the morning examine the samples that stayed out overnight. Did they freeze? How did the texture change? After examining your frozen items take the items inside and allow them to thaw. How did the texture and appearance of the thawed items change after they were frozen? A lot of foods will completely change texture or color after freezing and thawing.
Test the laws of physics
While you can do experiments to test the laws of physics inside you can have a lot more fun by taking the lesson outside in the snow. Bundle everyone up and go find a sled and a hill to test the basic laws of physics. What better way to see how an object will stay in motion than a slick hill and a sled to see just how hard it can be to stop something without friction. This is one of those lessons that are truly unforgettable when they allow you and your children to build new memories.
Frozen bubbles
If the weather gets cold enough you may be able to have a lot of fun learning just how fast extreme cold temperatures can freeze things. Making frozen bubbles also gives you the opportunity to explore the structure of bubbles that tend to pop long before you can truly observe them. You can make this experiment even more interesting by mixing up your own bubble solution and seeing which ratio gives you the best bubbles and which ones will fall flat in the cold.
Feed and observe wildlife
As the snow keeps on coming the animals are in need of a bit of help. This is a great opportunity to observe animals, get an up-close look at footprints and help the animals by providing them with food. Put out some bird and squirrel feeders. If you live in the country you can often put out food for deer and other animals as well. Then wait for them to come to eat. Take your nature journals outside to observe animals and make notes of their footprints. This is a great opportunity to add new information to your nature journals over the winter.
***Be sure to check local regulations before feeding wildlife.
Set up a weather station
While we often think of doing a weather station project in the summer when the weather is active but warm to make observing comfortable, the lessons learned from observing the weather in the cold and snow are well worth the effort to get bundled up and go out to observe. Keep a board on the ground to measure the height of the snow then clear it off after measuring to let it start all over again to get accurate measuring.
Making Homeschool In The Snow Count
As homeschool moms, we know just how important it is to take our kid’s classrooms outside and expand those walls with outdoor activities for kids in winter. We’ve seen first-hand just how much benefit everyone receives when school moves from being read to being lived and experienced.
However, there are times when we have to find a way to quantify that education (think reporting requirements), so here are a few ways to record, report, and accurately reflect the benefits of homeschool in the snow:
- Physical Education: Sledding, skiing, building snow blocks… anything that gets the body moving can be logged here.
- Science: Examining snowflakes, making a weather station, frozen bubbles, feeding wildlife.
- Math: Used in the weather station, freezing bubbles (track how long it takes the bubbles to freeze, work on ratios with water to bubble mixture), feeding wildlife (track & count animals, add in a weather tracker to combine math & science).
- History: Take to the library or internet to learn about the history of snow, snowshoes, sledding, skiing, and any other winter activity.
- Language Arts: Add in books about winter or even picture books about snow and journal through January, or write your observations.
Homeschooling in the snow can be enjoyable, my friend, even if you aren’t a fan of the cooler temps or the winter season. It’s all about being adaptable, finding your own unique groove, and even looking for some hope in the chaos of the winter wonderland.
