Winter Holidays

The end of the year is filled with Winter Holidays – Christmas, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, and many more. These are wonderful opportunities for your children to give something they have lovingly made. People love to receive handmade gifts from children, especially if it’s something they can actually use.

Wherever possible demonstrate recycling. Collect large glass jars, wash them, fill them with dried cookie mixture, decorate them, and pass them on to family and friends as gifts.

This is a great activity for math because your child is counting and measuring the ingredients, and for fine motor skills and hand eye coordination because your child is mixing and spooning the ingredients into the jar.

There should be enough time to work on a lesson without rushing. Sit at a table or desk where you can both comfortably see the materials and exercises you are working on together. (excerpt from ‘Teaching Parents How To Teach’).

Your child’s participation is very important – don’t rush the experience.

Personalize each jar for the recipient, demonstrating the importance of thinking about whom the gift is for. Draw around your child’s hand on coloured card, cut out the hand shape and use it as the gift card. Let your child write on the gift card and you can stick the ‘instructions slip’ to the back. To make the jar look festive, place a piece of fabric around the lid and secure with ribbon and attach the gift card with the instructions.

Your child will enjoy the experience of fully participating in the true meaning of giving and sharing.

In a large bowl help your child measure and combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda & salt.

All of the ingredients are layered into the jar to create a pretty pattern.

Help your child spoon in the layer of brown sugar, then the white sugar, the semi sweet chocolate chips, the chopped walnuts if using, the rolled oats, and finally the mixture of flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt.

Screw the lid on tight and decorate with the fabric, ribbon and the gift tag with ‘instructions’ attached.

These instructions are to be attached to the back of the gift card for the recipient to know how to make the cookies from the jar of mix.