Family Day Ideas from Kumon

Across Canada, the winter tends to suck.   Most of Canada tends to be in the grip of freezing temperatures and too much snow.  Even Vancouver decided to take a break from the soul-crushing gray rain we suffer through for months on end for an unusual amount of snow and ice.

It was for this reason that the people begged for a stat holiday to break up the looooooong time between Christmas and Easter.   Thus Family Day was born.  The governments of the various provinces decided to assuage their guilt over giving us a day off and told us all that that day should be a time we all spend with our families doing ‘something. Leading up to these days we are told about all the ‘fun’ stuff we are supposed to do.   Most of it seems to involve parents entertaining their kids because apparently our kids don’t have enough fun in their miserable lives.

The government of BC decided to be rebels and have theirs on a totally different day from the rest of Canada.  So Family Day is tomorrow.    I, frankly, am tired.  I also have a lot of things I wanted to get done this weekend.  I haven’t gotten much for MYSELF done this weekend.  Most of it has already been for the kids.  Hence, my reluctance to leap up and plan exciting things for them tomorrow that don’t involve groceries, laundry and cleaning.

However, I did like some of these ideas from Kumon Canada and while I won’t make them do math (mind you Tara has been woking on a coding for kids site already this weekend and I was using another site to figure out algebra for another kid.

So….if you really don’t have housework to deal with here are some ideas from Kumon Canada:

• Enjoy Family Traditions: As Family Day is a great time to learn about family traditions, introduce your kids to your favourite childhood recipe or Grandma’s Famous Cookies. Cooking and baking also are a natural way to incorporate math – from simple fractions to easy multiplication and subtraction. Empower your child to add the quantities and answer questions about doubling ingredients or amounts remaining.

• Make It Fun: Creating a challenge is an easy way to engage children. For example, if you’re travelling this Family Day, don’t just ask your children to read, instead challenge them to read a certain number of pages or chapters before you get to your destination.

• Visit local landmarks: Take advantage of the time off to visit museums, galleries or tourist attractions. Encourage your child to read about the exhibits to you. Use dates to incorporate math (i.e. “this painting was made in 1517, how many years old is it?”) or fit in a quick history lesson by visiting places like Capilano Suspension Bridge Park.

Kumon is one of the largest after-school math and reading programs and helps children ages 3-16 overcome learning challenges, while supporting their academic advancement.   It is a fantastic resource for kids and parents.

Ok, so only one of my kids has been moaning about needing something to do and wanting ALL of us to do it.    And I get it.  Our busy lives tend to fracture the family…everyone is worried about things that affect them and we get a bit buried in our own navels.

Recently, both my mom and then my boss invited me to sessions where we got to explore and create vision boards.  I loved this have embraced the concept and visit both my boards and soak up the feeling that inspired me to pick the words and images.

My husband has been exploring the concept of Mindfulness and I think our family could do with a dose of this.  So the one group idea I would like the family to do with me tomorrow is to create a family vision board.  Honestly, I think I will get push back and I don’t think it will happen tomorrow, but it is a concept I am going to pursue with them and when we do create it, I will share it with you.   We are big on the team spirit and so I thought that building a vision board together that encompasses everyone’s dreams for our family would help everyone feel that they are all working towards the same or similar goals.

We shall see.

These are the one’s I did with mom and my boss.   We will see if they inspire the rest of the family.  What about you? Do you have plans for Family Day that don’t involve laying in the couch watching daytime tv?