How to Use Holiday Activities:
Childhood is a time of rapid and unending development and growth, and one of the most useful skill sets that develops during this time is that of executive functioning skills. These abilities help with time management, emotional regulation, attention, and much more.
When the holiday season comes around, all of these skills are put to the test. Schedules and routines change or become disrupted, and children may find these disruptions hard to cope with, since they’re still in the process of developing the necessary tools. On the bright side, this challenge makes the holiday season the perfect time to practice building executive functioning skills with your children.
Why the holidays are hard for children
If you feel stressed out during the holidays, you’re not alone. As much as they may enjoy it, your children likely also find aspects of the holiday season to be difficult or even overwhelming. Especially for younger children, the extra socializing during this time of year can be draining.
Meeting new people, seeing large groups of people, and having or hearing many different types of conversations can easily become overwhelming. It’s also common for a child’s excessive excitement to be tiring or to manifest as bad behavior. Plus, there is a lot to do around this time.
Holiday activities for kids that can strengthen executive functioning skills
You can help your children cope with all the extra excitement during the holidays while simultaneously helping them build important social skills.
Even small, everyday activities can become both quality time spent together and valuable practice in critical skills. The best holiday activities for your kids will vary based on their age and your normal routines.
Cooking together
Wrangling your kids to participate in the holiday cooking with you is an excellent option for many reasons. It can be made age-appropriate no matter how old your children are and no matter how much of an age gap there is. When it comes to cooking, everyone can help, and it can always be made to feel festive.
Baking, in particular, helps children practice a host of important skills. Following a recipe requires planning to ensure all ingredients are present and accounted for, time management to make sure steps are taken at the proper time, working memory to remember which steps have already been completed.
Gift giving
Your children are likely going to be exchanging gifts each year, so use that to your advantage. This is also a great opportunity to practice financial responsibility. You can even let them take the lead at the checkout counter.
Once they’ve acquired gifts, the children will need to practice impulse control to not spoil the surprise. When it comes to gift-wrapping, you can allow the children to flex their creativity and practice crafts.
Developing Executive Function skills are most effective when applied to something tangible. Finding these organic ways to work on these skills is the best learning opportunities you can present to your kids!
