I use little holidays like St. Patrick's Day to infuse a little fun in our homeschool days. I love Julie Bogart's concept of party school... where you bring celebration and joy and learning all together.
I was public schooled as a child, and I remember the "special days" at school. Days where we could dress up, days where there were special snacks, celebrations of friends' birthdays, or holidays where there were fun decorations and breaks from the everyday routine. I want to create those kinds of moments in our homeschool, too!
So this week I am pulling together some St. Patrick's Day fun, and I thought I'd share here, too.
Full disclosure: I am decidedly NOT a have-it-all-together, Pinterest-picture-worthy kind of homeschool mom. I usually plan this kind of the stuff a week before, or maybe a few days before. 😄Dollar Tree is always a good spot for construction paper and little decorations and treats to make the table festive!
St. Patrick's Day Homeschool Fun
Here's a cool little video about St. Patrick's Day from the History Channel. It talks about St. Patrick, the shamrock, the Irish potato famine, when all the parades started, and more!
We are huge fans of Mad Libs in our house! (Language Arts, anyone?) I found these cute St. Patrick's Day Mad Libs from Woo Jr. that will be great to do while we are having lunch.
I'm also going to print this shamrock template from Enchanted Learning to make some decorations for our table. I'm not a big fan of storing lots of decorations for every holiday... but making things from paper is quick, colorful, and recyclable!
On the food front, I'm not very fond of corned beef and cabbage, but baking? That I can do! So I decided we'd make two Irish recipes for St. Patrick's Day.
First, I went on the hunt for a traditional Irish soda bread. There are a LOT of recipes on the internet that use those words, but many of them are not authentic recipes. But after a bit of digging I found the goods: true, traditional Irish soda bread recipes from the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread. We are going to make the white bread version.
And, I'm excited to make Irish apple cake! I found a beautiful recipe at Gemma's Bigger, Bolder, Baking: My Mum's Irish Apple Cake. Doesn't it look delicious?
Mmmm. I can't wait to bake that and have it with some lovely Irish breakfast tea.
St. Patrick's Day Family Time
After dinner I'm going to pop up some decidedly non-Irish popcorn and cue up The Secret of Kells. If memory serves, we've tried to watch this before. For whatever reason, my daughter wasn't too interested, but I thought it was just gorgeously animated! We'll see if she likes it now that she's a bit older.And that will finish up a delightful St. Patrick's Day in our family! Having some homemade treats will be fantastic -- and also accomplish my goal of moving toward more and more homemade food in our home this year.
I'll leave you with a beautiful Irish blessing. It's perfect for St. Patrick's Day, but wonderful for every day as well!
May love and laughter light your days
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life's passing seasons
bring the best to you and yours.
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