With all the school closures due to the virus outbreak, many families have found themselves temporarily homeschooling. Lots of people I’ve talked to are enjoying the extra time with the kids but struggling to come up with educational activities on such short notice. I found myself in a similar position, albeit for different reasons. We started light homeschooling with the Little Mister earlier this year, but I got a nasty case of food poisoning on Sunday and didn’t have anything ready to go for this week, most notably St. Patrick’s Day.
Last night, I scrambled to throw something together last-minute. I did a few quick internet searches for crafts and ran through the house collecting all the Irish stuff we had…then I sat down and banged out this post really quickly, hoping it might help parents who are temporarily homeschooling due to current events. Or just want something fun and Irish-y to do with their kids today! 🙂
One of the things I love about a holiday-themed school day is that it turns education into a celebration. These last-minute St. Patrick’s Day activities for kids are great if you find yourself unexpectedly homeschooling due to school closures or just want to break up the monotony that can come with current social distancing requirements. If you’ve got a library card, a music app on your phone, some snacks in your cabinets, and construction paper, you can throw together a day’s worth of themed activities, no problem!
BOOKS
We’re reading Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato and Fin M’Coul: The Giant of Knockmany Hill. If your child is older, you can even read some of The Confession of St. Patrick, which is translated from Patrick’s original writings, or selections from a book of Irish folktales. These and other Irish-themed stories are available in ebook or audiobook format in most online library systems, where you can check them out instantly and access them on your browser.
CRAFTS
We’ll be creating a simplified version of a leprechaun mask craft from Glamamom.com using construction paper, tape, orange paint, and a paper plate. It works especially well when paired with the Jamie O’Rourke book, since kids can have fun waiting for the leprechaun to appear in the story and putting the mask on whenever he speaks. If your child knows how to read, you can have them play the part of the leprechaun as you read together.
FOOD
You’ve probably figured out that I’m usually all about themed recipes. However, given my recent bout of food poisoning, I’m currently all about not upsetting my stomach, so I didn’t do much in this arena. I literally just raided my cabinets for anything green or orange to present to my children as Special St. Patrick’s Day Snacks™. Green and orange packaging also counted. In the end we wound up with goldfish crackers, dry roasted edamame beans, an apple pie Larabar, and a pumpkin puree pouch (for the baby). A peek in the freezer revealed a bag of spinach muffins I’d forgotten about, so I’m hoping my kids will eat them if I convince them it’s festive.
Another nice way to utilize library ebooks is by checking out Irish-themed cookbooks and discussing the sorts of food you see. If during your quarantine prep shopping you happened to buy the ingredients for something your kid wants to make, go ahead and fire up the stove!
MEDIA
We have Song of the Sea, The Secret of Roan Inish, and Darby O’Gill and the Little People on DVD. All but Roan Inish are available to rent on Amazon, and you may be able to find them through your preferred video streaming service. If not, there are lots of other Irish movies for kids available. The Secret of Kells is a favorite of mine, though the brief scenes with the invaders could be a bit scary for very young children (same goes for the banshee scene in Darby O’Gill). If you’d rather avoid movies, try an Irish folk music station on Pandora or other music streaming service and dance along!
RELIGION & CULTURE
If you are Catholic (our family is), this is obviously a great day to talk about the person of St. Patrick. I like to include other Irish saints too, like St. Brigid or Our Lady of Knock, if we don’t get a chance to observe their individual feast days. We will be praying this shortened version of the St. Patrick’s Breastplate Prayer and listening to the Shining Light podcast episode about him. If you don’t plan on highlighting the religious significance of the day, it can still be a good time to talk about Irish history and culture in general, especially if your family has Irish heritage.
I hope you found some ideas here to help bring your temporary homeschool to life
with minimal stress and lots of fun. Erin go bragh!
