St. Patrick’s Day is a great opportunity to shake up your homeschool routine a little, or just to have some fun celebrating the day with special family time outside of school hours. Following are a few of the ideas we have had fun with over the years. Enjoy!
Media Recommendations:
Adventures in Odyssey does a great two part series that shares the life story of Maewyn Succat, the boy who we know as St.Patrick. You can find it here:
https://www.adventuresinodyssey.com/episodes/394-saint-patrick-a-heart-a-fire-1-of-2/
VeggieTales does their own charming version of telling the story of “pig boy” aka: St.Patrick. You can find it here:
Writing Prompts:
Choose a writing prompt and give your kids 5-15 minutes (depending on the prompt you choose, plus their age and ability level) to write about it. Then have everyone share what they came up with.
- The day started like any other, at least that is what you thought as you got out of bed & made your way down to the breakfast table. You didn’t pay much attention to the startled gasps in the room until your mom said, “Very funny. You turned yourself green for St. Patrick’s Day. It’s time to get ready for school though, so eat your breakfast & wash it off quickly.” Green? What is she talking about? Then you realize the hand holding your spoon is, in fact, green! Write about what happens next.
- Do you believe in luck? Why or why not?
- St. Patrick was a remarkable man. Although he was English by birth, he will forever be associated with Ireland because his faith in Jesus impacted that nation so dramatically. What country, culture, or area of society would you like to impact with your life and faith? Why? Brainstorm some ways this could happen.
- Brainstorm an entire’s day worth of meals using only green foods. What would your menu include?
- Blinking, you rub your eyes in bewilderment. Yup, its still there. Quickly you close your eyes and then cautiously peek at the scene in front of you. “I must be asleep,” you think. “That has to be it.” You try to jolt yourself awake, but as you are doing so, you feel a tug on your pants. Startled you catch yourself just in time, before you kick what appears to be a quite real Leprechaun. You take the scene in—rainbow, Leprechaun, pot o’gold…wait, that’s not gold!
Easy Crafts:
- Color the provided three or four leaf clover coloring sheets. (You might want to add some extra sparkle with green glitter.)
- Make a rainbow. Cut a paper plate in half & paint a rainbow on it. You can add streamers or yarn in matching colors by gluing them along then edges if you’d like to make it extra special.
- Make a Clover “Suncatcher”:
- “Paint” glue on a piece of wax paper. Then put small pieces of different shades of green tissue paper onto the painted area. After it dries, peel the wax paper off & cut into the shape of a clover using the coloring pages provided above as a template. (You can keep the wax paper attached if it isn’t able to be removed easily.) Then tape to a window or use a hole punch and thread to create a way to hang it.
- Put several shades of green crayon shavings between two pieces of wax paper. Then use an iron or hair dryer to melt the crayon shavings. Once it has cooled down, cut into the shape of a clover using the coloring pages above as a template. You may want to line the edges with a construction paper “frame”, but this step isn’t necessary. Then, hang in your window and enjoy!
Easy Green Treats:
- Make green rice cereal treats. Simply follow the directions to make rice cereal treats, adding in green food to the melted marshmallows. Let your kids have fun & do their best to craft a clover shape out of a small portion of it. Then, let them enjoy their treat!
- Staying with the green theme, but straying from St. Patricks a bit: Read Green Eggs & Ham by Dr. Seuss. Then enjoy some green eggs & ham by simply adding some green food coloring, or a green veggie like spinach to the eggs as you scramble them. (A purée of green veggies works especially well.) If you’d like, you can make your ham green too. But, it also works to dice some ham and simply add it to your green eggs.