Fun and Educational January Homeschool Activities {2027}
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I love being able to add holidays into homeschool lessons. Sometimes the holidays are classic, historic holidays. Other times the holidays are something a little silly. Either way, these holidays make for educational January homeschool activities.
January Homeschool Activities
Financial Wellness Month
January is often a time for adults to take a look at their budget for the new year. Budgeting is an important life skill. I felt very strongly that my teens learn how to manage finances before they graduate from high school, so I required them to take Beyond Personal Finance as a high school elective. If you are looking for a secular personal finance curriculum that will teach teens about budgeting, health insurance, how to rent an apartment, and more, definitely check out Beyond Personal Finance. You can read all about why I chose this personal finance curriculum for teens and how I taught it to my son and a few friends.
1st – New Year’s Day – The new year begins on January 1st. Young children might benefit from reviewing the months of the year. Kids of all ages might like thinking about their goals for the new year and setting resolutions.
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If you want to learn about New Year’s traditions with your kids, Rabbit Trails Through New Year’s might be a great option.
2nd – National Science Fiction Day – Science fiction is a literary genre that is frequently overlooked when creating homeschool reading lists. Sometimes we get so focused on putting classic literature in our kids’ hands that we forget about science fiction.
Melissa, from Imagination Soup, has a great list of science fiction books for kids. The list is broken into age groups to make it easier to find an appropriate book for each of your kids.
3rd – JRR Tolkien Day – If you are not quite ready to leave your holiday bubble, celebrate JRR Tolkien Day with a Lord of the Rings marathon.
5th – National Bird Day – Winter can be a great time of year to study birds because many trees have dropped their leaves, making it easier to see birds.
There are a few ways to observe National Bird Day:
- Read books about birds
- Go outside and try to identify a few birds
- Download the Merlin Bird ID app and try to identify a few birds by their call
- Begin working through the Rabbit Trails Through Homeschooling – Birds curriculum
11th – Learn Your Name in Morse Code Day – Many kids are fascinated by the idea of ‘secret’ codes or languages. They might really enjoy learning a little bit of Morse Code!
The Morse Code activity and printable from Little Bins for Little Hands look like a fun way to introduce kids to Morse Code.
Google also offers a free way for anyone to learn Morse Code with their Morse Code Typing Trainer. I haven’t personally tried it, but I assume anything done by Google will be high quality.
13th – Poetry Break Day – Poetry Break Day is a great excuse to enjoy a cozy poetry teatime. My family began enjoying tea with poetry when my kids were little. I think my youngest, my son, was only 4 years old when we had our first poetry teatime. I discovered that silly poems and special treats would keep my active young son seated at the table a little longer than normal.
You don’t need anything other than a few poems and tea time treats for a poetry teatime, but sometimes it is fun to give it a theme. We enjoyed the poetry teatimes offered by Literary Adventures for Kids.
17th – Kid Inventors Day – Kid Inventors Day is celebrated every year on January 17th because that is Benjamin Franklin’s birthday. In addition to being involved in politics, he was an avid inventor. When he was only 12 years old, he invented the first set of swim flippers.
Two ways to include this holiday in your January homeschool activities are:
- Learn more about Benjamin Franklin. This might include reading books, watching documentaries, or researching online.
- Encourage kids to invent something. This could include brainstorming ideas, drawing or constructing a prototype, or simply tinkering with materials.
18th – Martin Luther King Jr. Day – History lessons typically gloss over Martin Luther King Jr., but this holiday gives us an opportunity to really learn about this important civil rights activist.
18th – National Thesaurus Day – National Thesaurus Day is a great opportunity to make sure kids know what a thesaurus is and how to use it. Kids can use an online thesaurus, a traditional thesaurus, or a thesaurus designed for kids.
Thesaurus.com offers a few interesting articles and games that might appeal to students.
19th – National Popcorn Day – I love when silly holidays feature food. It naturally keeps kids engaged in lessons. A few ideas for National Popcorn Day include:
- Learning about the history of popcorn
- Popcorn lesson plans (Who knew popcorn.org was such a helpful site?)
- All About Learning Popcorn Party spelling printable
20th – National Penguin Day – Many kids are fascinated by penguins. This makes sense because it isn’t an animal many of us see regularly. Here are a few ways to celebrate National Penguin Day:
- Observe penguins on zoo webcams
- Read books about penguins
- Watch March of the Penguins or another documentary about Penguins (be sure to pay attention to the rating or preview the movie)
- All About Learning Penguin Pack
23rd – National Handwriting Day – National Handwriting Day is a great opportunity to have fun with handwriting practice. This shaving cream handwriting activity works well with manuscript or cursive!
28th – Pop Art Day – Pop art is a form of art that many kids enjoy. They can learn about the artist or just try their hand at recreating some famous pop art pieces.
29th – National Puzzle Day – Puzzles are a fun hands-on educational tool that can be used for a variety of age groups. Young children will enjoy alphabet puzzles while older students might learn from a periodic table puzzle. The act of putting together a puzzle helps develop spatial awareness.
Keep reading . . .
- February Homeschool Activities
- March Homeschool Activities
- April Homeschool Activities
- May Homeschool Activities
- June Homeschool Activities
- July Homeschool Activities
- August Homeschool Activities
- September Homeschool Activities
- October Homeschool Activities
- November Homeschool Activities
- December Homeschool Activities