Five Holiday Gifts with a Brainy Twist

Handmade holiday gifts come straight from the heart, and can provide a lot of learning along the way!

1. Make Christmas ornaments with shrinkable plastic. Predict how small they will shrink, calculate the percentage of shrinkage, and estimate how big you need to draw an ornament to get a particular size after shrinking.


2. Soy candles are an inexpensive and easy gift to make, and invite discussion of boiling temperatures, melting, and the environment (as soy candles are eco-friendly, too).


3. Bake pumpkin, apple, or other breads. Make double or triple batches of dough and calculate how to adjust the measurements.


4. Older kids can write a book, short story, or collection of poems. Encourage them to write a rough draft, check their spelling and punctuation, and then create a final copy.


5. Let kids write, direct, and perform a holiday greeting or an entire production. Capture it on video and share over the Internet or on CDs or DVDs.