1. Speak to your children using an Irish brogue. This will captivate their interest!

2. Who was St. Patrick? Why is there a holiday named for him? Are Irish children in school on this day? Let children do research to find out.

3. Discuss some of symbols for St. Patrick's Day and explain what they mean. Classify them as real or unreal. For instance, shamrocks are real but pots of gold at end of rainbow are not.

4. Read aloud part of a fictional St. Patrick's Day story. Have your children write their own endings. Read them out loud or hang them on a bulletin board for all to read. NOTE: This may also be done with small groups of children working together!

5. Afterwards, read ending of story you started. Have children compare author's ending with their outcomes. Which was more realistic? Which was more funny? Which did they like best?

5. This would be an excellent time for a cooking experiment. Remember story "Green Eggs and Ham?" Try making some green eggs, green vanilla pudding pops, or anything else that would be suitable for your age group. Green food coloring could be added to white frosting before icing some cupcakes. Let children taste frosting while it is white and ask them to predict how it will taste after it becomes green. Were they right? Compare!

Today is still super cold, so I think we'll spend day indoors. Which, of course, means to pull from my repertoire of indoor activities.

So, knowing that so many families have to keep kids occupied inside, here's a day of planned out for you to use as is or as a template for your own plans:

Some Cooking: Start a pot of stew! That way, by this evening, we'll have a nice, comforting meal ready and waiting. My favorite stew recipe is Five Hour Beef Stew found at Kids Recipe Club (http://www.kidsrecipeclub.com). There are also a few other stew recipes.

If you have a favorite stew recipe that you'd like to share with Recipe Club, please do so. Just click "submit your recipe" in "Kids Recipes" menu box.

While we cook, we'll talk about different nutrients in vegetables and why they are important to our diets.

Some Homeschool - we took a day off yesterday because kids weren't feeling too well, but today is a definite. We will need to burn a little brain power to help deal with cabin fever and built up energy.

For your your kids, you might enjoy free Math worksheet at http://wwww.homeschoolcookbook.com/free_math_worksheet.htm or free coloring pages at http://www.homeschoolinglibrary.com/free_kids_coloring_pages.htm .