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February is National Chocolate Month and if you’re anything like me, you want to celebrate! From rich dark chocolate to white chocolate, there’s a chocolate that will satisfy every sweet tooth! With the holidays behind us and Valentine’s Day in the forefront of our minds, It isn’t hard to celebrate National Chocolate Month.
Pop Quiz: Which holiday creates the largest spike in chocolate sales?
While chocolate sales increase to 48 million pounds in the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, it’s not the biggest chocolate-buying holiday. Easter chocolate sales result in 71 million pounds, while Halloween sales are around a whopping 90 million!
We’ve rounded up a few easy ways to celebrate National Chocolate Month in your homeschool.
Do Some Math:
Whether your student is adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing, you can add some fun to your math skills by including chocolate as a manipulative.
Allow older kids to determine the price of a pound of chocolate, based on your candy bar’s weight and price. Hold a candy bar tasting to find which chocolate bars you prefer and graph your results.
Adding a tasty treat into your otherwise mundane math is a great way to make your kiddos enjoy the subject.
Compare and Contrast:
Let your kids determine the similarities and differences in the different types of chocolates, like milk chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate. Study the ingredients, note how they’re made and conduct a taste-test. Kids will love seeing all the different types of chocolates!
Study the Cacao Tree:
Draw and label the parts of a cacao tree and seed. Draw a before and after of what the chocolate looks like, with the seed and a chocolate bar. Learn which insects and disease are a threat to cacao trees. You can even try growing your own cacao plant. Your kiddos will enjoy watching it grow and thrive and the fruit of their labor will be worth the work.
Dip, Baby, Dip!:
Spend some time dipping your favorite foods in melted chocolate. Try unusual foods, like carrots, celery, pickles, bananas, Twizzlers, Oreos or French fries. You’ll be surprised to find that some things that sound gross, are actually pretty delicious! My family loves to combine crispy potato chip and milk chocolate. Drizzle some white chocolate on the top to add some detail to your creations.
Dig Deeper:
Not all aspects of chocolate are as sweet as you would think. Have your kids research the dark side of the chocolate industry. This is a great opportunity to talk about child labor, slavery and other heavy topics. Your kids will be stunned to know that 1.8 million West African children aren’t allowed to go to school, but are instead slaves. They must carry heavy loads of cacao beans and apply dangerous pesticides to the plants. These kids are often beaten for not working hard enough, although they are only small children.
Talk to your children about the cost of their candy bar and how it seems like a simple thing to us but presents life-threatening conditions for the people who are working hard to get us the tastiest candy on the planet.
With hundreds of choco-holics in the world, it’s no wonder there’s a whole month dedicated to everyone’s favorite sweet.
Incorporate chocolate into your homeschool studies to add some fun as you celebrate National Chocolate Month!
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