Sometimes Christmas can leave you feeling stuffed to the gills and sluggish. Use the 12 days of Christmas to improve your skills and boost your potential for 2010 by setting yourself these mini challenges.
1. Help your children write out their Christmas list, to encourage them to practice their skills. If you're worried about your spelling and grammar why not check out the learndirect English courses.
2. Test your maths skills by budgeting for your Christmas shop: work out how much you plan to spend, looking at how much presents cost and what deals there are - if you're struggling then learndirect is here to help. To check your skill level you can do a quick quiz with Eamonn Holmes and Johnny Ball or find out about the courses that could help you.
Try one of our two interactive Christmas features:
Christmas quiz:
See what kind of Santa you'd make.
Christmas maths taster test:
Help Father Christmas with some of his calculations.
3. Make this the time that you get online - get friends or your kids to show you how. Play our award winning game, The Legula Adventure, and test your maths and English skills for free.
4. Do a crossword or a Sudoku puzzle every day for the twelve days of Christmas to keep your mind alert and agile.
5. Plan the big Christmas meal in advance by working out all the timings and temperatures needed to ensure the turkey is moist and the roast potatoes crispy.
6. Use a computer spreadsheet programme to set up a list of all the people who have sent you gifts so you know who to thank. If this is easier said than done, and instead you rely on notes on scraps of paper, why not look at brushing up your skills with a short spreadsheets course.
7. Christmas can be a really busy time - what with shopping and cooking and making plans to see the family. If you’re struggling to get everything done, our short course, Not enough hours, might be really useful. It helps you work out how to fit in everything you need to do and prioritise your most important plans.
8. If you feed your brain the right nutrients, you'll be able to think quicker, retain more information, be better coordinated and have improved concentration. You'll also see an improvement in your memory and problem-solving abilities. Over the festive season why not look at getting your brain ready for learning. Check out our recipes for brain food, from celebrity chef Danny Boome.
9. Improve your management and leadership skills by taking charge and delegating tasks to the rest of the family - cooking the Christmas dinner, doing the washing up, making sure all the last minute things have been bought, decorating the house.
10. Plan out the Christmas TV schedule in advance to make sure you catch all the specials and set up programmes to record if there are any clashes.
11. If you love Christmas and everything about entertaining then you're probably a very good host. You could look into a career in hospitality, there are National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) available which could help you reach your potential in that area.
12. If you're planning to go to the New Year sales, look online first for the items you want so you can be sure to grab the best deals and work out your budget in advance, of what you can afford, so you don't overspend.
To help you with your budgeting for 2010, have a look at the range of learndirect short courses that could help you take charge of your money.