Our homeschooling has gotten boring. It’s no wonder my kids are bored, I am bored! I have been homeschooling for 10 years. During these 10 years, we have grown as a family. Fast-forwarding years later, I am homeschooling 5 children now all with a toddler in tow. It can be challenging and honestly, there are many days I want to go back to work. It can be overwhelming and exhausting. Our homeschool co-op takes a month off for winter break and during this time I stepped back and have been doing some thinking about our homeschooling. I want my children and I to be able to have great memories about learning not just mundane book work day after day. I am a firm believer you can learn so much in daily life experiences that books cannot teach. So what does that mean? Time to re-evaluate our workload and our schedule!
Eliminate busy work. What is that point? Much of the busy work my kids get comes from homework assignments from our homeschool co-op. All the busy work has taken away from the love of learning. They are not learning anything from it, it is mostly copy work. I would rather ask them questions to see if they are learning the material versus having them write unnecessary information.
For this school year, I told myself I would be firm on our schedule. I would wake the kids up at 8 AM, they would eat breakfast and we would start school no later than 9 AM. For us, that is not always realistic. If my kids have extracurricular activities on some weeknights and go to bed a bit later than normal I will let them sleep in a bit later. I need to be flexible with our schedule, that is the beauty of homeschooling!
I am bringing back the fun in our homeschooling. When our year started we were doing art bi-weekly but that fell by the waist side because of all the rest of our homeschool. My kids enjoy creating, painting, designing, etc. I am bringing it back even if it’s one time a month! Plus all homeschool does not have to be paperwork or bookwork. We have so many board games. Why not utilize them and incorporate them into our learning? It’s a fun hands-on way to learn!
Take advantage of free educational events. There are so many educational classes at the library, recreational centers, and parks. Plus there are many homeschool groups locally or you can even find some on Facebook. Another great place to look is under your events tab on Facebook.
It’s never too late to change the curriculum. Our homeschool co-op is using a curriculum that just did not fit for my children so I changed it. They will still be able to keep up with our co-op but I am modifying it which works best for our family.
Make time for playdates. My daughter has been asking to do a craft club with some of her friends for a year. With such a busy schedule I told her we just couldn’t which made me feel awful. Since we made changes we were able to have the time to have her 1st craft club last month. I consider clubs and playdates all part of homeschooling. It’s socialization and all part of learning.
Find the time to go on more field trips. There is so much to do locally. We need to take advantage of it by taking educational trips. Some places to visit are museums, galleries, nature centers, the zoo or – wherever you think will make them fall in love with learning again. Plus it’s good to get out of the house every now and then!
I am sure I am not the only mama who’s kids grumble and complain about doing their school. It can be frustrating. I am constantly reminding them to stop grumbling and complaining, giving them Bible verses that reference complaining. Threatening to punish for the complaining but it did not work so I set up a reward app on my phone. If they do their work on task, do not complain, etc. I give them points. Once they reach 50 points I will take them for yogurt or they can play Xbox for a longer period of time. If they complain and are not on task I take points away. So far it has worked! It is a great incentive and pursues a positive attitude!
Have you changed your homeschool 1/2 through the year? If so what changes did you make?
These are such great ideas! I can see how homeschooling could get stale after a while. I love that you try to keep it interesting and fun for the kids.
We don’t homeschool our kids, but know some friends who do. I bet they’d like these tips for some extra added fun!
I love that homeschooling gives you more freedom regarding curriculum and the way lessons are taught. Frequent field trips would definitely be an easy way to win my kids over!
I like that you can change up the curriculum with homeschooling and make learning more fun. Field trips can be so educational. I wish I would have been able to homeschool my children.
I love the idea of a reward app. It’s a good way to stimulate them to do more and to have a goal. I should try it, too!
These are great and fun ideas! I have a friend who homeschool her daughter and they both like field trips.