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Make homeschooling fun!
We don’t want our kiddos to be bored while they are learning. Right?
Starting a homeschooling journey can be exciting and nerve-wracking. Each day we have the promise of new adventures. The possibilities and potential are only limited by our imaginations (and our budgets, of course)!
Even if you are the world’s most enthusiastic and thrilling homeschool parent, you will find yourself in need of some inspiration every now and then.
Today I’m giving you 5 tips to make homeschooling fun! They will work whether you are brand new to homeschooling or you’ve been doing this for years.
Say goodbye to boring days of learning and hello to enjoyable lessons.
Make Homeschooling Fun
Why Fun Matters
I have taught all ages of students, from preschool to college. (Just a note: preschool and middle school are the hardest!)
No matter the age (or subject) students do not want to sit at their desks for teachers to lecture them.
If you’re a child of the 80s or 90s, yes, I know. That is how we were taught. I’m surprised I learned anything.
Students want to be, and need to be, engaged in learning.
The more a student is engaged in the lesson, the more he/she will learn.
Imagine this:
You are taking an Astronomy class.
The teacher gives you worksheets and book pages to read and complete.
How much of the information will you remember? Probably not much.
Now, try this:
In the same class, the teacher assigns pages to read, but instead of worksheets, you get to go out and look through telescopes to find stars and constellations.
You get to look at the planets (that are close enough) and experience the course.
How much will you learn there? A lot, right?
It’s the same in homeschooling. We need to make homeschooling fun by allowing and helping our kids to learn through activities.
Just so you know, there are ways to teach them without them knowing they are learning, if they are having enough fun at the same time.
Benefits of Fun
As a homeschooling parent and for the kids, having fun has its benefits.
First, we get to have these core memories and experiences with our kids.
Second, many times, the fun aspects of homeschool involve other people. (That can help bust the most common myth about homeschooling.)
Third, our children learn more and retain more information when they receive it in a fun, enjoyable way.
Make Homeschooling Fun: Creative Environment
To make your homeschooling environment fun and inviting, you can use lots of colors, art, and decorations.
Get some posters with positive sayings on them. You can get classroom posters on Amazon.
Hang fun curtains on the windows.
Or, set up a cool reading nook.
Have some fun creating an exciting learning space for your kids.
While you are making the area fun for learning, be sure to keep yourself organized so you can get to all the supplies you need. Organization leaves more room for fun.
Make Homeschooling Fun: Interactive Tools
When I was teaching high school English, my students loved the days that we played “Trashketball.” I’d ball up papers (that were going to be recycled), clear out the recycling bin to use as the basket, and start the game.
Sometimes, students would get a little wild and throw things they weren’t supposed to throw. Most of the time, they were really engaged because they didn’t want to have to do the work, usually a review, independently. It was a win-win.
Online Games
There are so many things that our children need to learn. I know that we cannot teach them absolutely everything before they leave high school.
However, with technology the way it is now, we can teach our children so much more than we ever dreamed.
Use games and online activities to help your child learn and remember things.
Check out these places to find online games (most of them are FREE!):
Virtual Field Trips
If you scroll through a museum website, you could possibly see most of the pieces they have on display. If you can’t make it to see a famous painting in person, you could see it online through the museum.
Most students love field trips. What if you have a special needs child who doesn’t do well in crowds? Take a virtual field trip.
Here are some places to check for virtual field trips:
There are so many options online.
Of course, if you want to make up your own game to play for learning, that will work too.
File Folder Games
If you have never heard of these, you take a manilla folder and glue the pages to the inside. Then keep the smaller pieces that are used for matching or organizing in a baggie.
We used these in the preschool where I worked, and the kids loved them.
As a high school teacher, I created stations to go along with elements of the stories/book we were reading in class, and I put them in folders for the students to work through.
These are a great way for students to learn new skills, like sorting or counting. They are also an amazing way to keep these activities organized.
I have a couple of these books at my house. (I’ve been trying to sell them in the online homeschool community, but no takers yet.)
If you are looking for interactive games or activities for your child, leave a comment. I’d love to help you find a way to engage your student in learning new things.
Make Homeschooling Fun: Interactive Lessons
There are several things you can do to make lessons more interactive.
They aren’t all online, like the examples I gave above.
Here are some things to try:
Gallery Walk
Coloring Activities
Picture Books
Sidewalk Chalk Drawings (for any subject)
Make Homeschooling Fun: Personalized Curriculum
As homeschooling moms, we have the advantage of creating lessons that will grab our child’s attention and focus on what he/she is really good at doing.
Obviously, we have to teach the stuff that causes our children to struggle.
The best part about homeschooling, ok, ONE of the best parts of homeschooling is that we can let our children excel where they do and let them take more time when they need to.
You don’t have to use an all-in-one curriculum. There are several out there, but you don’t have to choose one.
You can find math from one place, science from another, and English and history from even more places.
Your child can complete work online, at a co-op, or in his/her bedroom with books.
Find what works best for your child. It could be different for each subject. Then, plan the curriculum that you will be using around those needs and wants.
Make Homeschooling Fun: Beyond the Classroom
So, I talked about online field trips, but you can take real field trips too.
Go to the zoo when you are talking about different kinds of birds.
Ride the Amtrak to the next city and take the bus back home, when you are studying transportation.
When your child is learning about how the body works–bending, stretching, breathing–a trip to the local park to play on the playground would be great!
There are so many things you can do as a homeschooling family that public and private schools can’t do.
Embrace the flexibility that comes with homeschooling.
Favorite Field Trip
We live in NC. Back in August 2017, there was a total eclipse that crossed the western part of the state.
The western part of NC is mountains, and I love going there anyway. For the first day of our daughter’s 9th grade year (the year we began homeschooling), we took a field trip to Cherokee, NC to see the eclipse.
We got up early and drove up there. We ate at our favorite little restaurant and walked through some of the local stores.
While we were waiting for the eclipse, we strolled through the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. I had never been there. It was free to walk through, and the artifacts and history are amazing.
When it was closer to time for the eclipse to start, we made our way outside, opened our solar eclipse glasses, and waited.
That was the first day of homeschooling for our family. We took a field trip. My daughter had a few assignments about the eclipse to complete for science, math, and English.
Find a place that your family loves to visit. Work it into the lessons and go! Homeschooling does not have to be inside the house all the time.
Extracurriculars
Field trips are not the only way to get out of the house for learning.
Does your child take music lessons?
Have your children been wanting to start karate classes?
How many people in your family can dance?
Any of those classes/lessons outside of the house count as part of homeschooling. If you live in a state where you have to count the number of hours that you homeschool during the year, you can count those as learning hours. (Check your local guidelines because we don’t have a set number of hours in NC.)
Think about this. If your child is in scouts, you can focus some of your lessons on the things he/she needs to do to earn patches/badges/awards for scouts.
Allow your children to learn new skills and try new things.
Embracing the Fun in Homeschooling
No matter what you do in your homeschool or how you do it, have some fun!
Let your children learn the ways they learn best.
You don’t have to make every lesson interactive. Start small. Add in a short activity that grabs your child’s attention.
Next time, you will be more confident to do it again, or try something new and do a bigger activity.
Have fun while you make homeschooling fun for your family.