Suggestions for When Homeschooling Isn't Going So Well...
The title of this post could also be, what to do when your kids attitudes are circling the toilet or how you should keep homeschooling when you just want to watch Netflix. Because, for sure, this is how I feel about 34% of the week.
Are we done here yet? Have I exerted enough energy to make a difference in your education?
Yes? Well, good.
Let’s be honest, sometimes it’s just not jiving and that is hard because you have an expectation of what you think your homeschool day should look like, the state has some idea of what your homeschooling should look like, and I think we’re all in agreement that there should be some kind of learning going on most of the time. But when it is hard and when you’re just bleck about it, I have some suggestions that will (hopefully) help you because I KNOW they have helped me.
These will not turn you into Donna Stone or Mary Poppins but they should help you to be able to trudge through your day and get done what needs done.
Surprise!
Go buy yourself something pretty. No but really. Sometimes all it takes for us to change our tune about school is a new sheet of reward stickers, a new highlighter, a fun colored pen…something to make you excited to get going on your school day. There have been days in blackest homeschooling weeks that I have been known to schlep the whole Shebang to Panera to do school. They have free wi-fi, hot chocolate, and food that I did not have to prepare.
A Reward.
Order in Jimmy Johns for lunch. Go out for ice cream at the end of the school day. Buy your kid a lego set at the end of a successful week of school. Think of some kind of reward or treat that would help if they have that to work toward. We do not buy our kids lego sets every week but we have had seasons where we’ve had to do this just to help them keep their eye on the proverbial and real prize.
Sneaky School
Baking? Measuring and math. Walks? Nature observation. Going to a museum? Art/history/science observation and appreciation. Ride on public transportation? Social studies. This is what I refer to as sneaky school…when your kids are doing something where they are learning but they aren’t realizing it. Read a newspaper. Go to the library. Get out of the house. Find something to do and you’ll find some merit/benefit/educational value to it. Somedays we just can’t face all of the worksheets and sitting and that’s okay. The truth is that education can take many forms and it is perfectly fine to go out and explore with a multitude of them.
Read
Lord knows how many days have gone by when I haven’t been feeling well or my kiddos are fighting a cold and we have simply snuggled on the couch for hours reading. When they were little it would be stacks and stacks of board books. As they’ve gotten older it is fun to be immersed in chapter books that they may not have the wherewithall to read themselves. I was battling the flu when we finished The Hobbit together and currently we’re making our way through The Hound of the Baskervilles. It’s fun to read together and definitely a memory you all will have and cherish forever.
Library
If you are really butting heads with your child I would like to suggest something way crazy out there…go to the library. That’s not really that out there but here’s the Secret thing to do…simply watch what kind of books they are pulled into. Minecraft? Lego? American Girl? Garfield? Harry Potter? Peppa Pig? Whatever they like there is something on Pinterest to help you with coordinating activities or worksheets online with that theme. Around age 6 our son Calvin would not learn for all the money in the world. He had no desire to. At all. All he was interested in were legos. So I decided that school would be all about legos. I bought lego themed paper and suddenly he was okay writing his spelling words out on lego paper. While I read him history I had him recreate the scene in legos. We added the dots on the legos to do our math, on and on with as many lego things as I could think of. It made school fun for him, instilling a love of learning into him and it helped me to get into his head and discover what he liked to do. All in all it was a great experience for him.
And if you just go to the library for books, that is great too. There is nothing more exciting than coming home with a sack full of books that you just can’t wait to read.
Take a Break
There is a fine line between giving yourself grace to rest and just being plain lazy and not wanting to do anything. Feeling out that line is important to do. Sometimes you just need to take a breather so that you can feel refreshed to give it your all the next day. Giving yourself grace is when there are mountains of projects and ungraded papers on my desk so we take a day off for me to get the homeschool room tidy and clean, get all of our future work in order, and plan out our week so we can go into the coming days with a renewed spirit and a fresh breath. Laziness is different for everyone but for me it is not wanting to do school and then spending all day on the couch watching Designing Women or something that is not in the least productive to our lives.
So those are the things that I do to combat the spirit of not wanting to do school. It is hard on most days. It is a strong and true struggle on some days. But in the end it is always worth it and always rewarding personally as a momma. Just make sure you remember that we ALL have these days from time to time, and it is okay to push through, shaking it up when we need to. Love you all and I am here for you in this journey of homeschooling!
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