Top Ten Cures for the Homeschool Blahs

1. Go outdoors.

Just a change of scene can breathe fresh life into a homeschool day. Go to your local park with a picnic lunch and study among the trees.

Or stay close to home. What about these places?

• in your own backyard
• at the picnic table
• in the tree house
• on the porch swing
• in a tent

Having lessons outdoors will be a fun diversion from a normal day, but you can still get some academics in.

Be sure to take time for a nature walk and record some sketches in a nature journal. Watch the insects, birds, or clouds - whatever nature offers you that particular day.

Academic Connections - wildlife, weather, botany.

2. Cook!

Cooking can turn into an all day family project. Pull out your recipe file, and let the children choose some favorites - cookies and cupcakes are usually big hits where everyone can get involved.

If you're a bit daring, try something totally new. How about homemade pretzels or doughnuts from scratch? Caramel corn or sugar cookie cutouts are fun anytime of the year!

Pick a theme such as Mexican, Thai, Chinese, or Italian and plan an entire dinner party together complete with decorations. Here are even more dinner party theme ideas.Give the children responsibilities at the grocery store and back home in the kitchen. Then enjoy a family meal together - the fruit of your labor.

Academic Connections - math, money, budgeting, planning

3. Get Messy With Crafts.

Pull out the sequins, glue, and yarn and let the children create! Do those messy crafts that you usually avoid like painting or papier-mâché. Then make the clean up a group effort with each person taking a role.

Here are some more super fun craft ideas:

• Playdough


• Salt Dough Maps


• Shadow Puppet Theater


• Shoebox Diorama

Get on the web for a few minutes and search for a craft or project that relates to something you're studying. Search for your topic of study (penguins, American Revolution, Picasso, or five senses) plus each of these words in turn - activities, projects, crafts.

Academic Connections - art, responsibility, creativity, and whatever your topic of choice is

4. Get Messy With Science Experiments.

This is the scientific version of the crafts option. Grab your science curriculum and take a look at those experiments you skipped over. Today is the day to do them. Do them ALL! Make it a huge, all-day, science experiment extravaganza!

Cindy assigned her children a Chemistry Show!

Or visit some of these sites for ideas:

• Reeko's Mad Scientist Lab


• Hunkin's Experiments


• Home Experiments


• The Little Book of Experiments -- free PDF book

Academic Connections - science

5. Game Day!

Select the games your family loves best for an all day game tournament. Mastermind, Clue, Monopoly, Yahtzee, and Racko are especially good for math and logic. Jigsaw puzzles are excellent for visual spatial reasoning. Scrabble and other word games are sneaky ways to get your children to practice spelling.

Give your children some cardboard and encourage them to design their own board game or card game using a current homeschool topic as the theme! Then play it together.

• How to design a card game


• Templates for designing a board game


• Bingo templates


• Printable Word board games


• How to make your own games PDF

Academic Connections - math, logic, writing, planning, spelling, phonics

6. Dress up and Act it Out.

Choose a novel you're reading or a period from history and act it out. Research costumes and make them from things you have on hand. Then write scripts for each character and perform a skit complete with props. Be sure to take photos or video to remember the drama.

Academic Connections - drama, writing, history, literature

7. Take a Field Trip.


Get out of the house and see something new. Old standbys are the art museum, the zoo or aquarium, the science museum, and the planetarium.

But consider something different. How about your newspaper or a small printer, a restaurant or cemetery?

• Try this field trip finder to locate a new destination.


• And be sure to look at Factory Tours USA too.

When you get home, make some notebooking pages about what you learned.

Academic Connections - varies greatly depending on the place you choose

8. Visit a Relative or Senior Friend.

Help your children devise some questions especially appropriate for that relative's lifetime. If you can incorporate some history that you've studied, that's excellent!

Helps with Questions:

• Family History Questionnaire


• Collecting Family Stories

.
Then let your child interview him, asking about various events in history and in his own life.

Ask if he can show you photos. Later write a report and send the relative a copy of it.

Academic Connections - oral communication, listening, writing

9. Volunteer.


Take your children to a soup kitchen, a food pantry, a thrift store, or other non-profit charity where children are allowed to volunteer. Spend the day there, offering whatever help is needed.

If you don't know where to find a charity suitable for volunteering, contact a church or school in your neighborhood, or visit Volunteer Match or Network for Good.

Academic Connections - community service, altruism

10. Sports Day!


Go outside with all the sports equipment you have and play games! Let the children make up games with new rules if the standard sports become tedious. Dancing to music can also fit in with sports day.

More ideas are at Homeschool Physical Education and Outdoor Games for Children.

And read what Moving Mama's homeschool coop does for PE! You'll be impressed.

Academic Connections - physical education

Stay on the Offense
Against Homeschool Doldrums.

Just when you think you've conquered them, they will come back to attack in a few weeks.

So be proactive.
Plan ahead to prevent their return.

You can find even more ideas at
The Homeschool Classroom