5 ways to finish the homeschool year strong

Photo credit: Deanna Blue

  The final push from the end of Spring Break to the first days of summer can feel a little like the movie "Groundhog Day".  There's nothing to break up the monotony; it's just all about pushing through and completing another day.  Here are 5 ways that you, a homeschooling momma can bust out of that monotony and into the summer with energy to spare!

1) Plan a fun field trip

If your kids were ever in public school, you may remember that this is the time of year that they would plan a field trip to cut a path through all the boring test prep.  For homeschool, this also works! Take a trip to the zoo, or an uncrowded amusement park, make a picnic lunch and take a frisbee and the dog. This is the time to take advantage of the fact that everyone is still in school!

2) Have a mental health day

When my kids were in public school, each year, I'd pick a day and surprise them by picking them up from school.  My lucky daughter of the day would get to decide where we ate lunch and (out of a few carefully chosen options) what we did for the day.  We called it mental health day.  Everyone needs a day like this every so often.  It could even be a veg day, where you catch up on stuff you've both been wanting to see on tv, or have a carpet picnic (can you tell I like picnics?).

3) Teacher for the day

A couple of times, to bust up the boring nature of this time of year, I've instituted "teacher for the day".  The kid I choose gets to be the teacher and I am one of the students, along with their sibling.  They LOVE doing this, and I think they actually learn more when teaching the material.

4) Do school in a weird place

We've done school in coffee shops, hotels, cars, on the trampoline, outside in the sun, in the pool, in one of their beds, and in my bed.  When they come to sit down for school in the morning, surprise them by moving them to another location.  Perspective changes.  It's good.

5) Add a movie, YouTube or Schoolhouse Rock to your day

Check out Amazon, Netflix, Brainpop and others for something relative to your history lesson for the day.  Kids retain more when they see the Civil War acted out on the computer or tv. Sometimes a random 80's song pops into my head.  I will play it on YouTube just to illustrate my point.  The kids think I'm weird. It's all part of my plan....

So, just when you think that there's no way you can possibly make it to the end of May, try out one of these little gems.  The change will not only add fun to your Spring, but give all of you the strength to carry on through to the infamous "Week 36".