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What to Do When Your Homeschool Feels Boring

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Written by Alicia Hutchinson of Learning Well Community.

Hey, I get it. Homeschool feels boring sometimes. Before you peg me as the type that’s constantly breaking my back to entertain my kids, let me assure you I am not that mom. Homeschool is not always fun. There are repetitive and mundane tasks that just have to be done. However, there is a line where the mundane crosses over to flat out boring and we need to shake things up a bit.

That’s what these tips are for – to help you shake it up.

What to Do When Your Homeschool Feels Boring

When Your Homeschool Feels Boring: The Warning Signs

Like I said, there are certain things that are just not the most fun. I’m sorry to all the math-lovers reading, but I just don’t think my kids (or myself) will ever be jumping up and down for fractions, no matter what curriculum I choose. That said, even the mundane tasks of homeschooling don’t have to be torturous.

Have you been dealing with a boring homeschool? Here are some warning signs:

  • You haven’t left your house in days.
  • There are daily tears.
  • You can’t remember the last time you and your kids laughed during school.
  • The school space walls are closing in on you.
  • There’s not one thing that’s getting you exciting about homeschooling at the moment.

Shaking Up Your Routine

Trying to un-boring your homeschool doesn’t take a huge overhaul. Just try a few simple tweaks each week until it works. And, don’t try everything on Monday. Just pick one or two things to throw in. If something doesn’t work, scrap it and try something else.

Shake up your homeschool with games
Shake-up Ideas:
    • Change up the location:
      • Head to the coffee shop and do your math lessons over hot chocolate.
      • Reserve a table at your library.
      • Leave the school room and do school on the couch or by the fireplace.
    • Sign up for a pottery class at a local community center – art class!
    • Go to an open gym and shoot hoops for P.E.
    • Have a whole afternoon of documentary-watching.
    • Pull all the games and puzzles out of the closet and do one every day for a week or more.
    • String twinkle lights around your school area.
    • Light candles on your table for special ambiance.
    • Skip math and bake bread instead.
    • Have a poetry teatime.
    • Start a new read-aloud – and let the kids choose it!
    • Dump out Legos in the living room and let the children build while you read.
    • Declare a STEM day and work on projects all day.
    • Make a special breakfast to start the day.
    • Play a card game over lunch.
    • Pull out kinetic sand or play dough and have the kids sculpt while you read aloud.
    • If you need a break, have your kids pick a topic and research five interesting facts about it and draw a poster or write a booklet and report back to you at the end of a few hours (or the whole day!)
    • Let your child lead. Ask them what THEY would like to learn about that day. See what rabbit holes you can find!
    • Plan a field trip.
    • Go out for lunch instead of having the same thing day after day. Shake it up!
    • Give everyone permission to have a “jammies” day and not get dressed all day.
What to Do When Your Homeschool Feels Boring

Non-Boring Math + Language Relief

Math and language arts seem to be the two subjects that provoke the most tears or anger in kids (and maybe moms too). Changing things up in these two areas helps so much when your homeschool feels mundane or just plain hard!

The hardest part for us is stepping out of our comfort zone a bit – especially if that comfort zone involves a well-thought-out lesson plan. We don’t want to upset the plans we’ve made, right?! But the beauty of homeschooling is that no one knows (or cares!) if we veer from the plan – nobody but ourselves. When your homeschool feels boring, it’s so worth it to step away from the lesson plans for a while.

You might not end the school year with 130 of 130 math lessons completed.

There might be unfinished grammar pages.

Some of those spelling lists might wait till next month.

But all that is better than broken pencils, tears, and boredom every single day.

So, shake it UP! Have I said that yet? {grin}

Don’t be afraid of getting behind. You are not behind. You’re ahead because your kids are happier. You’re happier teaching them. Everyone wins. Don’t let the table of contents in your math book tell you what to do.

shake up homeschool math with baking
Try these tips to keep doing math and language without crying and/or falling asleep:
  • Play games! There are so many board and card games to inspire math and language.
  • Bake cookies. Better yet, double the recipe. There’s so much real-life math, your child won’t even see the lesson coming!
  • Play with Magnetic Poetry on your fridge.
  • Do copywork. (Join in, Mom!)
  • Freewrite, even for a couple of minutes. Have your child pick the topic. No grammar corrections allowed!
  • Recruit someone else to teach your child her math lessons. We’ve been using Nicole the Math Lady this year and she’s saving my life!
  • Try Partnership Writing program by Brave Writer. The projects are so much fun my kids don’t even realize how much writing they’re actually doing!

[clickToTweet tweet=”Shake things up! Don’t let the table of contents in your math book tell you what to do. ” quote=”Shake things up! Don’t let the table of contents in your math book tell you what to do. “]

Winter can be tough, you guys. I SO understand this. When we’re cooped up and school and workbooks feel like the only thing we can get done because getting outdoors isn’t an option. But would you believe that winter has become one of my very favorite seasons of all?! I’ve come to love cozy homeschooling and taking the winter session to shake things up a bit.

I hope these ideas help you if your homeschool feels boring too. We’ve all been there.

Hang in there, mama. You’re doing awesome things!

What do you do when your homeschool feels boring?

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3 Comments

  1. Wow! What a GREAT post, and so needed in our house right now! Thank you so much for sharing. Homeschooling truly can get monotonous, especially in the winter. As a matter of fact, I got up this morning and told my husband he’d better be ready once spring hits, because we’re going to homeschool all over the place 🙂 ! And then I open my email to find this. What a breath of fresh air to get that confirmation that we aren’t alone in any of the crazy things we go through.

  2. It can be hard to break out of that rut sometimes. I need to just take a break now and again. I feel like we are getting behind but then I realize that engaged learners learn faster than the ones that are flopped upside down on the couch barely paying attention and mostly bickering!

  3. Thank you for posting-we definitely need some of these ideas to connect and inspire. We homeschool 4 plus have a toddler.

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