This might have been my biggest learning curve in homeschool: learning to incorporate fun.
Hey, it took me years to learn how to have fun.
I’ll share 15 ways to incorporate fun into your homeschool.
I’ve probably been motivated by these reasons:
- Kids get bored of routine.
- I get bored of routine.
- All those fun Pinterest board activities are lonely.
- Oh, and because I’ve discovered that changing up the routine actually increases the kids’ interest, comprehension, and retention.
I’ve learned to make fun part of our weekly routine as we dedicate Friday to Funday.
Candy used irregularly in our home provides motivation for pretty much any game.
(Unless your dental plan has sweeping coverage, I don’t recommend using candy on a daily basis.)
How to incorporate fun with candy-inspired games:
- Your kiddo doesn’t care for mental math games? They’ll like candy games.
- Have you tried Smarties word mapping? “Place a red Smarties on each verb in the paragraph. Green for nouns. Yellow for articles. Purple for prepositions.” Motivation for grammar study abounds.
- Have you tried making marshmallow constellations? Or grape-skewered geometric shapes? Marshmallow and Twizzler DNA strands can be the beginning conversations about amino acids and memorizing whether guanine binds with thymine or adenosine binds with the other one. Sorry, it’s been a while.
Sugar isn’t the only way to make stuff fun.
“Play gives children a way to practice what they’re learning.”
Mr. Rogers
Ways to incorporate fun that are non-candy inspired fun & games:
The weather channel drive.
In the last city we lived in had a weather channel in French and English, only accessible in the car. So we’d hop in the van and take a drive around the neighbourhood listening to the weather. (Yes, we really did). I’d brief the kids on a few French words they might hear, like zero…curiously similar to English zero, but with pizazz. “Kiddos you’ll hear the days of the week, numbers, chaud and froid.”
Trying to keep the kids’ attention while working through a read-aloud?
I think every homeschool parent quickly becomes aware that kids need to keep their fingers busy while listening to a story: painting or drawing or cross-stitching, finger knitting, fashioning playdough or building Lego. Invite the whole teddy bear family to join…
And hey, don’t forget to celebrate the teddy’s birthdays during your homeschool days too.
Play real-life math games.
Give the kids a recent receipt for a restaurant meal, then get the kids to guess how much it might cost to make that meal at home. See who guesses the closest. How much does it cost to plan your next vacation? Budgeting for their sibling’s birthday gifts? Give them empty income tax forms to learn how to do their own taxes.
Play board and dice games.
There are loads of dice and card games that can reinforce basic math functions and fractions too. Does anyone want to play Yahtzee? A game of Chess or Stratego for logic development? Do you want to reinforce spelling concepts or vocabulary development? Try Scrabble or Bananagrams.
Use documentaries.
There are a ton of possibilities here. And even a Facebook site for “Homeschooling with Netflix”. Educational screen time needs to be included as sparsely as candy. Kids get bored quickly and irritable with one another when there’s too much screen time. Try Knowledge Network or Curiosity Stream too.
Make an afternoon of Pinschooling.
Loads of “learn to read” videos to reinforce phonics. There are beginner French videos. Science experiments were recreated. There are art projects for adults and kids.
Include poetry teatime.
Bring out the fancy teapot and teacups, a baked treat, and a poetry book once a week.
Read just one poem together. (I dare you to stop at one!)
Include nature study.
Cause life doesn’t get better than wandering outside with the kids in the middle of a school day. You haven’t learned how to use nature in your homeschool? Charlotte Mason will teach you.
Include readalouds.
By far, my FAVOURITE aspect to homeschool. All. Those. Books. Enjoy the memories that each create at different periods of your homeschool. Include the books.
Include special party days.
A not-back-to-school picnic with other homeschoolers, first day of homeschool party, a 100 day party, last day of the year party, and family birthdays are days off!
Include gameschooling.
You call it games, we homeschoolers call it learning.
Consider the learning opportunity in Bananagrams for spelling, Monopoly for economics, Yahtzee for arithmetic, Scotland Yard for strategy, Chutes & Ladders for addition & subtraction, and Dutch Blitz for hand-eye coordination, and also because it’s just plain fun.
Teach your kids to cook!
They learn fractions, following directions, basic arithmetic, and cause you don’t have to.
See the education in your play! There are always new ways to incorporate fun into your homeschool.
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Teresa Wiedrick
I help overwhelmed homeschool mamas shed what’s not working in their homeschool & life, so they can show up authentically, purposefully, and confidently in their homeschool & life.
