7 useful homeschool ideas for weary moms

Dear Homeschool Parent,

It’s that time of year, where homeschooling parents start going a bit nuts.  Kids have been sick and are bouncing off the walls to go outside. The house is messy; you haven’t done English in a week and just remembered you were going to teach art this year.

Starting 6 months ago.

Whining seems rampant and all your friends are more on top of “it” than you are.

Perhaps you are brand new to educating at home because of all the stuff going on healthwise and never intended to do this in the first place.  You are seriously overwhelmed. (If you are just thinking about how to start homeschooling, read this post)

Take a deep breath.

You are not alone.  What you are doing is important work! But, it is still work.  If you are weary today, step back and lighten the load while you catch your breath.

Galatians 6:9  And let us not get tired of doing what is right, for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t get discouraged and give up

7 homeschool ideas for hard days

Grab a simple notebook. The best homeschooling tip I might have ever received was to start recording what we DID do. For example, list every activity and see what subject it might match up with. Chances are excellent you’ve accomplished more than you realized

*Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself. This post may contain affiliate links that at NO additional cost to you, may earn me a small commission to help support this blog. Read full privacy policy here.

Challenge thinking skills with games. Kids learn a lot from playing. Games like Muggins and Knock-Out for math, Bananagrams and Boggle for spelling, Where in World for geography, Lewis and Clark Expedition Card game for history. There are tons of great learning games, check out all the ones from Aristoplay

Take a nature walk. We had some of our best days when the kids were small doing this. Stop by the library and pick up a nature guide and bring a sketchbook.

Have the kids draw what they see and try and identify it. If you live near great parks, the beach, a slough, the desert, they all have things of interest.

Kids love to stop and look closely, give them the time to do it. Science happens naturally.  And if the weather is poor? Pull up pictures on Google, bring a sample in from outside and have them do it at the table. There is no wrong way

Dance. Movement is a great boredom buster and stress reliever. Put on the music and just dance

Create active learning. I had wiggly children. One learned best by always having something to do with her hands, her feet.  By grabbing some index cards (like 50 cents for 100) there are tons of options. Young kids can help by gluing on noodles to make math flashcards.

We used to do a math jumping game, where each card was an equation. She would jump from answer to answer. Draw a hopscotch game and think up an addition/subtraction version. Create matching games

Read aloud. Literature is useful for kids on so many levels. Some days you can just read.  If they are too antsy, use bubbles while you are reading.  For my kinesthetic learner, we had special clay just for days she “had” to move.

Her hands were busy but her mind was alert. If you can’t read put in a cd of radio theater. Adventures in Odyssey and Jonathan Park kept my kids amused for years. Even now they can tell you facts they picked up long ago

And when you just have nothing?  Are you sick or tired or both? Educational movies can help for a time out. Remember Schoolhouse Rock?

You can buy the whole set for a good price. Classic PBS shows like Zoom, Magic School Bus, and Liberty’s Kids are very informative and challenge them

You can do this

I reached the end of this road. I promise you, it does get easier. They do grow and learn. Today seems hard, but in the big picture, you will see the fruit of your labor.

And it is a beautiful thing.

You may think no one sees what you are doing, or cares. You might have no support or help. But your work has tremendous value. I thank you and encourage you to press on.

P.S. If you want to read my past posts on real-life homeschooling, click here. Need some great reads about homeschooling with grace? Check these out

• LOVED-For the Children’s Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School
• Lies Homeschooling Moms Believe
• Mother Culture ®: For a Happy Homeschool
• For your ease of use, I listed TONS of games my kids enjoyed. Links are included for what I could find. But, do check for them used too!

Disclosure: I only recommend products I do/would use myself. This post may contain affiliate links that at NO additional cost to you, may earn me a small commission to help support this blog. Read full privacy policy here.

Homeschool games to Pin for later:

• Brain Box The World Card Game

• Out of the Box 10 Days in Europe Game

• GeoPuzzle World

• Great States

• Sequence States and Capitals

• Race Across the USA Game

• Where in the World & USA is Carmen SanDiego

• Lewis & Clark Expedition Card Game

• Boggle
• Banagrams
• Mad libs
• Scrabble
• Story cubes
• Hangman
• Dk silly sentences

• Muggins
• Knock out
• Sum Swamp
• Allowance game
• Payday
• Pizza fraction fun
• Presto Change-o (try to find used! They are out there 🙂
• Math war
• Yahtzee
• Shut the box

• Jonathan Park
• Focus on the family radio theatre
• Adventures in Odyssey One of my girls HAD to listen to one of AIO cds for a full TEN years at bedtime to go to sleep. Plus, we had many a fun road trip as a family with these 🙂