Funschool February: Beat the Homeschool Slump

Every year about this time we start to get that burnt-out feeling. We've been homeschooling over 5 months and have recently survived Christmas. Spring is coming and for us that means we will be insanely busy with some of the following items. Does any of this sound familiar?

one kid with First Communion and party

one kid with Confirmation and party

a fishing trip for my husband and the boys

a trip to Royals Stadium for Scout Day

an April birthday of a kid turning 14

a son with a lawn care job, babysitting jobs, a soccer practice and playing schedule, and a reffing job

another son who is dying to play real soccer

fish frys

bake sales

St. Patrick's Day parade

co-op every Wednesday

a son in Latin every Monday

Cub and Boy Scouts meetings and activities

a bunch of stuff I'm forgetting and more that will come up like dances and lock-ins and parties

Yeah, my homeschoolers are UBER socialized. No worries there.

So I heard about the February Slump on the Homeschool Sisters podcast recently and gave myself permission to mess around a lot during February while still learning. February is going to be busy enough plus my husband going out of town for 7 days overseas. That right there told me I'll have a week to not knock ourselves out homeschooling. In fact, I think we'll just blow up the house with learning activities and then clean it all up the day before Daddy gets home!

*If you listen to this podcast, do so with paper, so head to the link above because you'll love the recommendations for fun learning with your kids. The Field Trip Zoom drove me nuts, though, because some of them are so expensive. I'm trying to get Google Expeditions on my PC but so far it's making me only do it on the phone with the tiny screen. Also check out Discovery VR, and I have you heading to a cool little thing on Hawaii, although it's not exactly a field trip.

I've joined the My Little Poppies Gameschool Community on Facebook because it's very difficult for me to sit down and play games with my kids but I need to do it ... for bonding with them and fun for them and learning happens to sneak in as well.

As a side note, check out this post over here about 17 awesome subscription boxes. I know they can get pricey, but I spend money on dumb stuff at Target that I could get at a thrift or discount store instead so if I just am mindful of my spending and keep up my proofreading from home jobs, I can swing some of these.

I signed up for a JAM subscription for my LEGO kid because the first month was free then there was a discount for the next month. You really probably only need a month to explore each class unless your kid is REALLY into something, then you can pay for another month or there is an option for $99 to mess around in a class for a whole year. Your fee does NOT include multiple classes.

Don't forget about Netflix for homeschooling. Find yourself a community on Facebook for lots of great ideas on that.

Hit the library and snuggle up and read and forget about fractions and Algebra and teaching the alphabet for a while. I have some fun musical alphabet videos I'm going to sit with my youngest and watch and my educated guess is he just might learn more from those than from weeks of me making him do ABC flash cards he dreads. Time to change it up!

I also got a bunch of those "Who Is" and "What Is" and "Who Was" books ... tons of those and they count as history and geography and reading for sure.

So many ideas! I'll be back later! Have a great homeschool day!