Teaching Your Kids When You Are Plumb Out Of New Ideas

At the start of each new school year, I am full of grand teaching ideas. Everything is new and fresh and exciting!

But sometime between the end of winter and the beginning of spring we always hit the doldrums in our homeschool.

The curriculum and books my kids are working through are either all done, or hopelessly far from completion. The subjects they love are all done and the ones that are third or fifth choices are struggling.

It really feels like I need to find something new to rejuvenate our homeschool.

Here is a list of things that have worked in the past:

• Candles all around the house.
• Handing the kids a box of tools and a couple of broken computer hard drives and letting them dismantle them.
• Cookies and hot chocolate.
• A new set of storybooks.
• Teaching spelling words in colored chalk on the sidewalk.
• Digging a deep hole in the backyard and sitting in it to do math lessons.
• Turning an afternoon of backing into a lesson on fractions.
• A new puzzle to work while we read together.
• Watching a history documentary together (or a Drive Thru History episode).
• Math challenges and logic puzzles.
• Working together to build a creative timeline around the whole dining room filled with dates and drawings and poems and sculptures to show the historical events and people and discoveries.
• Covering the dining room table with every art supply (or sciencey-tool) we have for an art (or science) day.

I am sure you are noticing that most of these things are not school-related strictly speaking. But one thing I recently discovered is that homeschooling is really not about schooling at home. It is creating a lifestyle that merges family and child raising with learning everything they need to know before they go out and make their way as adults. That includes faith and education and learning how to cook and clean and be there for each other, always.

Where do I come up with all these ideas?

• Pinterest
• Kindle Unlimited book suggestions
• That browsing area in the library where the librarians put out new or interesting books
• Browsing through blog posts written by homeschooling moms (a great list here)
• Used bookstores
• Podcasts (the people at the Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network have a great set of podcasts from a super group of homeschooling moms)
• Miscellaneous goodies like math games and computer programming magazines passed along from my mother-in-law

What do you do when your homeschool needs a jump start? Where do you find ideas?

Now, if you homeschool your kids already, what kind of fellowship have you found to support you in this perfect way of life?