The holidays are now over and most families are in the middle of winter blues. As a homeschooler, keeping yourself and the kids motivated in school during the long, cold winter months can be challenging. Here’s some websites and ideas that might spark your child’s natural curiosity and ease the mid-school year pains.
- Make a game of it. If your child is struggling with math, reading or another subject find a game that promotes the skills they need to work on. FunBrain.com has a lot of free online games in math and reading. They are fun, easy to play and educational!
- Provide fun materials. Buying fun backbacks, notebooks, folders, craft supplies, pens and pencils can help keep education fun. While you probably did this in September, buying some new supplies can refresh that “school is fun” feeling.
- Education doesn’t need to be boring. For younger kids learning Spanish comes easier with TV shows like Dora the Explorer. With cable channels such as the Discovery Channel, the Learning Channel and the History Channel you can feed kid’s interests. Is your child a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean? Check the history channel for specials about real life pirates. CommonSense.org has great reviews about movies, TV, games,. music, websites and books reviewed by the website, real parents and kids!
- Think outside of the box. Some homeschooled students find it easier to research and write a long paper if they can do a video/PowerPoint/art project along with it. Experiment with creative means such as poetry, rap, performance or story writing.
- Help yourself! Find a homeschooling support group. January usually finds homeschooling moms close to burn out. There are some struggles and problems that only homeschooling parents can understand. TheHomeschoolMom.com has a great list of support groups listed by state. If you can’t get to a local group, the internet has literally hundreds of online message boards, forums and blogging groups for homeschooling parents A to Z Homeschooling has a great list of the different online communities available.
- Enroll your child in MINDsprinting's
program. Finding a new way to learn can infuse your child with confidence. MINDsprinting
is a proven curriculum that works with your child’s strengths and helps them exactly where they’re at. MINDsprinting has built in incentives! Students earn “stars” that they can redeem for prizes. When your child sees how easy it is to learn it will build self-esteem and that will encourages them to finish out the school year strong. MINDsprinting makes learning fun again. Click here
to take the free assessment test. Even if you don’t use the service you will be able to keep the results for yourself.
