Fun Tips
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Grab a cup of Jo and let’s talk…about everything BESIDES our children. Let’s expand our horizons.
Donuts? Donut road trip? With a homeschool bestie? You had me at DONUT! Donut say anything more – my two favorite worlds merging – food and homeschool – donut you know me at all? There is no question about it! We’re going! And we went! And it was everything I dreamed it would be.
There’s one magic thing you can do daily that can make all the difference in traveling with a friend, spouse, or child. It’s the daily goody bag.
Road trips can be the ultimate immersive learning experience - but it takes proper planning to make it the epic trip of your dreams. This planning how-to will really start your engine!
Planning birthday parties is a fun, child-led opportunity for teaching your children event planning. Here’s a simple checklist and some easy tips to walk your child through this fun process.
East to make carrot cake cookies made from real food ingredients, perfect for welcoming spring or celebrating Easter.
With traps, gold coins, and creative fun, St. Patrick’s Day can become quite a memorable homeschool day. Here’s 5 ways to homeschool St. Patrick’s Day.
Instead of coasting through the end of our homeschool year, let’s run through the finish line with purpose. It’s the home stretch so let’s make it matter. We discuss ways to finish your school year right with 5 simple steps.
Teaching a life skill can be a precious moment between a parent and child. Let’s talk about how to cook with your child in an enriching and bonding way. The ingredients to a fun and enriching cooking experience are simple!
When I think of strong women, I think of us, the homeschool moms. Our challenges are great, but our hope is even greater. We started the journey strong, but how do we stay strong? How do we wear all our hats from dawn to dusk with love in our hearts? How do we have the energy to deal with math meltdowns and snack spills every day? How do we smile and encourage our son that takes ten minutes to write one. simple. sentence? Burnout creates bitterness and a homeschool built on bitterness crumbles. We have to take care of ourselves if we want to finish strong.
Fill your road trip and long car rides with fun - with the Bag O’ Fun! This simple party in a bag is a sure way to create enriching learning and bonding experiences in the car! Free downloadable of car games ideas are included.
So, have you ever made lemonade? It requires like a year’s worth of sugar to make a decent pitcher of fresh squeezed lemonade. So after I made it one time with my kids, I was like, “No way. We are never doing that again.” But let’s talk about what’s sweeter than lemonade...our Mom-friends!
So, it finally occurred to me - why not let them choose where we have our formal school time. Let’s leave the familiar and find new settings and new places - even within your home and backyard!
You don’t always know it when you see it. It’s beauty and changing and love. You won’t know it until you read it. It’s a moment that I love. It’s when a book becomes bigger than just a book, it’s: the biggers.
Happy Hour is just that - HAPPY! Does it need to be anything else? Grab your Kombucha, and grab your kid and their favorite drink - and have your own Happy Hour. Right now we cannot go out on “dates” with our kids, but we can still have dates…in our home!
Through our struggles with homeschooling during a pandemic, we are having to cope and create our own version of normal to best serve our children that looks so different than our normal homeschooling life. As part of our coping, we decided to plan an amazing schedule of Zoom meet-ups for our sweet homeschool friend group.
If I had a time capsule when I was a kid, it would have contained roller skates, Chuck-e-Cheese tokens, my Swatch Watch, my New Kids on the Block t-shirt, a mixed tape of Whitney Houston’s greatest hits, and a scrunchie...and I’m super bummed I don’t have one to open. But my kids can, and so can yours!
Dailies are the things your kids love to do to start off their day that is not the major curriculum. It can be songs you sing together, questions you discuss, or a specific journal they complete and share with you. It’s a time to grow together...a time to nurture character development...a time to laugh together. It’s a time to discuss big topics about life. It’s a time to remember that life is short and relationships are to be treasured.
What was your favorite game as a kid? Mine was Mastermind and Speed. And, Uno, Connect Four, Operation, Chutes and Ladders, Candyland, oh, I could go on. Give the gift of games to your kids and to your homeschool.
Call it whatever you want – it’s awesome any which way and my kids played it today, twice – fun cooperative learning, satisfaction in conquering the challenge, and of course, gummy, yummy treats.
Hey, lego my Lego! We’ve never been a Lego family...but now we are! It’s finally happened. My kids will spend up to 1-2 hours some days just creating their “Google Town.” Of course I felt like the winning parent when my 7-year-old daughter was so excited about her first creative non-kit build...A Beer Shop! WHAT?
Rainy day? No problem. Sick? No problem. Out of town? No problem. Your kids can still have fun play dates with their friends through a virtual meeting space.
Sometimes online educational videos are a must in homeschool, especially for working parents! Normally I will not use the LOL acronym. I just won’t. I won’t because I just don’t laugh out loud, almost never...but when we watch Mr. DeMaio, my kids and I totally LOL. My husband describes him with one word: “Hilarious.”
This is my favorite independent homeschooling tip. Go beyond the worksheet with creativity, invention, engineering, and story-telling by providing The Art Studio. You will get a window into your child’s heart that you’ve never seen before. After your Art Studio is set-up and you’ve laid some ground rules, this too does not require any of your time.
So, how do I get to sleep until 8am or 9am every single day as a homeschool mom? I have taught and trained my kids to work independently first thing in the morning. I call it “Solo” time.
Board games have many developmental benefits, some of which you may not have thought of. Learn more and get recommendations for our favorite games to play as a family.