4 Fun Ways to Enjoy Summer Homeschooling ~ 
Written by Cait Curley

Our family just wrapped up a 3-day soccer tournament and the kids are prepping for their year-end piano recital. I need to sign my daughter up for the summer swim team this weekend and my oldest needs to decide which merit badges he wants to work on at Scout camp. My husband just brought freeze pops home from Costco and my youngest is working on a summer activity wish list.

Summer is here, you guys. We made it!

I’m ready to hop grab a slice of watermelon, hop in the hammock, and get lost in a delicious book. But, first… I have to figure out our summer homeschooling plans.

Summer Homeschooling Works Well For Many Families

As much as I would like to while away my summer hours reading in a hammock, my kids crave structure. Early in our homeschool journey, I tried taking the summer completely off and it made for rocky re-entry in September. I’ve learned that our family thrives when we maintain a little structure during the summer months.

Summer homeschooling works for several reasons:

1. Kids love routine.
   
   Routines are important for children and teens. Predictable routines help kids to feel grounded and secure. Routines are especially helpful during times of uncertainty and change.
2. Routines help to keep children and teens busy. 
   
   I’m a huge believer in the value of boredom. My kids always do something creative after complaining of boredom. That said, I don’t want to spend my summer days listening to my kids whine about boredom. Adding a dollop of structure to summer days can help decrease the “I’m bored” whine factor!
3. No summer slide. 
   
   Honestly? I kind of hate the term summer slide, but we all know that those math skills can be a bit rusty come September. Sprinkling a little math throughout the summer can make September reentry a breeze!
4. Allows for time off during the year. 
   
   This is one of my favorite reasons to homeschool during the summer months. It allows for more time off during the traditional homeschool year. Feeling burnt out? Want to enjoy the winter holidays? Dying to take an impromptu long weekend? Year-round homeschooling allows for more space during the year.

There are many benefits to year-round, but summer homeschooling need not look anything like the rest of the homeschool year!

Homeschooling in the Summer Needs To Be Fun

• I need the break.
  
  Homeschooling is hard work, and the past year-plus has been more challenging than in previous years. I want our homeschooling to be fun this summer!
• My kids need the break.
  
  I try to remember that when I feel like I need a break, my kids are almost always feeling the same. Kids need downtime, too!
• The weather is better and we need to enjoy it.
  
  Summer is hands-down my favorite season. I live in New Hampshire and summer is but a blink! Because of this, I want to soak up every last bit of our summer days.

Our summer homeschooling includes heaps of outdoor time, stealth learning, delicious books, and -of course- play!

4 Fun Ways To Enjoy Summer Homeschooling

I’m a firm believer that the very best ideas are often the most simple ones. Here are four super simple, super fun ways to infuse more play into your summer homeschooling:

1. Make your own bucket list
   
   Summer bucket lists can be fun, but they often lead to feelings of pressure and overwhelm. I much prefer a Summer Idea List. The Summer Idea List is just that- a list of ideas. It’s not a to-do list. You’re not expected to tick off every box. Instead, this is a boredom buster. Did your teen just whine of boredom? Refer him to the list.
2. Coffee and Books
   
   Reading aloud is the most important part of your entire homeschool day. In our family, we have a simple but beloved homeschool tradition called Coffee and Books. It’s as simple as it sounds! I drink coffee and read books to my children while they eat breakfast. I’m able to check off the most important thing early in the day and that feels pretty darn good.
3. Outdoor Games
   
   We are gameschoolers, but board games do not need to be confined to indoor spaces. When the weather is gorgeous, we take our games outdoors! We love to play waterproof games in the pool or at the beach.
4. Unit Studies
   
   I love unit studies! The summer months are perfect for getting lost in a long, leisurely rabbit hole. Whether you’re interested in backyard science or you want to get lost in a favorite author’s work, unit studies are a great way to sneak in some fun summer learning.

What will your summer look like?

Whether you’re eating your weight in watermelon and spending lazy days reading in the hammock, or if you’re homeschooling through those hazy hot and humid days, I wish your family a wonderful, playful summer!

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!

Cait’s Quarantine Day in the Life  ~
Written by Cait of  My Little Poppies

I had planned to start school the Tuesday after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, but life had other plans.

My daughter woke up with a bit of a scratchy throat and I decided to test her for COVID before carrying on with our various activities and, you guessed it, she was positive. It seems apropos to share an atypical homeschool day in the life in light of this most unusual timeline, am I right?

And so, I present to you our 2022 [quarantined] homeschool day in the life:

The importance of flexibility, plus some silver linings.

If there’s anything I’ve learned while homeschooling during a global pandemic, it’s that it’s okay to slow down and try to be as flexible as possible. When I saw that positive line, I figured my daughter might start feeling lousy and that, in all likelihood, the rest of the family would topple like dominoes.

Add to this the fact that my husband (a critical care pulmonologist) was covering the ICU all week and weekend. (You can imagine how long those days are right about now!) With the possibility of a cruda-licious week on tap, I decided to scrap all homeschool plans and set the bar very, very low.

As it turns out, only two of the five of us tested positive and the two that did were fine in under 24 hours. In retrospect, we could have had a normal homeschool week (except for outside activities), but we ended up having a beautifully slow, restorative week filled with connection over game boards.

I wouldn’t go back and change a thing!

Cait’s Quarantine Day in the Life

Morning…

We enjoy slow mornings over here. Our morning routine during quarantine looked like a typical week.

I wake up before the kiddos, grab a cup of coffee and my happy lamp, and then plunk myself on the couch to catch up on what’s been happening in the Never Board Learning community overnight. Once I’m caught up, I read until the kids wake up. This (afflinks) was my quarantine week read and it’s fantastic!

I used to read aloud to my kiddos first thing every morning. This tradition, which we call Coffee and Books, is our favorite homeschool routine. This homeschool year has been interesting because I now have a teenager. The child who was once up before dawn is now the last to descend the stairs each morning.

I still read aloud to the kids, but these days it happens during or just after lunch.

Over the holidays, our family jumped on the Wordle bandwagon. Wordle is the first thing my kids do when they wake up in the morning, followed by this math puzzle and this calendar puzzle (afflink – a Christmas gift from a friend).

If the teen is awake and morning puzzles are completed, we listen to the KidNuz podcast followed by Bird Notes and/or The Daily Poem if a new episode is available. If the teen is not awake, my little two work on their math and piano.

My 12-year-old uses Nicole the Math Lady and my 10-year-old uses Beast Academy Online. My teen completes his math (Art of Problem Solving) later in the day.

Afternoon…

On a typical afternoon, we eat lunch and I read aloud to the kiddos. Then, my children work on assignments and projects related to their core academic courses. We also have a variety of extracurricular activities.

During our hunker down week, our afternoons were different.

We ate lunch and I read a picture book or two. Then, we cozied up by the fire and listened to a chapter from this fantastic book (afflink) on Audible.

Next, we watched a science documentary. Right now, my kids are enjoying Welcome to Planet Earth featuring Will Smith. We watched Encanto one of the days, too, but the absolute highlight of our hunker down TV time was attending a virtual concert Yo-Yo Ma performed for frontline healthcare workers, made possible by Project: Music Heals Us. It is a quarantine silver lining we will never forget!

After our Audible and TV time, we played a game while listening to the Encanto soundtrack. This was another silver lining of our hunker down week. As a gameschooling family, we try to play games daily, but we can never play as many as we’d like due to outside commitments!

We played Scrabble multiple times daily during quarantine. This is a milestone because my younger two have not expressed an interest in Scrabble (mama’s all-time favorite game) until now. When we play, we keep the Scrabble Dictionary nearby and the kiddos are allowed to search it when they are stuck. This results in an enormous amount of spelling and vocabulary practice!

We also added a new variation and it is called Scrabble Squats. We were missing our hikes with friends and were feeling antsy, so we created a challenge where you squat the number of points you earn on each turn.

As I sit here and type it out, Scrabble Squats doesn’t sound fun, but we had a blast! In addition to Scrabble, here are some other games we played during our hunker down week: Sagrada, Azul, Clank!, Triominoes, PicWits, Gobblet, Machi Koro, and more.

Later in the afternoon, my children explored various projects. My oldest is studying chess and trying to increase his score on chess.com. He’s also working on several WWII fighter plane models.

My daughter learned to blow huge bubbles, do a split, and she learned to walk on her hands. Plus, she connected with her buddies over Zoom. My youngest is currently creating a stop-motion animation with help from his siblings. All three kiddos are learning needlepoint.

Evening…

My goal during our hunker down week was an early, healthy dinner so that we could all get to bed on time. This was so easy to accomplish without our evening activities. We made lots of soups in the crockpot (this was their fave), which worked out great because Dad could get a hot meal when he got home from work (usually after we were fast asleep).

But before we hit the hay it was time for one final round of Scrabble by the fire. Okay, okay, maybe two rounds. And this time, instead of listening to the Encanto soundtrack, we played while watching Jeopardy! to see if Amy Schneider can keep going. (Yet another thing we wouldn’t be able to do during a typical week!)

And that’s what an atypical [quarantined] homeschool day in the life looked like around here over the past ten days!

What you don’t see here…

The internet is a funny place and even though this was far from a typical homeschool day in the life for us, I want you to know that there is a ton of stuff you didn’t see.

That list includes but is not limited to things like sibling squabbles, raised voices, messes, mountains of laundry, and Christmas decorations yet to be taken down.

This is real-life homeschooling- and gameschooling- in all its beautiful, sticky, messy, wonderful, ugly, and quarantined glory. I wouldn’t change it for the world. (Unless we’re talking about the pandemic part of it all. I definitely want off that bus!)

My, how the days have changed:

• 2021: Cait’s gameschool day in the life (with a 9-, 11-, and 12-year-old)
• 2020: Cait’s gameschool day in the life (with an 8-, 10-, and 11-year-old)
• 2019: Cait’s homeschool day in the life (with a 7-, 9-, and 10-year-old)
• 2018: Cait’s homeschool day in the life (with a 6-, 8-, 9-year-old, and puppy)
• 2017: Cait’s homeschool day in the life (with a 5-, 7-, and 8-year-old)
• 2016: Cait’s homeschool day in the life (with a 4-, 6-, and 7-year-old)

This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission from some of the links on this page.

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!

Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Try Holiday Gameschooling ~
Written by Cait Curley of My Little Poppies

As 2021 comes to a close, many of us are seeking a calm, connected end to the year. We want to slow down and savor the holiday season with our children and teens.

We want to capture these moments in our memories forevermore because childhood goes by in a blink:

If you’re looking to slow down and savor the season with your kiddos, but you also want to sneak in a little stealth learning, I highly recommend holiday gameschooling.

It’s the Perfect Time to Try Holiday Gameschooling

Many families play board games at holiday gatherings. Board games are a wonderful way to connect with family members and make memories to last a lifetime.

Growing up, my family had a holiday board game tradition. We would play my favorite game, Scrabble, with my aunt and cousins. My aunt loved Scrabble as much – if not more- than I did. We created such wonderful memories around that table. Those are memories that I cherish today, and the time spent with family around that Scrabble board still influences my family life and homeschool today.

And while games are an excellent way to connect with family members and make memories, board games also pack a powerful learning punch! Gameschooling is the intersection of play-based learning and homeschooling. Gameschooling allows you to add more play to your homeschool routine and make it “count” for those year-end homeschool powers that be.

If you’ve ever thought about dabbling in gameschooling, the holiday season is the perfect time to get your feet wet!

Holiday Homeschooling Is A Chance To Try New Things

The holiday season brings lots of joy and excitement. When you have little ones, the energy can be VERY high. It can be a challenge to get kiddos to sit down and pay attention for any length of time.

What I’m trying to say is, it can be incredibly challenging to maintain your normal day-to-day homeschool rhythm. So, why not channel that excitement into non-traditional learning activities such as gameschooling.

Who knows? You just might discover your family’s new favorite homeschool thing!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- I truly believe that homeschooling can be almost all fun and games. Adding more play to your homeschool day can completely change the learning atmosphere!

Holiday Gameschooling Is Still Homeschooling

We all know that play-based learning is important for children and teens. Play benefits the whole child. It has a positive impact on a child’s physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development. Plus, play allows a child to discover unique interests, likes and dislikes. These are discoveries that no one else can make for you.

Gameschooling is a measurable form of play-based learning. Children and teens are doing so much more than simply having fun when they are engaged in play.

Playing educational board games has a host of benefits for your homeschool, plus you build relationships and make memories in the process. I am constantly amazed by the amount of learning that happens when I sit down to play games with my kiddos.

Here are just a few skills that your children and teens use while playing board games:

• Verbal communication
• Self-regulation
• Cooperation
• Turn-taking
• Sharing
• Listening
• Attention and focus
• Following directions
• Creativity
• Social skills
• Learning to handle wins and losses
• Cognitive skills such as counting, color/shape/pattern recognition, strategy, problem-solving, early literacy, etc.

I have witnessed the power of play and gameschooling time and time again. I could tell you about how games taught all three of my kiddos how to tell time, how to make change, how to conquer addition and subtraction, how to multiply and divide, how to negotiate and problem-solve.

Most recently, games have helped my youngest, who is a reluctant writer, fall in love with character development and writing stories.

Why do games work so well? It’s simple! Playing games offers children a chance to practice and build skills in a no-pressure, non-judgmental way. If the game doesn’t go the way you wanted it to, you can start over and try again.

Gameschooling Through The Holidays

Among the biggest homeschooling perks in my world is the fact that our family can play games frequently. Board games are an integral part of our homeschool routine. We don’t have to try to squeeze in a family game night on an already jam-packed weekend, but rather we can play daily and sometimes multiple times daily if we desire.

With the holiday season upon us, now is the perfect time to dabble in gameschooling without the pressure of your daily homeschool to-do list weighing on your mind. You can kick back, relax, and make memories with your children and teens.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Play a game first thing in the morning or at the end of the day (depending on what works best for your unique family). Games are a wonderful way to help with transitions during the day.
• Play a game over lunch. Our family loves to pull out Boggle or a Professor Noggin Trivia game (afflinks) and have some fun while we eat.
• Pick one day a week to be a game day. Get your feet wet with academic gameschooling… but don’t tell your kids that games are educational because that will ruin the fun. Try Yahtzee for stealth math,  Story Cubes for literacy, or The Scrambled States of America for geography.

When it comes to gameschooling, the sky is the limit!

Holiday Gameschooling Resources To Get You Started

Homeschooling shouldn’t feel super hard or complicated. You can cultivate a family culture of curiosity and joyful, lifelong learning… and it doesn’t need to look anything like the public school of your past!

As a school psychologist and homeschool mom, I am passionate about play-based learning and gameschooling. I would love to help your family on your gameschooling journey.

Here are three resources I’ve created to support families:

1. Free 7-Day Gameschool Kickstart

When you join the 7-Day Gameschool Kickstart, you’ll receive the following:

2. Gameschooling 101: How to Add More Play to Your Homeschool Day

This self-paced digital course includes the following:

• Over 25 self-paced video lessons
• Actionable, downloadable PDF resources
• Play-based bonus content
• Access to an incredible resource library

You do not need an overflowing game closet to add more play to your homeschool day. Let me show you how! Sign up here! (Or, click here for a review to learn more.)

3. And, finally, my FAVORITE resource: Never Board Learning!

Never Board Learning is a private online community for creative parents and educators who enjoy play-based learning and gameschooling. Never Board Learning features a private (non-Facebook) community forum, guest speakers, Q and As, day in the life family spotlights, and a growing resource library filled with challenges, documentation resources, and print-and-play activities.

At Never Board Learning, we believe homeschooling can be *almost* all fun and games. Join today and have more fun tomorrow! Read more about Never Board Learning here!

Whether you’re brand-new to gaming or whether you’re a second-generation gameschooler, I wish your family a happy, healthy holiday season and a wonderful 2022!

Tell us: Does your family homeschool through the holiday season? What does it look like in your world? Share in the comments!

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!

3 Things That Totally Changed My Homeschool (for the better!)
~ Written by Cait Fitzpatrick Curley of My Little Poppies

When I first began homeschooling, it was under duress. In fact, I call myself an unexpected homeschooler because I never thought we would homeschool our children.

Prefer to listen?

But here we are, so many years later, not just surviving but thriving in our education. Looking back, I can see that there are three things that totally changed my homeschool and helped us establish our approach to learning.

It was difficult in the beginning. I knew my son needed a different approach than a formal school environment provided.  But I found myself wondering how to provide it.

My only reference was my own understanding of education. I went TO public schools. I worked as a school psychologist IN public schools.

The more I tried to find resources to homeschool, the more overwhelmed I became with curriculum choices and homeschool styles. Finally, in desperation, I decided to take it one step at a time and just do what really worked for my kids (and for me).

Eventually, these three approaches to learning became the backbone of our homeschool.

3 Things That Totally Changed My Homeschool (for the better!)

While I knew we needed a different approach to learning, I also knew we needed some structure. These three things have worked amazingly well for my family:

1. Coffee and Books

My motivation was at an all-time low. Instead of waking up early and accomplishing all the things, I struggled to put my feet to the floor in the morning and do some of the things. Somewhere, in the midst of my battle with getting started each day, our mornings evolved.

I don’t know if it was out of laziness or if it was an attempt to make myself feel better about homeschooling, but I started reading to my kids as soon as they entered the kitchen. I didn’t ask them to do math first. In fact, I didn’t talk about our homeschool must-dos at all.

Instead, I poured myself a strong cup of coffee then picked up a great book and read aloud.

Coffee and Books is our most peaceful time of day. The reading sparks fantastic conversations and learning. This ritual starts our morning off on the right foot and has made this family of bookworms smile.

2. Lazy Unit Studies

I love the idea of unit studies, but always felt overwhelmed with all planning and then actually getting started.

Somewhere along the way, I decided that the value of following my children’s interests and all the rabbit trails that come along with them was far more important than trying to make them perfect.

My Lazy Unit Study plan was born.

Essentially, when my kids stumble upon a topic that interests them, I use resources easily available to us (think library books, documentaries, YouTube videos, and any local field trip opportunities) to keep learning about it for as long as they stay interested.

If you want to know more about exactly what this looks like in our homeschool, I created a quick and easy ebook and an entire course to help you get started.

This guide will help you identify your child’s current interests and also learn to find the wonder in plain sight. It will guide you through the brainstorming, planning, and execution process. You will also learn how to document child-led learning.

3. Gameschooling

There is a wealth of research suggesting that learning through play creates more comprehension and retention for our children. Play impacts the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development of children and teens.

It is also a much more joyful and satisfying way to live our homeschool lives.

We are a family of gamers. I grew up playing and loving board games. My kids are the same. Why not combine our love of games with our love of learning?

Gameschooling is the intersection of PLAY and LEARNING. And it changed everything in our homeschool.

We use games to learn everyday, in all areas of academics and life.

If you are just getting started homeschooling, or are looking to shake things up in your learning, I highly recommend starting with the simple things that bring you and your children the most joy.

For us, that’s good books, interest-led learning, and games as often as possible. These are the three things that totally changed our homeschool for the better, and I’m so grateful!

How about you? What has changed your homeschool for the better?

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!

5 Ways to Plan for Fun in Your Homeschool Year ~
Written by Caitlin Fitzpatrick Curley

I don’t know about you, but I am in complete denial that it is August. Summer is my favorite and I mourn its passing every year, but this summer went by in a blink. I’m not ready for autumn and all that comes with it, including homeschool planning.

If we’re being honest, I haven’t planned at all. I’ve never entered August without a plan! In a typical year, at this point in the summer, I’ve not only planned for fall but I’ve also written an article outlining our plans for the year.

But this hasn’t been a typical year. The past 18 months have been a challenge on so many levels. Despite my best efforts to rest and relax this summer, my soul is still weary.

When I look ahead to fall, the only thing I know for sure is that I want to infuse more fun into our homeschool routine. 

Every year, I flirt with the idea of trying a 4-day school week, but then I change my mind at the eleventh hour. Not this year, though!

I might not know what we’re doing for math or language arts yet, but I do know that we’ll be homeschooling Monday through Thursday and saving Fridays for family fun. I want to fill our Fridays with field trips, outdoor adventures, baking, gameschooling, science experiments, play, and more.

Why Fun Is More Important Than You Think In Your Homeschool

Fun is an incredibly important part of the homeschool experience. When we look back on these years, we want to remember the connection, the smiles and laughter, the stories, the adventures.

We want to remember the fun.

One way to infuse more fun into the homeschool day is to be more playful. Play has a positive impact on a child’s physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development. Research has demonstrated that play is not only essential for child development, but it is important for all of us.

Play helps us to connect, to have fun, and to make memories. Adding more play to your homeschool day can reduce stress for everyone, plus your children and teens can learn as they play.

The Educational Benefits of A Fun Approach 

Adding more fun and playfulness to your homeschool routine can have academic and non-academic benefits.

Sprinkling more fun into your day can help increase retention. One of my all-time favorite quotes is from Alfred Mercier: “What we learn with pleasure, we never forget.”

By infusing fun into your learning, children and teens retain more.

When you have fun with your kiddos, you are connecting as a family. Connected children and teens are generally more content and cooperative when it comes to other, less fun, homeschool tasks.

This, in turn, makes life easier for homeschool parents. The result? More satisfying educational outcomes!

5 Ways To Plan For Fun In Your Homeschool

As you get ready for back to school and are working on your homeschool plans, I recommend being intentional about adding the fun. Here are 5 easy ways to plan for fun in your homeschool routine:

1. Games

If you’ve been following us for any length of time, you knew this one was coming! By adding play-based learning and gameschooling to your homeschool routine, you can fuel academic and non-academic learning. There are some amazing games on the market today and virtually any game you play with your kids will involve some stealth math, at the very least!

I often talk about the academic benefits of gameschooling, but gameschooling also works on soft skills. These are just as important – if not more so- than academic skills.

Soft skills are social skills; they are the skills that we all need to interact well with others. Things like your ability to communicate, be kind, negotiate, be polite, work well with others. Every single game you play with your kids offers real-time social skills practice and coaching. (Want to get started with gameschooling? Join our free 7-day challenge!)

2. Field Trips

I love field trips! I loved them as a kid and I think I love them even more now, as a homeschooling mom. Field trips are an easy way to add more fun to your homeschool routine.

We are lucky to live outside of Boston, where there are oodles of fantastic field trips. That said, some of our favorite field trips are simpler ones. We love to visit local farms, hike conservation land, attend library events, and public school performances and art shows.

And don’t forget about virtual field trips! If there is a silver lining to this whole pandemic situation, it is that the world is at your fingertips- virtually– now more than ever before.

3. Lazy Unit Studies

As a mom and educator, I know the importance of following a child’s lead. Children learn so much when we follow their interests! A wonderful way to embrace rabbit holes and follow your child’s lead is through unit studies.

Traditional unit studies are fantastic, but they can be time-consuming to plan, prepare, and execute. At times, these traditional unit studies can also be costly… especially if you have multiple children and/or your child loses interest halfway through.

And that’s why I love a good Lazy Unit Study. And by lazy, I mean simple! 

Lazy Unit Studies have all the advantages of traditional unit studies but without overwhelm. A Lazy Unit Study allows you to focus on a child’s current area of passion without hours and hours of planning and prep. The result? More fun for all involved!

4. Food

We are embarking on our eighth year of homeschooling and I can tell you that food solves almost any homeschool struggle. Plus, food can make your homeschool day fun!

My kids’ favorite homeschool subscription is Universal Yums, but you don’t need a subscription to add more tasty treats to your day.

You can make your history studies come to life with a related meal, or you can gather around the table and eat yummy treats while listening to an audiobook or podcast. Are your kids squabbling? Adding popcorn can turn the day around!

5. Outsource

Another way to make homeschooling more fun is to outsource. Several years ago, my kids and I found ourselves in one too many math-related power struggles. At that moment, I decided to outsource math. It was one of the best decisions we’ve made in our homeschool. Outsourcing can decrease stress and tears!

Outsourcing can also add more fun to your routine. My children love to take Outschool classes related to current interests. And we love to add other online learning opportunities to our homeschool day.

Most recently, my kiddos celebrated Shark Week with Nana from You ARE An Artist Chalk Pastel. (Nana and I teamed up for a live event as part of a pop-up Never Board Learning event, too!)

The sky is the limit when it comes to outsourcing. Perhaps you join a homeschool co-op, or maybe you have regular playdates with homeschool friends and parents take turns teaching. Or, maybe your kids enroll in music lessons. Outsourcing is a great way to add more fun while pursuing areas of interest!

You’ll never regret adding more fun to your homeschool routine

Homeschooling is a long game. The days are long but the years are short. When we look back on our homeschool years, we want to remember the fun we had, not the tears.

Homeschooling Really Can Be All Fun and Games ~
Written by Cait Curley of My Little Poppies

I want to talk to you about homeschooling and why I think it should include more fun and games. (Wouldn’t you like to add more fun to your day??)

There’s this quote that I absolutely love. I think of it all the time, but especially in these post-2020 times, and I wanted to share it with you today:

I tried to teach my child with books.
He gave me only puzzled looks.

I tried to teach my child with words.
They passed him by often unheard.

Despairingly, I turned aside.
“How shall I teach this child?” I cried.

Into my hand, he put the key
“Come,” he said, “play with me.”

– Unknown

As a school psychologist, lifelong gamer, and unexpected homeschool mom, I am a huge advocate for play-based learning and gameschooling. I’ve witnessed the power of play when it comes to children and teen’s learning lives and social-emotional development.

I’ve witnessed the power of play across multiple age ranges, when I worked as a nanny, as a tutor, as an assistant teacher, as a school psychologist, and as a homeschool mom.

Homeschooling Really Can Be All Fun and Games

In these post-2020 times, we’re all looking for more connection, more smiles, more laughter, more… FUN. I want you to know that I believe homeschooling can be almost all fun and games.

Why learning can (and should) be fun

Yes, I believe homeschooling can be almost all fun and games. It’s not going to be perfect. Not even close. But I really believe we could all be having more fun.

In fact, I think learning should be fun.

If you don’t believe me, I triple dog dare you to watch this TED talk by Peter Gray and this TED Talk by Stuart Brown. The truth is, research has shown that play is good for all of us, not just for our children.

Better yet, play benefits the whole child. Play has a positive impact on your child’s physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development. Play fuels learning in a fun, non-intimidating way.

The best part? When you take the time to play with your children and teens, you are connecting and making memories that will last a lifetime.

If you’re new to play-based learning and gameschooling, you might be wondering what this type of learning looks like in the real world. And you might be curious how to make this approach to learning measurable so that it counts for those looming year-end homeschool evaluations.

How gameschooling really works

If you’re new to play-based learning, I always recommend dabbling in gameschooling. Gameschooling is the intersection of play and homeschooling. When you gameschool, you can add more play to your homeschool day and easily make it “count” for those year-end homeschool evaluations.

If you’d like to see gameschooling in action, I have two articles for you:

• Cait’s gameschool day in the life (with a 9-, 11-, and 12-year-old)
• Cait’s gameschool day in the life (with an 8-, 10-, and 11-year-old)

Both articles are examples of homeschool days that incorporate gameschooling. But I want you to know that you don’t need to be a lifelong gamer to be a gameschooler.

I have been collecting games since ’86, but you can get started with just a deck of cards!

The benefits I’ve seen in my own homeschool

1. Decreased stress
   I always say that our family survived 2020 by chucking squishy burritos at each other. It sounds goofy but it is true! Games are a wonderful way to distract, laugh, be silly, and connect.
2. Learning
   I have countless examples of how gameschooling has fueled learning in our homeschool. Games have taught one or more of my children to:
   • read
   • tell time
   • identify coins and learn to make change
   • handle frustration
   • add, subtract, multiply, and divide
     
3. Retention
   The wonderful thing about play-based learning and gameschooling is that it is a fun way to learn. Interest-based learning helps with retention. This just makes sense! If you’re interested in a topic, you will naturally retain more than if you were forced to memorize the information for a quiz!
4. Fun
   A playful mindset can transform not only your homeschool routine but also the atmosphere of your home. Play boosts connection and makes family memories. By playing more, you are building a family culture of playfulness, curiosity, and lifelong learning. And guess what? Connected kiddos tend to be more cooperative and content when it comes to homeschool – and household- tasks!

Looking for ways to add more fun to your homeschool (but don’t know how)?

If you’d like to add more play-based learning and gameschooling to your homeschool day, I would love to help. I created Never Board Learning to assist parents on their play-based learning journeys.

Never Board Learning is a private online community for creative parents and educators who love play-based learning and gameschooling. 

With a private community forum, guest speakers, Q&As, day-in-the-life family spotlights, exclusive promos and giveaways from some of your favorite companies, and an ever-growing printable resource library including documentation resources, challenges, and print-and-play activities and games.

At Never Board Learning, we believe homeschooling can be *almost* all fun and games!

Hope to “see” you on the inside!

Now, it’s your turn. Tell us: Do you think homeschooling should be fun? How do you add play-based learning to your homeschool routine? Share here!

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!

Originally posted April 13, 2021.

Cait’s Gameschool Day ~
Written by Caitlin Curley of My Little Poppies

This is my sixth year participating in Simple Homeschool’s Day in the Life series. Every year, I try my best to keep it real and that’s easier said than done! It’s challenging to share a ‘typical’ day.

Our family doesn’t really have ‘typical’ days in a typical-kind-of-year.

This year?  What even is school? What is time? What day is it?

(Can you relate??)

I procrastinated on writing this post. I kept waiting for a normal-ish day to appear. I might as well wait for a unicorn to appear in my family room! And so I present to you our gameschool day in the life for Monday, February 8th, 2021… the day before this article is due.

The backstory…

Before I share our day in the life for February 8th, I need to rewind a little.

Do people still say rewind? Is there a 2021 term I should use instead of rewind? What was I just talking about? 

This is how my brain works now, in 2021 times. I walk into a room and forget why I’m there. I lose my coffee, only to find it lukewarm on some random shelf in my pantry hours later. I can’t think of simple words and terms, like ‘lampshade,’ and instead, need to talk in circles. “You know! The thing! That thing! On the light! The lightbulb cover thingy!”

The past year-plus has been hard, you guys. It’s been hard for every one of us in a myriad of different ways. Words are hard. Complete thoughts are hard. Homeschooling is hard. Laundry is [still] hard.

I digress…

I need to rewind a few days. I had planned to document our day in the life last Friday. I was excited to share some of the resources we’ve been using for our latest Lazy Unit Study. We are head over heels for all things bird-related right now and having a blast.

Best laid plans, am I right?

On Friday morning my daughter woke up with an excruciating headache and a super high fever. This is the kid who never gets sick; she’s my best patient. This is maybe her third fever ever.

In normal times, we’d hunker down and have a lazy day. But in 2021 times, and because we have been really careful with social distancing and mask use, and because my husband works directly with COVID positive patients in the ICU, I left the boys at home and took her to our pediatrician for testing.

And then we had our lazy day. It was a total snooze-fest and not worth writing about. And then it was the weekend and we weren’t homeschooling. And then yesterday into this morning we had a snowstorm.

Fast forward to today. It’s Monday, February 8th. We are post-sick. It’s kind of a snow day. And we are in quarantine awaiting test results.

How’s that for typical?!

And without further ado, I present to you our non-typical day in an anything but typical year.

Sunday night…

This has been- by far- our most challenging homeschool year. And our most challenging year as a family. It’s all just total and complete bananas.

In October, I wrote an article for this site in which I shared how we were muddling through the worst year ever. I confessed that we hadn’t had an official first day of school. I shared how we had yet to find a routine.

Honestly? Not much has changed since then. Read-alouds, hours spent in nature, and play are the things that are giving us life in this season.

Hearts over heads, always but especially right now.

We’ve been able to add to our homeschool routine since last October. We have fallen into a bit of a rhythm. Things feel a bit easier than they did in the fall and we tend to accomplish a bit more. I’ve also given myself lots of grace. I’m not sure anyone is having their best year ever. If I don’t get to math or writing one day, we’ll survive.

One helpful thing is to do some low-key, lazy prepping the night before. I’ll select some books I’d like to read. Collect notebooks and sharpened pencils. Strew some creative resources related to a current area of interest. This has made the mornings infinitely easier. I come downstairs, pour my coffee, and the materials are ready to go.

Last night, as I prepped for a day of post-sick, semi-snow-day quarantining, I decided it should be a gameschool day. 

Why? Because re-entry is hard when you aren’t feeling 100%. And energy is high following a hefty helping of snow. And games are a wonderful way to connect and sneak in stealth learning.

I grabbed some of our favorite card games and placed them beside my coffee maker. I call this a “game menu” and it works like a charm for my family. It’s merely a suggestion and often my children will play many of the games I suggest.

Once I’d selected the games, I went upstairs to read until I fall asleep in my book, as I do most evenings.

Play and gameschooling is an important part of our homeschool routine.

We all know play is essential for child development. Play benefits the whole child. It has a positive impact on a child’s physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development.

And yet…

It can be challenging to make space for play in our current go-go-go, do all the things, ace all the tests society. Leaving space for play can feel like we’re wasting time. It can feel like it shouldn’t “count” as learning and that we’re somehow cheating the system.

Well, I’m here to tell you that gameschooling works. As a school psychologist, lifelong gamer, and homeschool mom, I believe homeschooling can be almost all fun and games. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be perfect, but I do believe we could all be having a lot more fun.

Gameschooling is the intersection of play and homeschooling. With gameschooling, you can allow space for play and make it count for those year-end homeschool assessments.

Our family considers play to be a part of our homeschool routine. It is just as important as math and science and writing and reading. We play at least one game per day and often, on strange days like today, we play even more.

(If you’re curious about gameschooling, I’m hosting a free 7-Day Gameschool Kickstart challenge. It’s oodles of fun and the only thing you need is a deck of cards!)

Cait’s Gameschool Day in the Life

Monday morning…

This morning, I woke up at 5:55. I grabbed my slippers, threw on a hoodie, and poured myself a cup of coffee. I love when I wake up before my early-risin’ kiddos. I’m currently reading The Snow Child (afflinks) and it’s fantastic. It’s the perfect snow day book!

Before I sit down to read, I toss some cinnamon buns in the oven. They aren’t homemade, but my kids don’t mind. I find cinnamon buns to be an excellent re-entry strategy.

I read until my three children trickle down the stairs. We meet at the kitchen island for breakfast. This is the start of our homeschool morning routine.

Our current morning routine includes:

• Kid Nuz podcast – A bite-sized current events podcast that isn’t too heavy for my sensitive kiddos.
• The Daily Poem Podcast – This podcast has been on a long break and we’ve been listening to re-runs. We were delighted to see it was back this morning.
• SQUILT – Every morning we listen to the piece listed on the SQUILT daily listening calendar. This morning, we enjoyed John Coltrane’s My Favorite Things.
• Copywork- I usually select a thought-provoking quote, poetry stanza, or famous line from a novel.

And then it is time for our most treasured homeschool routine. It is called “Coffee and Books” and it is as simple as it sounds. I drink coffee and read books to my kids as they eat.

Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest ones. Reading aloud is the most important part of the entire homeschool day and our Coffee and Books routine allows me to tackle the most important thing first thing in the morning.

This morning we read the following:

• Several poems from Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds (We are knee-deep in a Lazy Unit Study on birds and have been loving this collection.)
• Two stories from Kindness: A Treasury of Buddhist Wisdom for Children and Parents.
• Two chapters from our current read-aloud obsession, Astrid the Unstoppable.

When our read-aloud is finished, it’s time for the kids to brush their teeth and do their morning chores. This provides a movement break for everyone. Then it’s time to regroup in front of the woodstove for our day of gameschooling.

Morning Gameschooling…

This morning, everyone agreed to play Skyjo first. This is unusual. We typically have some sibling negotiation, but everyone is on a Skyjo kick lately.

This is a big win for me because Skyjo is a fantastic card game that has a ton of math. When you play, you’re practicing addition and subtraction, the use of negative numbers, and probability.

Of course, I don’t tell the kids all of that. When it comes to gameschooling, it’s about the connection. That’s where the magic happens. Connect first and just watch the learning unfold.

As a lifelong gamer, I have a large game collection but this collection has grown slowly and intentionally over several decades. I truly believe that you can gameschool well with a deck of cards. So if you don’t have Skyjo at home, fear not.

There are so many fantastic math games that you can play with that deck of cards sitting in your junk drawer!

After Skyjo, we decided to play Last Letter. This is a fast-paced seek-and-find-meets-language-arts game. Each player is dealt a hand of cards. There are interesting scenes on each card. Then, you turn over a card from the deck. Players race to “match” a card in their hand with the card on the table (or in this case carpet) using a word.

For example, the face-up card might have a circus on it and I might have a card in my hand that has a tiger. I would put my card on top of the circus card and say, “Tiger!” Then, it’s time to use the last letter. The card I placed face-up would now be the card everyone wants to match, but they’d have to find something on the card in their hand that begins with the letter R.

Again, you don’t have to have the game Last Letter to enjoy some stealthy language arts fun. You could play I Spy with your children using the same last letter rule. If you spy a table, your child will have to find something that starts with an E next and so on. There are also tons of free and super affordable print and play language arts games on websites like Teachers Pay Teachers.

After a couple of rounds of Last Letter, my oldest asked to play Maestro Mastery. This is a new-to-us game that I’ve been playing with my younger two.

For whatever reason, my oldest hasn’t had a chance to play yet and he was excited to try it out.

Maestro Mastery is a memory-style card game featuring famous composers. When you make a match, you read aloud to the group from the card. All three of my kiddos take piano lessons and this complements the lessons beautifully. We can’t wait to show the game to our piano teacher once we’re officially out of quarantine!

Again, if you don’t have a music game at home, you can find free and affordable online music study resources. SQUILT has a few games available and you can find others on Teachers Pay Teachers and Etsy.

Lunch…

At this point, everyone is hungry. Often, we’ll listen to a podcast while we eat lunch. Today, the kids elect to listen to The Strange Animals Podcast. Today, we learn all about the Lightbulb Lizard!

After lunch, I clean up while the kids go outside to shovel the front walk. This is something dad asked them to do before he left for work. The snow is fluffy and they end up playing outside for close to two hours.

On a typical Monday afternoon, we meet friends for a socially-distanced hike at our favorite nature center. In fact, we hike most weekday afternoons. That said, today is not a typical day. We are sad to miss the hike but we are still waiting for the test results.

I use this time to tackle laundry, make an orthodontist appointment, and check-in with my 7-Day Gameschool Kickstart participants. Most importantly, I get a call from the pediatrician’s office telling us my daughter is negative for COVID so I do a happy dance in my kitchen!

Afternoon gameschooling…

One of my favorite things in this life is rosy-cheeked kids. After almost two hours of snow play, my three came inside for some tea and games. We start with Organ ATTACK!

Organ ATTACK! is described as “a family-friendly organ harvesting game.” I know that sounds horrible but it is downright hilarious!

And do you know what? Those fact-filled funny cards help human anatomy facts to stick like glue!

If you don’t have a game like Organ ATTACK! at home, you could “play” your way through human anatomy with free online activities. Here are some creative ideas!

Next up, we played a Professor Noggin American History game. This Professor Noggin series is fantastic because the trivia games are affordable and they cover a variety of academic subjects.

When we finished the Professor Noggin game, it was just after five o’clock. We ran out of time to play the art game (Show Me the Monet) and the geography game (The World Game), but that’s okay!

The goal is connection over perfection and completion. What matters is that we were present and playing together. We can play more tomorrow!

Evening…

We cleaned up our games and I prepped for taco night. Yes, it’s a Monday, but re-entry is hard and I’ve found tacos to be a guaranteed win.

As I work on dinner, my little two engage in free play. I’ve mentioned that we are gameschoolers, but it’s really the play aspect of gameschooling that is important to me, as a mom and educator.

I know that it can be hard to allow space for free play, but I have seen our daily homeschool work its way into my children’s play time and time again. As Mr. Rogers said, “Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning.” It’s true!

I love to eavesdrop on my children’s play. Tonight, my little two are lost in a storyline about pandemics and quarantine. One character is a doctor who works in the ICU.

This storyline is bittersweet, but I know they are working through important thoughts and feelings, especially as their dad works on the frontlines.

Meanwhile, my oldest is lost in a book. I’m an old-fashioned book nerd and I’ve been resistant to e-readers. I just love the feel of a book in my hands.

That said, 2020 made it extremely difficult to keep my kids in books with the libraries closed and so each kiddo got a Kindle for Christmas. They have absolutely loved having access to many books again.

Tonight, my husband is home in time for dinner and that makes us smile. We chat about our day. Then, we clean up and the kids get ready for bed. Once we’ve said goodnight, my husband finishes up a little work while I read on the couch.

When he’s finished, we watch a show together and then it’s time for bed.

It’s the end of another atypical day in an atypical year! Please know that there is much you didn’t see here. My children fight, our house is super messy right now, we are behind on laundry.

Our homeschool life is fun and exhausting and chaotic and beautiful and ugly and I wouldn’t change any of it for the world.

Would you like to learn more about gameschooling?

I am over-the-moon excited about our free 7-Day Gameschool Kickstart. I’ll teach you how to add more play and gameschooling to your homeschool day, using just a deck of cards. Join today and have more fun in your homeschool starting tomorrow!

My, how the days have changed:

• 2020: Cait’s gameschool day in the life (with an 8-, 10-, and 11-year-old)
• 2019: Cait’s homeschool day in the life (with a 7-, 9-, and 10-year-old)
• 2018: Cait’s homeschool day in the life (with a 6-, 8-, 9-year-old and puppy)
• 2017: Cait’s homeschool day in the life (with a 5-, 7-, and 8-year-old)
• 2016: Cait’s homeschool day in the life (with a 4-, 6-, and 7-year-old)

This post contains affiliate links.

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what you need most!

3 Awesome Benefits of Gameschooling ~
Written by Cait Fitzpatrick Curley of My Little Poppies

Christmas week is upon us and I don’t know about you, but I am excited to set homeschool routines aside and gameschool our way into 2021!

Gameschooling can change the entire atmosphere of your homeschool, plus it offers a host of academic and non-academic benefits. If you’ve ever considered adding more board games to your homeschool day, now is the perfect time to test it out.

Today, I am sharing three benefits of gameschooling.

3 Awesome Benefits of Gameschooling in Your Homeschool

Gameschooling Benefit #1: Games Boost Academic Skills

There are amazing educational games on the market today. You can find a game for any academic subject, but you truly don’t need an overflowing game shelf to get started with gameschooling. All you need is a few basics and a playful mindset.

And, trust me, gameschooling can transform your homeschool routine and family life for the better. When you sit down to play a game with your children, you can work on academic skills. Gameschooling offers kids a chance to learn new skills, to practice old ones, to fail, to succeed, and to try again.

Games don’t judge. They aren’t threatening. Games don’t assign homework. They don’t correct. Games offer a safe space for learning. Gameschooling is stealth learning at its best.

As a school psychologist and homeschool mom, I have witnessed incredible learning happen through gameschooling. I have countless stories of how gameschooling has helped to boost my children’s academic skills.

I could tell you about the time my daughter was struggling to understand coin identification… until I dusted off the game Money Bags (afflink) and sat down to play with her.

Suddenly, a concept that was intimidating was fun. Within the span of a week, she and her younger brother had mastered coin identification and learned how to make change.

I could tell you the story of a quirky card game called GUBS and how this little game taught my youngest how to read. He had been on the cusp of cracking the code until the card game crossed his path. He fell head-over-heels in love with the game and its characters.

Because he couldn’t read independently, he had to play on my team. He desperately wanted to play independently. He was tired of being on my team. In a matter of a month or two, he accomplished his goal.

He could play GUBS without assistance. He could read all the cards… and the cards are loaded with unfamiliar and imaginary words. Soon, he read Fantastic Mr. Fox all by himself. GUBS made him a reader.

I could tell you how my boys have been playing Memoir ’44 together every week since last Christmas. This game has fueled countless WWII-related rabbit holes. They have each read several WWII books. My husband and I will often overhear them chatting about WWII battles together. I love that they share this interest and connection.

But gameschooling doesn’t just work those academic skills. Playing board games with our children can work on countless soft skills, too!

Gameschooling Benefit #2: Games Help to Grow Social Skills

Social skills are those skills we need to communicate and interact with one another, both verbally and nonverbally. Social skills involve communication, listening, empathy, conflict resolution. These skills help us to build and maintain important relationships, both personal and professional.

Do you want to help your child to be an effective communicator? Would you like your child to learn conflict resolution skills? Do you want your child to flex those empathy muscles? Would you like to teach your child to be a team player? Do you want your children to win- and lose- with grace?

Well, guess what? Gameschooling is the perfect way to work on those all-important social skills. Every single time you sit down to play with your child, you are building those skills.

And let’s be honest here–gameschooling can be downright ugly at times. It can be riddled with siblings squabbles, board flipping, cheating accusations, and tears. Just remember that children aren’t born knowing how to play games, to work together, and to lose gracefully.

Just as we need to be patient with our children’s reading development, we must be patient with our gameschooling.

If gameschooling is super painful for you right now, I want to tell you it gets better. I’m reminded of that each time I see my boys lost in Memoir ’44 together or when my daughter asks me if I’m up for one more round of Gobblet.

When my kids were teeny-tinies, we played a ton of cooperative games. Why? Because cooperative games helped my ultra-competitive guy learn to work on a team. It also showed him that the act of playing a game is fun and that it’s not all about winning.

Cooperative games also helped my daughter grow in confidence. Before introducing cooperative games, she would shy away from playing with us because she was put off by her brother’s competitive nature.

Gameschooling Benefit #3: Games Can Boost Connection

When I worked as a school psychologist, I used games to connect with students. This worked especially well with tweens and teens. They could chat with me but avoid eye contact and they had something to do with their hands. Before they knew it, we were having fun and growing an important connection.

The same holds for gameschooling. This has been a super-stressful year. Gameschooling has helped our family immensely. When you sit down to play a game together, you are connecting, making memories, and having fun.

Playing silly games has been especially important for our family this year. Laughter really is the best medicine!

We have played countless rounds of Beat That! and Throw Throw Burrito. In fact, we have played Throw Throw Burrito so many times that one of our burritos no longer has eyeballs! I am 100% confident that I’ll never look back at our homeschooling and regret playing silly games with my children.

Gameschooling has tons of academic and non-academic benefits, but you’re also making memories to last a lifetime. The benefits of gameschooling can change the entire atmosphere of your homeschool and family life. You’re building a family atmosphere of play and joy. You’re building a home they’ll want to come home to!

By adding gameschooling to your routine, homeschooling can be almost all fun and games.

I truly, wholeheartedly believe that homeschooling can be almost all fun and games. Children are born to learn and play is their love language. When we relax and let our children pursue delight, amazing learning can happen.

It’s important to note that a game doesn’t need to be Educational-with-a-capital-E for it to teach your children new skills. Remember my GUBS story? That quirky card game is not a reading game.

It was simply a game that my son loved and wanted to play it over and over again. This delight and repetition grew his reading skills.

Add more play to your homeschool with Gameschooling 101

Gameschooling is the intersection of play and learning. It’s a way to grow skills in a stealth way while boosting family connection and making memories to last a lifetime.

By adding gameschooling to your homeschool routine, you’ll be able to:

• Teach your children academic and non-academic skills.
• Help your children to problem solve, think creatively, and think outside the box- something our kids need now more than ever!
• Build a family culture of play and joyful curiosity. 
• Grow those all-important social and communication skills.
• Quit trying to find the perfect homeschool tools and embrace the now, building memories with your children.
• Stop worrying at 3 am and start enjoying your family’s homeschool journey.

If you’d like to add gameschooling to your homeschool day in 2021, I’d love to help you. I have created a course called Gameschooling 101: How to Add More Play to Your Homeschool Day. 

I poured my game-lovin’ heart and soul into this course because I truly believe we could all be having a lot more fun while homeschooling.

Gameschooling 101 will teach you all the benefits of gameschooling, how to gameschool with basics, and how to document your gameschooling for those year-end Homeschool Powers that Be.

I want you to homeschool with confidence, knowing you’re raising curious, joyful, lifelong learners who will be ready for anything life throws at them–even a year as weird as 2020!

It’s almost time to say goodbye to 2020, which was arguably the weirdest and most stressful year ever. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to hunker down for the next two weeks and gameschool our way into 2021!

In honor of 2021, I’d like to offer the Simple Homeschool community a discount on the course. Use the promo code SH21 to get 21% off Gameschooling 101 from now through January 31, 2021. Join me and have more fun in your homeschool tomorrow!

Tell us: Are you a gameschool family? Share your family’s favorite gameschool moments with us!

This post contains affiliate links, which means Simple Homeschool receives a small commission from some of the links on this page.

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!

Top Photo by Pedro Santos on Unsplash

Written by Caitlin Fitzpatrick Curley

Do you feel like you’re still trying to figure out how to homeschool through the worst year ever?

In the spring, back when I was naive and full of hope, I wrote an article outlining our curriculum choices for fall 2020.

Cut to today. We are deep into October. It’s practically Halloween and we have yet to find our groove. We haven’t even celebrated an official first day of the 2020-2021 homeschool year.

Honestly, I don’t even know if we are technically “doing school” right now. What even is school this year?

In March, when the pandemic first hit, we set aside most of our daily “homeschool must-dos” to focus on mental health. Prioritizing mental health helped immensely in those early weeks.

As we adjusted to pandemic living, we gradually returned to a quasi-normal homeschool routine, given the circumstances. We are year-round homeschoolers and we naturally schooled throughout the summer. We took part of August and all of September off and we have been trying to find a routine since October 1st.

I feel like our homeschool is a car that won’t start… an anxious car that won’t start.

We are no stranger to the worry monster. When the pandemic first began, I suspected anxiety would rear its ugly noggin. I didn’t think it would take seven months, but the only thing predictable about anxiety is its unpredictability.

We are deep in the throes. We are muddling through the muck. And we are muddling through the muck in the worst year I can ever remember.

How to Homeschool Through the Worst Year Ever

I know I’m not alone. This year is absolute bananas.

We’ve set most of our “homeschool must-dos” aside to focus on what matters most, just as we did in March. I find myself, once again, thankful for the flexibility that homeschooling offers. I can slow down and focus on the heart.

My mantra this year has been “hearts over heads” because- let’s be honest- if your noggin is filled with worries, those facts aren’t going to stick.

This year is like no other. Life is slowed, on pause, and/or frequently interrupted. There isn’t a perfect classroom somewhere in which students are learning all the things well. We are all in a sort of limbo. I’ve decided that, given these unique circumstances, it’s more imperative to model coping and teach life skills than it is to drill math facts.

When we’ve found our footing, we’ll simply start back up and carry on. Like we always do.

Until then- deeeeep breath. One foot in front of the other. One day at a time. This is hard, but it won’t last forever.

If you are in the throes, too, here are three super simple strategies that have helped us as we figure out how to homeschool through the worst year ever: 

1. Read-aloud every single day.

During this uncertain time, I have relied heavily upon my earliest coping mechanism. Books have a magical way of transporting us from our current situation. When we can’t travel, we can get lost in a book.

It almost seems too easy, doesn’t it? The act of picking up a book and sharing a story with your children doesn’t feel like much, but it packs quite the educational punch. In fact, your daily read-aloud is the most important part of your entire homeschool day.

You can cover any area of interest or academic subject during your daily read-aloud. When you read to your children, you are modeling reading fluency, proper pronunciation, and pacing. You are showering them with rich vocabulary, sophisticated language patterns, and you’re growing their fund of factual knowledge.

Reading aloud to our children allows them to bask in the sheer joy of the experience without all the heavy lifting reading requires. And by protecting the joy of reading, we are raising lifelong learners. Because, let’s face it, if you love to read, you can teach yourself anything!

But reading aloud does so much more than boost those academic skills. Reading aloud fosters connection, makes memories and flexes those all-important empathy muscles. Reading aloud is hands-down the most important thing you can do in your homeschool, so don’t feel guilty about a lazy afternoon spent reading!

If you want to create a super simple read-aloud routine that honors your unique family, one that will help you not just survive but thrive during even the most challenging homeschool seasons, I’ve created a course for you. It’s called How to Rock THE MOST IMPORTANT PART of Your Homeschool Day.

2. Get outside every single day.

Nature is the best medicine. It is good for all of us, not just our kiddos. I consider time in nature to be just as important as math and reading- and I would have said that before COVID!

Nowadays? It’s more important than ever! This has been our biggest sanity-saver by far.

I promise you that it will help even when you don’t feel like going outside. Make yourself get out there for twenty minutes and see what happens. Your children will benefit, too.

It can be challenging to rally all of your kiddos, don all the layers, and head outside, but it is worth it. I have never, not once, regretted putting in all that effort.

Once outside in the forest, I feel such a sense of peace. I delight in my children’s exploration and discoveries. When we return home after a chilly hike, we all feel refreshed.

For the past two months, we wake up in the morning and read books. Then we do a little math and piano practice. Then, we hit the trails. We are fortunate to live close to conservation land (but the research shows that all greenspace heals- so parks and backyards count, too).

In September, we each got our own trail map. I put mine in our kitchen. Each morning, my kids would plan the day’s hike. When hiking, each kid had their own map. We hiked anywhere from 3-7+ miles per day. When we got home, one child would use a highlighter to trace our route on the kitchen map. We’d record the date and mileage. Rinse and repeat!

By October, we’d hiked every trail in our local system! We celebrated with hot cocoa, cookies, and It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. The next day, we used our data to do a little fun math. We practiced rounding, using our mileage. Then we made bar graphs and line graphs. We talked about mean, median, and mode. We also planned where we’d hike next.

It’s not a typical year at all, but this is working for our crew right now so I will stick with it.

3. Play every single day.

If you’ve been following us for any length of time, you knew this one was coming. We are gameschoolers. In our homeschool, we play board games every single day. They are part of our homeschool curriculum. I have witnessed, time and time again, the magic of play and gameschooling.

Games are fantastic learning tools because they allow children to practice skills in a safe, supportive way… without red marks and criticism. Games encourage conversation, boost connection, and make memories. 

I truly believe that homeschooling can be almost all fun and games. Now, does that mean our homeschool is all sunshine and roses? Heck no! But I do think homeschooling can be more fun than we think.

And if there’s ever been a year that needed more play, it’s 2020.

Play has the power to transform a homeschool and family life. We all could use more smiles, laughter, and fun right about now!

I’d like to tell you that we have been playing a long list of fantastic educational games. And, in years past, we have! But this year, in the midst of an anxiety-producing pandemic, we have mostly been throwing burritos (afflink) at each other.

In fact, we have been throwing the burritos at each other so often that the burritos are filthy and one is missing both of its eyeballs, as you can see below:

This game has brought our family so much joy and laughter. It might not be Educational-with-a-capital-E, but I am okay with that. We are making memories, connecting, and laughing the stress away. That is priceless.

If you’d like to add more play to your homeschool day, I’d love to show you how.

I spent the summer pouring my game-lovin’ heart and soul into a course called Gameschooling 101: How to Add More Play to Your Homeschool Day. I am super proud of it.

This is a hard year, but it’s not forever.

We are *all* learning big, important things right now. It’s just hard to see it because we are muddling through the muck. And our kids? They are *really* good at learning. They learn despite us!

So let’s breathe. Put one foot in front of the other. Connect with our kiddos over delicious books, fun games, and nature.

Let’s remember to focus on hearts over heads. This is hard, but it won’t last forever.

Tell us: How are YOU muddling through the worst year ever? Share here!

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!

THIS is the most important part of your homeschool day ~
Written by Caitlin Fitzpatrick Curley of My Little Poppies

Did you know that reading aloud is the most important part of your entire homeschool day?

It’s true!

It almost seems too simple, doesn’t it? But reading aloud is one of the best things we can do for our children’s future academic success.

Would you rather listen to this post?

Reading aloud has many benefits

When we read aloud to our children, tweens, and teens, we shower them with rich vocabulary, sophisticated language, and we help to grow their fund of factual information. This has a positive impact on academic achievement, but the benefits of reading aloud go far beyond academics.

When we open a book and read aloud to our children, we help to expand their worldview. As we share a story, our children put themselves in another’s shoes. They learn to take on different perspectives. This simple act of reading a story aloud can help our children to flex those all-important empathy muscles and to care for those around them.

Reading aloud also has a positive impact on family life. When we read-aloud to our children, we are connecting, sharing an experience, and making memories that will last a lifetime. We are also serving as reading role models. Children imitate what they see. We all want to raise curious, joyful, lifelong learners, don’t we? Well, guess what? If you love to read, you can teach yourself anything!

A simple read-aloud routine can transform your homeschool

A new homeschool year is starting and we all know this year has been a bit of a doozy! If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected.

Do you know what helps bring calm to chaos? Routines. Sometimes, we homeschool mamas tend to overthink all the things, but the best ideas are often the simplest ones.

This means it’s a great time to start a simple, sustainable read-aloud routine. That way, if 2020 throws more lemons our way, we will be able to accomplish the most important part of the homeschool day, even if it feels like we’re dropping all the other balls. How do I know this? Because I’ve lived it!

(Psst! If you’re struggling to create a read-aloud routine that you can stick with, keep reading because I have a surprise for you at the end of this post!)

Create a simple, sustainable read-aloud routine that honors your unique family

When we fell into the land of homeschooling, suddenly and unexpectedly, I relied heavily on my background in education and child development. I knew that, even if I dropped other balls, it would be crucial to read-aloud daily.

Early in our homeschool journey, we stumbled into a read-aloud routine that we now lovingly refer to as “Coffee and Books.” And it’s as simple as it sounds. I pour coffee and read books to my children, every single morning, while they eat breakfast.

Coffee and Books was born during a tricky homeschool season. It was unplanned and super simple. It was only later, in retrospect, that I realized we had created an important habit. That habit has grown into our most favorite homeschool tradition. Coffee and Books is the spine of our homeschool day and it has fueled so much learning.

But Coffee and Books has done so much more than that. It has helped us muddle through challenging seasons.

Homeschooling has its seasons and some are more challenging than others. When you’re in a challenging homeschool season, it feels really good to know you’re accomplishing the most important thing each day, even when everything else feels hard. (I’m looking at you, 2020!)

5 Tips for designing a simple, sustainable read-aloud routine

1. Remember to keep it simple.
   When September rolls around, we often find ourselves with all the motivation. It can be tempting to start several read-alouds, but you want to start small. Why? Because small is sustainable! Rather than thinking of reading aloud as this huge undertaking, why not aim for just ten minutes? This amounts to over an hour a week and that is significant! Start small and build from there!
2. Time of day is an important factor to consider.
   We are a family of morning people. We wake up on and it’s all downhill from there! Coffee and Books works well for our family, but it might not work for your family. Perhaps your family wakes up after lunch, and that’s okay! You could have hot cocoa and books at 3 pm, or maybe you’d prefer to read aloud just before dinner. The beauty of homeschooling is the flexibility to create routines that honor your unique family!
3. Consider the ages and stages of your children.
   It’s important to meet your children where they are, right now. If you have babies and toddlers, you will want to read in super small chunks sprinkled throughout the day. Older children can sit for longer periods. If you have a wide range of ages, you might consider reading to your littles while your bigs are still sleeping and then reading to your bigs when the littles nap. Or, you could read a picture book aloud to all of your children. Everyone benefits from read-aloud, regardless of age and reading level, and you never outgrow fantastic picture books!
   
4. Remember the power of a captive audience.
   Read-alouds can be frustrating at times. Children will wiggle and squirm and pepper you with endless, off-topic questions. One strategy to help with read-aloud woes is to use the power of a captive audience. This is why I read aloud to my children as they eat breakfast! Their hands and mouths are busy and their ears are available for listening. Other ideas include reading during bathtime and listening to delicious audiobooks in the car.
5. Try to link your new routine to an existing habit. 
   It can be hard to start a new routine. One way to help solidify a new routine is to link it to a pre-existing habit. When we first started what we’d later refer to as Coffee and Books, I put a picture book by our coffee maker each evening. I wake up every morning and pour a cup of coffee, so leaving the book near the coffee was a perfect visual reminder and helped us to form a new habit.

As homeschool parents, we have the unique ability to preserve the sheer joy of reading for our children and, in doing so, we can raise joyful, lifelong readers and learners.

If you love to read, you can teach yourself anything! The sky is the limit!

Do you need support getting started?

If you want to create a super simple read-aloud routine that honors your unique family, one that will help you not just survive but thrive during even the most challenging homeschool seasons, I’ve created a course for you.

It’s called How to Rock THE MOST IMPORTANT PART of Your Homeschool Day.

How to Rock THE MOST IMPORTANT PART of Your Homeschool Day is a self-paced digital course that covers the many benefits of reading aloud, the types of readers, ages and stages of reading development, how to raise readers, how to cultivate a family reading environment, how to maximize your library card, how to document read-alouds, common stumbling blocks, and how to create a simple, sustainable read-aloud routine that works for your unique family. Each lesson includes a video, audio download, transcript, lesson handout, relevant links, and any related PDF downloads. Course members will also have access to an incredible resource library.

A simple read-aloud routine will help your family thrive during challenging homeschool seasons

This year has been a challenging one, but by creating a simple, sustainable read-aloud routine that honors your unique family, you’ll be able to accomplish the most important part of your homeschool day even on the trickiest of days.

* Find more of Cait’s inspiring posts here on Simple Homeschool!

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!

Top Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash