6 Tips for When “Fun Schooling It” Just Doesn’t Work

We’ve all been there. We’ve had the times when boredom with the daily routine overtakes us, and we want to shake it up a bit. You search Pinterest for a fun activity or unit study and try to implement it at home thinking your kids will love it. When it turns out to be a complete flop, you can easily get discouraged and think about quitting. Besides throwing in the towel, what can you do?

Remember these 6 tips for those kinds of days when “Fun Schooling” doesn’t even help:

Try something new.

Perhaps you should look into Unschooling for a change. Or, if you’re an Unschooling family, perhaps you should pull out that textbook you’ve tucked away on the shelf. Sometimes the element of surprise is just what is needed to put a little interest into your day.

Power through it.

Change isn’t always the answer. According to your intuitive knowledge of how your children behave, you may need to ignore the “try something different” approach and just stick to what works–even when it’s not fun. It may be that your children are pulling your strings and just seeing if you’ll cave when their whining gets the best of you. Stick it out and get past the complaints, and things may just go more smoothly after your kids see that this is just the way things are going to be.

Break it up into pieces.

If a task is too long, too monotonous, too tedious… break it into smaller bits. Spread it out over a few days or a week, interspersed with other activities that aren’t so boring.

Just read.

If you’re burned out with the daily grind of routine and need a breather, pull out a chapter book or a classic story, and just read. A blanket, hot chocolate, and a day full of reading may set everyone’s temperaments into a better state for tomorrow.

Take a day off completely.

Call it a vacation day or a mental health day–whatever you like. Hey, that’s one of the best things about homeschooling, isn’t it? For the freedom to take days off whenever we want (or need to), right? If you can’t skip a day, then try taking a day off and doubling up on another.

Abbreviate lessons for a few days.

Take a look at your plans and see if there are some things you can take out. Pare it back down to just the basics or most important things. Have shorter school days, and then let the kids go play outside or upstairs for the rest of the day while you take a break.

Have you had a “Fun Schooling” fail? How did you handle it?