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Are you struggling to get back into your homeschooling routine after a school break? Your vacation is over, no more lazy mornings sleeping until 9 or 9:30… Yeah, friend, this is a real confession of a tired mama. I just wanted to sleep for as long as my kids would be able to hold without eating breakfast.
Sleep talk apart, we had a fantastic time just chilling. We did not travel and we barely left the house, but it was fun to simply relax, watch movies and play games.
Now it’s time to get back into our homeschooling routine! YAY!! Even though I had fun and slept a lot more during our school break, I missed our routine terribly! Why? Because we are used to it, it keeps our hands and minds busy, because I like the predictability of a good healthy routine and I miss homeschooling!!! Yes, I love homeschooling my kids.
The truth is: I was excited to organize our books and binders for Monday morning. We were finishing one book and starting a new read-aloud, so that was exciting! I have to say reading-aloud is our favorite time of the day! We all cuddle on the sofa, crack open the book and the rest is just magic.
Better than reading great stories together are the conversations we have after, the ideas that come out of my children’s heads, their narration, their drawings of scenes they remembered, etc.
Reading is magical, isn’t it?
I love books! I love living books! The books that make you imagine yourself in the story, that makes you laugh until your belly hurt like Mrs. Piggle Wiggle or make you cry at the end, like Charlotte’s Web or Owls in the Family. You become attached to the characters and their stories, how can you not cry at the end?
[Tweet “Getting back into your homeschooling routine should not be painful.”]
Here are my 3 tips to ease back into our homeschool routine, either after a long weekend or after a vacation:
1 – Get back into your homeschooling routine by getting your kids excited about the new things we will be learning that week.
So mom, learn to “market” well your next homeschool week’s assignments!! Show excitement! Excitement is contagious. On Sunday morning begin to tell your kids how much you are anticipating all the new things you will be learning about… or the new book you will start reading… or the science project assigned for that week because… Yes, kids can get and should get excited about learning! And you should be excited about teaching and also learn with them.
Print out a fun kids’ weekly checklist to help them be independent and excited about accomplishing their homeschool tasks on time! I create these for my kids and they love it!
2- Get back into your homeschooling routine by making it relaxing.
Chill out, don’t wake up like the freaking homeschooling mother who acts more like a sergeant pulling out the whistle and “The To-Do List”. I’ve done that! My kids used to run and hide while I was doing that. I was making them hate homeschooling.
Now, we start our days reading aloud while enjoying breakfast, it comes just natural to us. It’s relaxing, everyone is still kind of waking up, it gives them time to start responding to the reading, we talk about it, we pray, once we prayed and breakfast is done they automatically start their handwriting while I’m off to the next book. We like to read and memorize poems or read a short story to transition in between subjects it gives them a break without allowing them to scatter around the house.
My focus today is to create a more relaxed and joyful homeschool atmosphere where everyone loves to learn today. We take our time exploring and making memories together.
3 – Get back into your homeschooling routine by making it fun.
Now hear me here, your idea of fun might not be my idea of fun or vice-versa. Just saying… LOL, I’m not very artsy and crafty.
I’m not the kind of mom who let her kids play in the puddles although I really envy this kind of moms who let their kids play and get dirty. I only wish I could be like them. Instead, I hyperventilate only with the thought of mud, painting, and play dough all over the place and me on all fours scrubbing the floors. (Pray for me, will you?)
But that doesn’t mean we don’t have fun. We do – lots! So I hope.
We watched the Magic School Bus for our Science lesson yesterday and read Shakespeare out loud making funny voices and imitating the British accent, that was fun!
We did beautiful drawings and my daughter and I practice some hand lettering, that was also fun! I watched my 4-year-old doing 12 pages of her handwriting book and coloring every picture in those pages while my 7-year-old son celebrated losing his front tooth and talking funny.
See, all of these little ordinary things we do together, they are fun. They are worth being noticed and celebrated.
Here are some of our precious homeschooling routine moments:
YOUR TURN: How do you ease back into your homeschooling routine after the weekend, summer or a long break?
More Homeschool Encouragement
Ana is the unhurried homeschool mom of 3, wife, and homeschool blogger.
She loves to encourage, inspire and empower moms to go from stressed to blessed by providing them with the tips, strategies, and resources they need to succeed. Ana is the founder of They Call Me Blessed and the creator of:
5 Days to Your Best Homeschool Years,
Hebrew for Homeschoolers,
Charlotte Mason Online Conference,
The Homeschool Sisterhood,
Grow Your Blog Partying in 30 Days, and
the Beyond Blessed Life Planner.
She leads a vibrant free community for homeschool moms on Facebook and you can connect with her at www.facebook.com/theycallmeblessedblog.
I love how your joy & enthusiasm for homeschooling and your kids pours into your post! Can’t wait to read more soon-subscribed!?
How cute Ana! Your passion about homeschooling is contagious and it’s encouraging to read stories like yours … I, too find myself with stressing out with the checklist … ???? …
Oh Laurita, my checklist became my wish list long ago and the things we end up doing normally are totally off the list but totally wonderful!! My goal this year is to stress less and enjoy more! I want to have fun, cherish every learning moment together and for that I need to let go of perfection and control And guess what?? By following my kids learning rhythm and cues, our homeschool days have been nothing but joy and perfection!!! 😀 Keep up the geat job with Tiago! I’m so proud of you!!! Love you!!! <3
Awesome post! Very exciting to read!!!
Gracias Maritza!!! I’m so glad you stopped to comment and thought this post was exciting! YAY!! We need to get excitement and inspiration back into our homeschool days, don’t we? It’s a blessing to learn with our children.
Homeschool routine… um… we went to the beach! 😉 Ha! We made an animated movie! We coloured! We have been going the unschooling route lately and it. is. epic. Other than Bible we just kind of go where it flows. We really can’t get into routine yet, which I am itching for. I have six days before we leave, have to catch up on a ton, clean, and pack, and then we are gone for an entire month. So school is out for a while. ha! We are definitely going to be doing school year round this year, oy vey. Loved your post!
Rebecca recently posted…Teaching kids to read is easy with this amazing program!
That is so exciting Rebecca!! Who said to teach our kids we need to glue them in a chair and make them write all day eh? Learning should be exciting and the whole world is our book! God’s creation is filled with wonders that spark our little ones eyes and ours. I used the word routine and but I guess what we follow is really a rhythm of learning and discovering daily. We do school year around too and love it! <3 Thanks for visiting and commenting, it means so much to me!
Love this post! It’s so important not to stress out! Relax and have fun because learning should be fun!
Yes!! That’s right Amanda. Learning should always be fun and it is in our hands to create this fun and exciting enviroment for our kids to grow. I’m so glad you love the post!! Thank you for stopping by and commenting, it means a lot to me!! 🙂
I actually wrote a post about this not to long ago; We tend to start back into school a bit slowly only cover a few subjects the first day and adding more in as we go through the week. We also try to keep it light and fun too.
Mother of 3 recently posted…10 Ways to Find Peace In Your Homeschool Day
That’s the way to go for sure! 🙂
Everyone thinking of homeschooling her children should read this! I wish I had read it at the beginning of our hs journey many years ago. It is the way we have always done school, but it would have rid me of the guilt I felt for not being that super structured, drill sergeant hs mom! I am so glad now that I was never that mom, just because my own children would not have responded well. 🙂
I’m so glad to hear that, Diane! I did write this with every homeschool mom in mind specially the new ones so they won’t make the same mistakes I did at the beginning. 😉
Thank you so much for your kind comment!
Ana.