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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?

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:

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YOUR TURN: How do you ease back into your homeschooling routine after the weekend, summer or a long break?

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