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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 moments of our homeschool routine:
YOUR TURN: How do you ease back into your homeschooling routine after the weekend, summer or a long break?
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Great ideas, sometimes it seems overwhelming o where to start again.
I love the way you talk about taking breaks with short stories or poetry so they get a break without scattering. I know my kids need breaks but it is so hard to call them all back to order that I hate to give them!
Sarah, sometimes food does the trick! 😉 A cup of hot cocoa, some cookies, and a good story or even a game. My kids are now 11, 12, and 14 and these tricks still work at our house.
It’s so true that it’s hard to get back into your routine after a break. I find that getting to bed earlier and getting up early helps. A few days before your break ends, start making sure that bed times are observed and start waking up a little earlier each day rather than sleeping too late. This helps me. Alarm clocks or charts with bedtimes for each of those days helps.
These are good ideas! It is so hard to get back into a routine after a long break.
Yes, that’s why these tips really work!
This will really come in handy before starting school up again in January. It’s always been difficult for us to get back on track after being derailed for any reason. Definitely keeping this advice in my pocket for use! Thanks for sharing!
thank you for the printables! I have been struggling with getting my kids excited for school this year even though their school is really fun! and their lack of excitement definitely makes me dread it a little bit too. Anything to get them motivated is appreciated!
Good advice! Thank you for reminding us to have fun.
Fun is what keeps them engaged and love learning! 🙂
These are great tips! And I’ll definitely use them i a couple weeks! I love the idea about reading aloud at breakfast! Do you eat before the kids breakfast then?
I do intermittent fasting so I don’t usually eat in the mornings, I just have a cup of tea or decaf coffee. Skipping breakfast has helped me lose 30lbs in the past two years! 😉
We’re just beginning Christmas break and we’re so excited for it. I know I’ll need every one of these tips in a couple weeks though so thank you!
I’m glad, Sonya! Enjoy your Christmas break and let me know how my tips work for you!
What a great reminder! I’m not in any way ready for school to start back up after Christmas break. We’ll make it fun and it will all work out!
Great advice. Restarting after a break can be exhausting
We are starting a new science focus and I am not thinking more about the flow and fun or our homeschool. I have some supplies that were back ordered so we couldn’t do all the hands on stuff for our last science unit so we can do that as a fun way to start up again.
Thank you for this encouraging post! I can totally relate to “I’m not the kind of mom who let her kids play in the puddles”.
I am definitely bookmarking this for about two weeks from now. 😆❤️
I almost cringe to take time off knowing how hard getting back into a rhythm will be. Thank you for this reminder to make it fun and relaxing!
Thank you for the ideas! I love how relaxed you are with starting back to homeschool.
Good reminders! We substitute some fun themed worksheets and a few days of a unit study as a treat around holidays!
Great advice. Restarting after a break can be so hard.
Such a great reminder for me this time of year. We just finished our term and I’m already not looking forward to starting again in a few weeks. Wrong attitude! I’m off to find some fun things so we can look forward to our first school day in January.
Great advice Ana! I usually do at least one of these three things, but oh what if I tried to do all of them?! 😉 Thanks for some new ideas, many blessings to you and your family.
Yes!! All three together works!!
Love this post! It’s so important not to stress out! Relax and have fun because learning should be fun! thanks for sharing this amazing article.
Love this post! It’s so important not to stress out! Relax and have fun because learning should be fun!
Love this post! It’s so important not to stress out! Relax and have fun because learning should be fun! thanks for sharing this amazing article .
Love this post! It’s so important not to stress out! Relax and have fun because learning should be fun! thanks for sharing this amazing artice.
Love this post! It’s so important not to stress out! Relax and have fun because learning should be fun! thanks for sharing this amazing article about back into your homeschool routine. Love it!!!!
Love this post! It’s so important not to stress out! Relax and have fun because learning should be fun! thanks for sharing this amazing article about back into your homeschool routine.
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.
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.
That’s the way to go for sure! 🙂
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!! 🙂
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!
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!
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.
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
I love how your joy & enthusiasm for homeschooling and your kids pours into your post! Can’t wait to read more soon-subscribed!?