What Helps Me Feel Inspired When Homeschooling

Homeschooling isn’t always snuggling around a couch, reading a lovely book, or gathering around a table engaged in education. Often, it’s dirty laundry, refereeing fights between kids, keeping the preschooler busy so she doesn’t color on siblings’ spelling work, and other not-so-fun tasks that go along with living in the real world. Sometimes, it’s not the kids feeling less-than-excited about another day of learning adventures; sometimes, it’s me!

Here’s a list of things that help me when I’m feeling meh about the task ahead.

Re-Reading My Favorite Homeschooling Books

The first thing I do when I’m feeling “meh” is revisit the three books that have influenced me the most regarding homeschooling. These are The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise, The Brave Learner by Julie Bogart, and A Literary Education by Emily Cook.

Breaking Up Our Routine

When I feel things are stale, the kids usually also feel stale. This is when we change our routine. We might attend a park event we don’t usually attend or take our books into the backyard—or the local park.

Mystery Mondays

Every once in a while, I like to get some sort of a learning activity or craft kit, wrap it up, and present it on Mondays. We’ve done face painting, sun catchers, sun paper, and more to shake things up on Mondays. I don’t always do it, but it’s fun to shake things up.

Learn Alongside the Kids

I’ve learned with my kids two days into our homeschooling this year. Not only do I always bookmark news articles and new developments related to things we’re learning, but I also try to read recent books on the topics we’re studying. That way, we’re all learning together and can wonder about interesting facts and discoveries.

Those are the main things I do to help me stay inspired while homeschooling. I really do enjoy learning alongside the kids (and there’s always something new to learn about different subjects).

What inspires you?