January and February are so long and dreary here in Indiana. The sunny days are few and far between. The skies seem to be stuck in a gray, cloudy condition. This cold, cloudy scene does nothing for my motivation. I could easily sit and be a couch potato all day, but life calls. I must move myself. I must get busy with all the things in a mother’s life that must be done on a daily basis. After all, I chose to home educate my children with the intention that they would actually learn something, right?

So how do we manage to school our children through the dreary winter months? What helps you stay motivated when you’d rather do nothing all day?

At my house, I will often employ many of the ideas listed in my previous post about surviving the winter doldrums. When these are not enough to perk us all up, then I have to employ “bigger guns.” It usually helps me if I take a moment to think about what inspires my family to want to learn. When I think back on the moments when the children’s faces light up with the excitement of learning something really cool, I can often find inspiration to make it happen again. Like the time that my son found a yellow spider in the back yard that none of us had ever seen before. We began a quest to identify it, and then to feed it, and then we launched into learning about other spiders. The trick is to find the moment or topic of inspiration.

After my first step of thinking back on those great moments of learning, I need to remind myself that I have permission to vary from our normal routine. Often, simply choosing an unusual activity is enough to break the monotony. On these days, we like to get out the Global Puzzle. It is a giant puzzle that is a map of the world. Each puzzle piece is a country/ state, and most are shaped like the country (obviously some of the large countries must be split into smaller pieces.) It’s a fun variation of the school day, and we get some geography to boot. Totally worth the money!

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that varying from our normal “school work” is not bad. Including fun learning activites for our children makes learning fun. It makes it real. It makes learning an ordinary part of life. Don’t be afraid to drop your usual work for a few days to do a unit study that everyone will enjoy. Check out some videos from the library that relate to what you’ve been studying or a new topic of interest. At my house, this break in routine will often jumpstart our learning. When we go back to our routine, we are refreshed and find the joy in it again.

Another way we break the winter dreariness is to start reading a new, exciting book aloud. My children LOVE this! Of course, our family is very accustomed to books read aloud since we use Sonlight Curriculum. There are so many benefits to reading aloud to your children, even the older ones. My high schooler still loves it when I read a book aloud. Don’t be afraid to put some feeling and emotion behind what you’re reading. Make those stories come alive for your children, and they will love books and reading for themselves. One of our favorite read aloud books is The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr. We laughed so hard while reading this book! Sometimes I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t read! And we learned some things about the Old West and pioneers at the same time. If you need some recommendations for wonderful books to read aloud to your family, check out Sonlight. They have the absolute best books!

My very favorite way to beat those winter doldrums is to take a break from the books in order to create something. Using your imagination seems to get those juices flowing! Get out the art supplies. Do science experiments~ the messy ones that we usually hate. Get out the crafting supplies and build something. Make bird feeders to put in the yard. Take out the Legos and build a city or a replica of the Parthenon. Dress up like pioneers and “rough it” for the day. Turn on the music and get creative!

What are your tried and true techiniques to manage schooling through the winter doldrums?

Connie