Spring Homeschooling: Finish Strong

It never fails. My children and I hit spring and suddenly, school-focus is thrown out my freshly opened windows. We daydream of summer swimming and front porch sittin’. All the exciting stuff of life is happening outside – with the exception of pollen dust, of course – and we’ll suffer the yellow haze for a piece of budding action! Over the years, rather than fight our outdoor longings and plow through spring’s unfurling with blinders on, I’ve learned to slow us down, free us up and send us out-of-doors for a whole new level of educational fun. Here are some ways we’ve managed to make our schooling homestretch a sweet one:

*Make nature study a weekly, or even daily routine. Nature study is as simple as a sketchbook, pencil and quiet time to discover something new outside.  Children spend 30-45 minutes searching for something (the neighbor’s new bike doesn’t count) to draw in their notebooks. We come together, label and share some facts about their nature discovery. Sometimes I give them specific things to find: insects, new buds, something springing from the ground, ferns, etc. Usually I let them discover on their own. This is one of my favorite ways to start our day.

*Take field trips to some NC public gardens: Cape Fear Botanical Gardens, North Carolina Botanical Gardens at Chapel Hill, Magic Wings Butterfly House in Durham (part of the Museum of Life and Science – not a public garden), JCRaulston Arboretum at NC State in Raleigh, plus a myriad of others around the Piedmont.

*Have fun with a new unit study. This doesn’t have to be fancy, expensive or labor intensive. Simply ask your children what they’d enjoy studying. Write their selections on slips of paper and draw for the order of studies. Head to the library, load up on books, videos and stories on tape that add depth to the study. Spend a week or two devouring all things of that topic. Take the learning outside with a kickball-quiz game - answer a question to earn a turn - or whatever gets them excited about being outside and active (we’d have to split time between sports and airsoft target practice).  Don’t require written reports or boring worksheets or vocabulary definitions as proof of learning. Let this be stress-free learning.

*Take school outside whenever possible. Have your group lessons on the back patio. Let them spread a blanket on the grass to do their math, or read their chapter book. Better yet, take your own reading to the blanket and share the moment.

*Speaking of outside learning: take a break from the books and plant a family garden. Resources abound on everything from container gardening to large family gardens. Visit Bells Seed Store for some expert advice and all your supplies.

*Gather several families together for an afternoon of learning activities that are more fun with friends (code for: can’t seem to get this done on my own!): science experiments, art lesson, poetry readings, geography games and more. Have each family contribute in some aspect to the learning activities. Try meeting once a week or twice a month, choosing a new subject for each time together. Don’t make this complicated, though! Keep it simple and fun, so learning can happen with minimal planning.

*Have a conversation with some other homeschooling friends. Start asking them questions about their curriculum, schedules, challenges and successes this year. Chances are, once you start listening and sharing with another parent in a positive way, you’re enthusiasm level will rise and you’ll look at your own situation in a happier light.

*Just take a break! Maybe your family needs a couple weeks of rest and outdoor rowdiness in order to shake out the springtime fever and finish the school year strong.