6 Fun & Easy Things to Add to Your Homeschool

Add some fun, easy-to-do ideas & keep your homeschool fun this year.

Homeschool days can quickly become repetitive. And boring. Even with the best curriculum and a variety of activities at home & outside of the home, it happens.

But you aren’t doomed to another year of that.

These activities are more than just educational—they’re a chance to bring joy and laughter into your learning environment. The best part? They’re super easy to implement and won’t overwhelm your schedule.

So, if you’re ready to add a dash of fun and creativity to your homeschool, keep reading.

1. Be a Virtual ‘Farmer’

Grades K-12

Most of us have little to no experience with farm life. Sure, we may grow some vegetables or herbs. But animals? Nope. While the Adopt-a-Cow program by Discovery Dairy won’t provide you with hands-on experience with cows, it will make dairy farm life more real-life to your homeschool. Paired with a dairy farmer, your homeschool receives updates throughout the year about “your” dairy calf.

Their website also has age-appropriate resources & lesson plans for all grade levels.

Adopt-A-Cow is a super easy, low-time commitment add-on. (We hang up our cow’s photo & read the updates from the farmer. We occasionally watch a video on their site, and once, we went on a virtual field trip to a dairy farm. That’s it.)

2. Free Visits to the National Parks

4th Grade

Do you have a kiddo who is in 4th grade this year?  The National Park Service has something special for you.  A Kid in Every Park pass grants free park admission for your 4th grader & your family all year.

One note.  The passes run from September to August.  So, if you have a 4th grader, don’t sign up until September.

3. Challenge Your FAMILY

Grades 5-12

Back in middle school, my math teacher, Mr. Campbell, would put a math question on the board every Monday. When we showed him the correct answer, we wrote our names on the board. That was it. Just our name on the board. But it was enough to motivate most of his students to tackle the challenge problem.

When my daughter headed off to college, I adapted his little motivator using the Dr. Funsters Quick Thinks math series from Critical Thinking Company.

Every Monday, I email out one question. She gets it, my boys get it, and so does my husband. Every correct answer gets a point (that just goes for bragging rights). Some weeks everyone participates, some weeks, no one. Right answers aren’t the point. It’s just one way more way to challenge ourselves, foster relationships, and think about learning in a different way.

(Bragging rights, on the other hand, are definitely part of it for this competitive family! )

Don’t get stuck on the idea that you need to use any particular book. Grab a kid’s trivia book, hit the internet for brain teasers, etc.

4. Friendly (Quick!) Competition

Grades 3-12

Since people can join a game from anywhere in the world, the game platform Kahoot! gained massive popularity in 2020. On the Kahoot! site, you can find premade educational trivia games on nearly any topic. You can also create ones for yourself, even with the free membership.

Kids don’t need their own account to play; they just need a device to play on. I appreciate that means one less account to keep track of and one less place I have to consider the safety aspect for my kiddos.

In addition to playing games around topics we are studying, we like to play random ones after lunch. It’s a great way to get us all back to the schoolroom on time. Games are easy to start and quick to play.

5. Feed Your Kids’ Obsessions

ANY GRADE

What is that topic your kiddo is currently obsessed with? What’s something you’re studying in history? Or science? What if your kiddo/homeschool had their own YouTube playlist just on that topic?

Several years back, I needed a way to keep my boys occupied when mama was tardy to school. I scoured YouTube for a random topic, created a playlist around it, and a new tradition was formed.

From there, it quickly became a way to dig deep into a topic without making it a big study topic in our homeschool. We’ve explored medieval warfare, Ellis Island, mountains around the world, famous roads around the world, and even toilets around the world!

If you’ve never created a playlist on YouTube, go to the three dots on the far right of the video. Choose save. Then, create a playlist on the next screen. Go to your Playlists screen in order to access and share the link with your kiddos.

When they were young, my boys enjoyed watching the current playlist together on the TV. Now that their schedules are quite different, they usually watch them from their own devices.

6. Tidbits for Curious Homeschoolers

Grades 5-12

When our kids are little, we answer, “But why?” a million times a day. My kids missed the memo that they were supposed to outgrow that!

And that’s where Brain Food: Daily Tidbits for Curious Homeschoolers comes in.  This is a free learning calendar – a new one every month – with little bits of learning that are perfect for curious homeschoolers.

Each day, in about 10-15 minutes, there are links to videos, podcasts & articles that inspire curiosity & answer questions like:

• What countries have no airport?
• What was it like to go into King Tut’s tomb?
• What was it like to be a teenager in the middle ages?
• How tall can skyscrapers actually get?

While there is one for every day, this is not meant to be one.more.thing for kiddos to mark off their to-do list. (My kiddos probably complete about 75% of them each month.) Instead, Brain Food is supposed to be one more way to reinforce that learning comes in all forms while encouraging a natural curiosity.

What’s something fun you add to your homeschool days?

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