Blog

I tried to incorporate games into our homeschool whenever possible, in order to make school fun. We played math games, art games, and economics games. They would giggle when I wrote on the assignment sheet "Play 30 minutes of Masterpiece" or "Play SAT Game." Making homeschooling fun is a great way to instill the love of learning. 

Make school fun with games and projects that encourage hands-on learning in an engaging way.

I wasn't very good at projects. I have three amazing photos of my children doing incredible hands-on learning. Why only three? Because that's all the wonderful hands-on learning that we did during our years of homeschooling. In my defense, projects are time consuming, messy, and mom-intensive.

I was VERY good at incorporating fun! I tried to incorporate games into our homeschool whenever possible. My kids didn't enjoy many of the hands-on projects that we did, but they do love playing games. After a while I gave up trying to find unit study projects that they enjoyed, and I focused more on what they loved - board games. At conventions, and in homeschool stores, I would search for new or classic engaging board games. I found books filled with hands-on math games.

You can schedule 1-2 hours a week, at the end of a day, for educational games. You can schedule a daily game time each day during the summer. Either way, these are the fun things that are the real memory-makers of homeschooling. This free eBook can help you incorporate fabulous fun on your homeschool transcript, so you can convert natural learning into high school credits. Sign up to instantly download "How to Put Fabulous Fun on Your Homeschool Transcript: Convert Natural Learning into High School Credit".

Homeschooling Curriculum Tip for Younger Children

Games are important at every grade level, to make school more fun, but it's especially in the younger grades. I found so many fun math games in the book Family Math that we used as supplement in the early years. It's a $20 book of math games for kindergarten through eighth grade. Using the book, I chose a math game a couple of times a week that coordinated with the concepts my kids were learning. We would spend 15 minutes on a math game, and my kids loved it! Even now that they are older, they talk about math games. I remember when my son was about nine, and he asked one of his homeschooling friends, "What is your favorite math game?" The friend didn't PLAY math games, and Alex was simply shocked! He still talks about stacking sugar cubes being his favorite game because I would let him eat one when he was done studying geometric volume.

To use Family Math, I would look at the math lesson, and decide what concept was being taught (radius, fractions, or whatever.) Then I would look in the Family Math index for that topic. There were usually a handful of games to choose from, with different age ranges, and my kids would play together. The games are reproducible, and use things you have around the house (pens, crayons, etc.) We would also mix it up with our math games, and sometimes we would play other things as well: Monopoly, addition bingo, cribbage, etc. They loved it when I would tell them, "Now you HAVE to play Monopoly today! No complaining, either!" We would burst out laughing together! Isn't homeschooling wonderful?

Make some memories today! Find lots of ideas for games and play in my Amazon Store, "Fun and Games Across the Curriculum".