heartofdakota.com

My children and I have reached that point in the springtime where we just don't want to do school. It's beautiful outside (and we're in the desert so summer is NOT a beautiful time, but spring is) and the kids are all just bored with the whole idea of school.

I want to find a way to make school a little more fun for all of us.

Ideas?

We've had some busy weeks and some weeks fighting illness, so we really can't take any more time off, and when spring break comes in a few weeks, we'll probably need to keep working through it.

Can you do school outside?
With my olders I used to do a hop scotch on the patio and do math facts that way. Also take nature walks. Oh and we did a tiny nature treasure hunt once. I gave them so long to go around the yard with a cup and get tiny nature things. Then we brought them back and looked through their stuff and named it.
Also just doing the books and stuff outside can be nice.
Or just take breaks in between and let them run around the house a few times.
Or an incentive to get done fast so you can go to the park.

What unit are you on? Can you maybe switch your schedule around so you start break now and pick back up with school once it gets too hot to be outside? Maybe go half pace now and over the summer so you can have more freetime?

Mumkins wrote:What unit are you on? Can you maybe switch your schedule around so you start break now and pick back up with school once it gets too hot to be outside? Maybe go half pace now and over the summer so you can have more freetime?

I think we're on 27. We will be doing math through the summer. We switched math programs in late November and that's the only way we will finish.

The HOD units are pretty easy to keep up with--we trim as necessary--but the language and math...well, those are harder to trim.

Just curious, what desert are you in? I'm in one, too, and am hoping there's another HOD'er nearby!
Kristin

KristinBeth wrote:Just curious, what desert are you in? I'm in one, too, and am hoping there's another HOD'er nearby!
Kristin

Nevada. Sorry.

Rats! Oh well! At least we'll be suffering the heat together, if in different locations!

I should mention that my kids like the history reading in Little Pilgrims. *That* is not difficult to hold their interest.

We have lovely Springs here, but hot and humid summers. Last year, I started school in the middle of the summer, when no one wanted to go outside, so we'll be finished every year in the early spring. We've had a lot of school days outside lately, too.

Daph wrote:We have lovely Springs here, but hot and humid summers. Last year, I started school in the middle of the summer, when no one wanted to go outside, so we'll be finished every year in the early spring. We've had a lot of school days outside lately, too.

If my husband wasn't a school teacher, and home all summer, I would do that. Definitely.

grandsophy wrote:

KristinBeth wrote:Just curious, what desert are you in? I'm in one, too, and am hoping there's another HOD'er nearby!
Kristin

Nevada. Sorry.

Hey, I'm in NV, too! NEVER looking forward to summer, lol

Same here! I too am in the desert - Southwestern New Mexico! It will be so hot in another month I won't be able to stand it. We try to do school outside (if it isn't blowing wind 30 mph! ) but sometimes that's a worse distraction. For me, I just plug away and do not take any breaks . I just tell the kids the sooner we get through it, the sooner we are free. We are usually done by lunch and then it is a nice time to go to the park! Works for us!!

Update: I've been offering a reward (run in the sprinkler, get your toenails polished, etc) for kids who are done with schoolwork by a certain time. This is really helping!
And we're down to three weeks left. I think I can do this.

I just wanted to chime in when I saw you were in the Nevada desert. We spent 4 years in Las Vegas (we are Air Force), and though it was a hard place to live in, we found a lot of nice places to hike and such.

I only homeschooled one year there, but we did a lot of fieldtrips to Red Rock Canyon, Spring Mountain Ranch, Mount Charleston, etc. We also did our readings outside, early in the morning before the blistering desert sun made its appearance. Actually, we did as much school work as we could outside. One thing I made sure of is to let the boys have frequent "recess" breaks to stretch and such.

Perhaps (I apologize if this has already been mentioned) you could take a break for a couple weeks or more while the temperatures are bearable, and then finish school during the summmer when it's super hot and miserable?

In the summer months, I found rising super early in the morning, getting the kids outside and running around, taking a nap (me included), and then waking up doing dinner, etc. seemed to work well. Then after the sun went done (does it ever go down in the summer in the desert??? LOL), we would venture outside again and have fun.

And lastly, and this is something I am going to start doing myself...incentives. For example: After you finish your math with a joyful attitdue, then you may have your yummy snack and go outside and play for 20 minutes (or whatever your child really values.)

Hope this is helpful. I'm not sure if you are new to NV, but if you have any questions or need fieldtrip ideas, please don't hesitate to contact me!

ForHisGlory wrote:I just wanted to chime in when I saw you were in the Nevada desert. We spent 4 years in Las Vegas (we are Air Force), and though it was a hard place to live in, we found a lot of nice places to hike and such.

I only homeschooled one year there, but we did a lot of fieldtrips to Red Rock Canyon, Spring Mountain Ranch, Mount Charleston, etc. We also did our readings outside, early in the morning before the blistering desert sun made its appearance. Actually, we did as much school work as we could outside. One thing I made sure of is to let the boys have frequent "recess" breaks to stretch and such.

Perhaps (I apologize if this has already been mentioned) you could take a break for a couple weeks or more while the temperatures are bearable, and then finish school during the summmer when it's super hot and miserable?

In the summer months, I found rising super early in the morning, getting the kids outside and running around, taking a nap (me included), and then waking up doing dinner, etc. seemed to work well. Then after the sun went done (does it ever go down in the summer in the desert??? LOL), we would venture outside again and have fun.

And lastly, and this is something I am going to start doing myself...incentives. For example: After you finish your math with a joyful attitdue, then you may have your yummy snack and go outside and play for 20 minutes (or whatever your child really values.)

Hope this is helpful. I'm not sure if you are new to NV, but if you have any questions or need fieldtrip ideas, please don't hesitate to contact me!

Thanks! No, we're not new; we've been here almost 9 years now. Every year I plan to get up early in the summer, but it never quite happens. I enjoy sleeping in too much. And no, it doesn't cool off when the sun goes down.

We are doing the bare minimum for school and finishing the textbooks this week. Through the summer I want to keep drilling math--my oldest still struggles with multiplication facts, and the youngest need to work on addition. Oldest needs to do a division problem every day--she keeps forgetting the process. And lots of reading for the littles. They can read but haven't really taken off and discovered the joy of reading. I hope we can remember to do all this--last year I had such great plans for the summer, but we forgot to do most of them. We all really need a break from school--I do not have those children who get excited about "box day" or looking at the catalog or any of that. Somehow we have to recapture the joy next year. That's another post, I guess.

What does one do on a field trip to Mt. Charleston? All I've found is crummy food at the Inn.