How to make homeschooling interesting for kids

Homeschooling gives you the opportunity to make learning so much more interesting for children than it might be in a more traditional classroom environment. There are a number of benefits to doing this, and they include fostering a deep love of learning that can last for a lifetime (and therefore make that child a much more successful and interesting adult) and making homeschooling more fun for you as well. After all, if you’re involved in such a big way in your child’s education, you want to enjoy the experience, otherwise it becomes a chore for everyone. With that in mind, here are some ways you can make homeschooling more interesting for kids so that everyone can reap the rewards. 

Photo by Allan Mas

Find Fun Resources 

If you’ve never tried homeschooling before, you might think that it involves sitting across from your child and giving them information. Then they’ll have to do some classwork and take a test. After that, you can move on to the next topic, and so on. 

It doesn’t have to be this way, and although this kind of learning certainly has its place (perhaps especially as children get older), it isn’t always the most interesting option. Something that often works better is finding fun resources to use instead. There are many different options available, and these are ideal for making the classwork more interesting, for changing things up, and for when you’re not an expert in a topic yourself. A good example is when children need to read more about the transfer of information, and they can look at online videos that explain everything in an engaging way. 

Hands-On Experiences 

As we’ve said, sitting in a classroom and learning from books can be a good tool, and it’s necessary when you’re child is learning to read, for example. However, it’s a great idea to ensure you have a mix of different teaching options so that no one gets bored. Equally, this will help you and your child understand how they learn best, and once you know that, you can tailor their homeschooling experience around it. 

One thing that is always fun and that can be highly educational is hands-on learning. This means using tools such as Play-Doh or Lego, for example, to make the information they are learning in a lesson stick more easily. Every lesson can benefit from this kind of hands-on learning. Lego can be used in maths, for example, and Play-Doh can be used in art. You can teach your child how to cook while, at the same time, they are getting a lesson in physics or chemistry. Don’t just stick to the tried and tested; experiment and make things fun and different. 

Play Games 

Who doesn’t like to play games? And no matter how much your child might enjoy learning if you give them the chance to play instead, they’re likely to take it. If you’re clever about it, though, the games they play can actually be educational, and the break they’re taking from learning might not be a break at all in the traditional sense. They’ll benefit from not being in a traditional learning environment, but they’ll still pick up new skills and information while they play. 

The great thing about this idea is that you’ll never run out of games to play. You can use board games to start with, especially if the weather is bad and you have to stay indoors. These can help with counting, addition, and even money if you play something like Monopoly. They’ll also help your child learn more about sharing and working in a team. You can also make games up, and these could be done inside and outside. Or if you’re having trouble thinking of something that can be fun and educational, just search online, and you’ll be presented with thousands of ideas. 

To help narrow things down, think about what your child likes to do and what they’re interested in and try to incorporate that into the game. 

Go On A Field Trip

When you are homeschooling, you can choose to have field trips whenever the need or the inclination arises. Of course, these should not interfere with your child’s education, but if you can find a way to get out of the classroom and explore the world a little more that ties into whatever topics they are learning about, that’s no bad thing, and it can help to cement the learning for them. 

Museums are a great option for this. No matter what it is you’re learning about, there is sure to be a museum that has information on that subject. It could be art, history, literature,  architecture, or anything else. 

Another good idea is to get outside in nature. This is good for your child’s health (and yours) as they’ll get more vitamin D, but they can learn a lot as well. 

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