How to Keep Kids Engaged When Homeschooling

Children don’t always find schooling to be a fun experience. When homeschooling, however, kids and parents are met with an entirely different issue. The reason for this is that their learning environment is also their home, where they relax, and play, and sleep. This can make it difficult for them to concentrate, or for you to keep kids engaged when homeschooling. But, it’s more than possible to make homeschooling appealing to the kids when learning at home. 

You need to get them involved when you are homeschooling though, and there are various ways that you can do this. If you would like to find out what some of these ways are, and how they can help your kids engaged when homeschooling, keep reading down below.

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6 Ways to Keep Kids Engaged When Homeschooling

Homeschool Field Trips Are Fun

The first thing that you can think about is the fact that field trips can be extremely fun for children. While there might be restrictions on what you can do at any given time, there are always going to be fun things for you to do. 

If there is absolutely no way that you can take the kids out for a trip, then there are always virtual field trips that can be just as exciting. Sure, it isn’t quite the same experience, but there will come a time where you can plan for these trips outside the home again, and everything will be back to normal. Until then, compromise just might be the word of the day.

Try to make these as fun as possible, while still remaining educational. Perhaps you can add tasty treats to the day that fit the field trip theme. Or, maybe you do the virtual trip on the back deck so that you get out of the indoor environment. The point of field trips is that there is some kind of an educational idea behind them, not just a fun day out for the kids. 

Field trips can be done at the weekends instead of during the weekdays too! And, you can have an awesome time doing them. This way, you don’t have to worry about anything, and you can just enjoy the day. When you go out on field trips, however, we recommend that you bring worksheets, or a scavenger hunt, or something along these lines that can work as a learning guide to help ensure they are learning as they enjoy the unexpected.

Get Creative in Your Homeschool

If you want to get your kids engaged when homeschooling and also interested in their studies then you are going to have to get creative. There are plenty of ideas here, from basic things such as handicrafts to make with the kids to learning fun ideas for struggling learners. You can also add things like class books. If you don’t know what a class book is, then you can read more here and figure out whether or not it is something that appeals to you. Remember that the more creative you get, the more likely you are to grab their attention.

Some kids may learn better when they are writing out or reading from a page. However, this is less likely than the alternative which is doing creative things with their hands and bodies. Discover more about different learning styles for ways that kids learn.

Don’t be afraid for things to get loud doing things like drama if you feel as though it is getting the point across to the kids. Sometimes, it’s the things that seem the most unproductive that are actually the best for learning.

Separate the Learning Time from Other Home Activities

One of the issues that people often face when trying homeschooling is the fact that it can be extremely difficult to separate home from school. Due to the home environment, it can be difficult for kids to switch off their home brain, and get their learning brain on. So, what can you do to fix this?

Try to set a homeschooling routine and keep to it as much as you can. Your kids will quickly learn that even though they are in their home environment there are regular activities that have been set aside specifically for learning time. By keeping a regular routine, they will eventually get accustomed to your expectations and be able to be ready to work when the right time comes around.

Another thing that you can try is to set up a specific area that is only used for schooling. This may not be easy in every home. But, if you are finding it difficult to keep the kids engaged when homeschooling then it might be time to set a specific location. For example you might do school activities in the dining room and you have a kitchen table for family meals.

By doing this, you are creating an environment that is dedicated to learning time. Eventually, your children will start to associate this one room with learning, which can make them more acclimated to focusing on their lessons when in that room.

Encouraging Kids in Homeschool

You don’t realize how far encouragement can go until you are the one receiving it. When you need to do something that you are struggling with, and someone tells you that they believe in you or that they know you can do it, you instantly feel better about the whole thing, right?

Well, the same goes for kids, and you need to be willing to give encouragement where it is needed. Tell your kids how well they are doing with their schooling. If they are struggling to grasp something, make sure that you don’t let them give up and instead offer words that will empower them.

Encouragement doesn’t mean forcing them though. If they are having a meltdown because they can’t do something, the best thing that you can do is take a break. You can start up again when they are calm, letting them know that they can do it if they put their mind to it, and then attempt to explain it a different way.

Eventually, they are going to get where they need to feel accomplished and like they can achieve the goals that are set for themselves. Your words of encouragement will get them there, as well as your patience and your willingness to give them whatever they need to succeed. 

Rewards For Being Good

When a child goes to a school, they often get rewards for doing well both in academics and behavior. This is called positive reinforcement and helps kids to see that when you do good things, you get good things back. It works well for getting them to behave and do the things that they are supposed to do, so you might want to give it a try.

There are several different ways that you can do this, and one of them is to use a sticker chart. Buy the chart, and then buy a range of stickers to make it colorful and appealing. Each time your child earns a sticker, they can put it on the chart and when they get to a certain amount, they earn a reward.

Make sure that you write down what the award is and what needs to be done to achieve it so your kids know what they are striving for.

Another option is to use a printable award certificate that you give when they’ve accomplished something or worked really hard to complete something.

Let the Kids Decide How to be Engaged When Homeschooling

Being unconventional is a fantastic way to get your kid’s attention. Kids have a natural curiousity about many things. Have you ever considered asking your kids what they want to learn about? Of course, there are some basic things that they are going to have to learn whether they like it or not, but there are others that aren’t necessary.

An example would be the fact that your child might love history, but hate geography. Other than on a basic level, there is no need for your child to actually learn about things like this. As such, you can pick and choose what you teach them, making sure that they are interested in the content. Doing this will help get kids engaged when homeschooling.

Allowing them to tell you what they want to learn puts them in control of their own learning. And, whenever you can get them involved in deciding what they will learn you’ll find them more willing to be engaged.

We talked a little about getting creative above, but this is a little different. Instead of just being creative, you want to find cool ways to teach your children about the different things they are learning.

For example, if you want to make a math lesson fun, then why not think about incorporating something fun into it? Baking is a good example. If you’re going to be teaching basic math, then why not get your kids involved in making cupcakes or something? This way, you can use them to make the equations come to life, and this makes it easier to learn. They get to practice their math in a real world setting.

You can follow the same kind of principle when it comes to learning about percentages by teaching them to calculate tax and tip rates at stores and restaurants.

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Seeing some of the things that you can do to make homeschool more appealing, even when it’s done from home can lead to a more peaceful homeschooling day. And, you’ll find it is possible to get kids engaged when homeschooling.

If you have a child who has been in mainstream school and are now schooling from home, it can be difficult to adjust. Because of this you have got to make it as appealing as possible to grab and keep their attention. By following some of the advice that I have given you, you can make this possible. Soon both you and your kids will see how awesome homeschooling can be!

Find even more ideas for keeping kids engaged when homeschooling by clicking these links.

• How to Teach Art in Homeschool
• Finding Homeschool Help with Speech Therapy
• Notebooking for Homeschool