Five Ways to Keep Your Home-Schooled Children Motivated Through The End of the Year

Boy tired of doing math bored

While keeping your kids motivated to study is extremely challenging, it can be even harder to keep kids motivated when they know that summer is only a few weeks away. The difficulty in getting kids to stay motivated seems to permeate every school atmosphere, whether it’s public, private, or homeschooling. In order to keep kids motivated through the end of the year, there are a few ways to funnel their energy into something constructive! Read on to learn more.

Constant Rotation

One of the easiest ways to keep kids on task is to create a rotation of activities for them to do. Instead of focusing on only one area and having them work on it for hours on end, try to have them rotate through activities. This lets them release energy and keeps them from getting bored! Surprisingly easy to create, a constant rotation of activities for your home-schooled kids is just one of several ways to keep them motivated to learn!

Year-end Scrapbooks

Scrapbooking is a great way to preserve memories. Your kids can design their own special pages devoted to certain things that you have done throughout the school year. You can include personal touches to make sure each of your kids gets their own, personalized scrapbook, like including their name, photo, illustrations, and any other personal touches on the front page of the scrapbook. You can even have each of your kids write you or their future selves a letter about the school year and glue it onto the back of his or her page. Add a child-created cover, laminate all pages, and bind the finished product with plastic comb binding!

Taking the Classroom Outside

As the cold of winter slips away and turns into the warmth of spring and eventually summer, it’s a great idea to take the schooling outside! Activities like reading, writing poetry, doing science experiments, or playing math games can be taken outside, where kids will already feel more excited about doing schoolwork. You can take beach blankets or towels into your backyard or a nearby park for these special times. Even a few minutes spent outside for a read-aloud session can offer a quick cure for the end-of-the-year blues.

Educational Online Games

One of the best ways to appeal to today’s kids is to incorporate anything related to technology into your curriculum. Educational online games are often free or inexpensive, and there are plenty of apps out there for you to choose from! Using a computer can give you access to all sorts of online games such as the skill races at Arcademic Skill Builders or the stories read aloud on StoryLine Online.

Multimedia Projects

Multimedia projects are a great way to challenge your kids. They are motivating and interesting because they are fun to create and they teach kids valuable lessons about how to incorporate multimedia into their lives. Challenge your kids to create multi-media presentations. Possible topics include anything from a recap of the school year to their dreams for the future.

While it’s difficult to combat the weariness of students when it gets close to summer, these strategies can help you take control of the classroom. You can keep learning fun while also helping your kids discover hidden abilities! This also makes the end of the year will a time to celebrate, a time to share great memories of special times together!

 

 

Authored by: YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas