Random Homeschooling Tips and Tricks

You are looking for homeschooling tips and a few extra tricks to have up your sleeve as a homeschooling mom.

Homeschool moms must stick together and sharing our tips and tricks is key to success, yes?

Because we all have those days.

The days when we are DONE homeschooling. The days when nothing goes quite right. The moments that make us feel totally unprepared, not at all capable and in need of another pot of coffee.

But, if we help each other, work together and remember that we are not alone in this whole homeschooling thing, we can do it.

I wanted to share a few tips and tricks that have helped over the years. {click on the links to see and shop on Amazon}

Random Homeschooling Tips and Tricks

Have you seen a Phonics Phone? BRILLIANT. What an incredible tool to help our kids learn to read. Annalise can hear herself read and it is helping with pronunciation, tone and reading out loud. Amazing…

Get an exercise ball. This helps with a kid’s need to move while sitting at a desk. This is something we’ve used at home for a few years. For an active, sensory kid, sitting on a ball is a fantastic approach to allowing them some movement while requiring them to remain in one place.

Colored transparency sheets. This is a wonderful tool for struggling readers. Let them choose different colors, place the colored sheet over their reading work or book page and read away! And you can use any sheet. Not just the special, expensive ones from the teacher store.

Gum. I know… GUM. Get your kids some gum to chew while doing homework or while homeschooling. I can get a good 15 minutes of quiet work time out of my girls if I supply some gum. Have a gum stash and let them pick a flavor. Wonderful.

Blanket on the floor. It can be a reading space. Or an island for math. Or a spelling world. Let your child decide and then work from the blanket.

Music. Let some music play quietly while they work on a specific thing. This might distract some kids… so know your children’s working needs, but for some kids, music can actually calm and help them focus.

Breaks. Take lots of breaks. Making our kids push through isn’t always the right answer for anyone. I even added breaks to our workbox system so that the girls could choose when they needed a break.

You read, I read. This principle worked really well with Abby, my youngest. She would read more and read longer is we “traded” reading. I do a page, she does a page. I read a line, she reads a line. Perfect way to get them to read and make it fun.

Act it out. Spelling words? Vocab words? Say a word and let them act it out. Or have them act it out and you guess the word. Great way to get things in their brains without them even realizing it.

Engage someone else. Ask grandparents, neighbors, the babysitter… anyone else but you… have your kids say their poem or practice their spelling or read a book to another adult is very helpful. It gives you a break but also allows other people to be a part of their learning.

Change of scene. Is homework time at home a battle? Is there one homeschool subject that you are struggling with? Take it to McDonalds over a $1 ice cream cone. Or, go to the backyard. Or, take a drive and review spelling words on the road.

Amazingly enough, some of these things work for other areas of parenting too. I talk about them and more in my Mommy Tricks post.

Moms, whether you homeschool or do homework with your kids, we all need to have some tricks and tips up our sleeves to make things run smoother during bumpy times.

What are some ways you make it through bumpy times? What are some homeschooling tips and tricks up your sleeve… things that help you through the tough mommy moments of homeschool and homework?

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