100 Ways to Have a Fun Homeschool Day
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There are so many ways to have a fun homeschool day!
Homeschooling provides you with the opportunity to be flexible and creative.
It also gives you the chance to add touches of fun throughout your homeschool day. When learning fun happens, it is like a magical experience that both kids and parents can enjoy.
There are countless ways to have a fun homeschool day. As you plan out your homeschool fun activities, consider these factors:
- ages & stages of your kids
- legal requirements (make sure to complete these first!)
- budget
- time allowance (for days filled with appointments, practices, and events)
If you already feel overwhelmed with your homeschool routine, adding a bit of fun may be just the ticket!
You may be placing a bit too much pressure on your kids and yourself. Take a break for an hour or two from your homeschool schedule and add one of these ways to have a fun homeschool day. I promise-your homeschool will not be ruined. In fact, I bet it soars!
Easily Have a Fun Homeschool Day!
Use these tips, ideas, and resources to easily boost your homeschool day.
You'll find an entire section devoted to your preschool-age children. The other categories (math, science, reading/writing, and history) can generally be used with elementary age children and older.
Preschool
- Sticker Books: My younger boys love early learning sticker books.
2. Learning Songs (includes free printable): We use these during our Homeschool Morning Gathering time.
3. Puzzles: Great tools for hands-on learning plus fine motor skills. We love this Melissa And Doug set.
4. Learning Games: Dianna of The Kennedy Adventures shares these awesome 10 Learning Games For Preschoolers To Enjoy over at iHomeschool Network.
5. Wipe-Clean Activity Books: Fabulous way to save money-these books are reusable!
6. Educational DVDs: Mom gets a break with these engaging videos for learning fun. Leap Frog DVDs have been favorites for all of my boys.
7. Playdough: Whether you make it your self or buy in a bunch, playdough is a fantastic way to have a fun homeschool day.
8. Lift-The-Flap Books: Children love to peek behind flaps and make new learning discoveries.
9. Wood Food: This set of Melissa and Doug Cutting Food is a huge hit in our home. My boys get hands-on learning for math (fractions and counting), fine motor skills, and hand-eye coordination.
10. More Games!: Lynna of Homeschooling Without Training Wheels shares these brilliant games for preschoolers.
11. Learning Apps: If you allow your preschooler to have a bit of screen time, learning apps can be great ways to make homeschooling fun.
12. Kitchen Set: Preschoolers learn and have so much fun when they have a kitchen play set. Role-playing, math, communication skills, and organization are a few of the benefits of this type of learning fun.
13. Fingerpaint: Textures, colors, and self-expression are a few of the great ways that fingerpaint adds fun to preschool time.
14. Easel: Children enjoy having an area to explore their artistic pursuits. Tabletop or standing, easels provide preschoolers with great opportunities for learning fun.
15. Alphabet Fun: Tara of Homeschool Preschool shares eight fun tools for teaching your preschoolers about letters.
16. Puppets: Children love puppets! Make during craft time or use these adorable puppets to add fun to storytime, math-any lesson!
17. Wood Blocks: One of my very own favorite childhood toys, wood blocks offer a variety of chances for your child to practice visual spacing, building, balancing, hand-eye coordination, counting, and basic motor skills.
18. Hand Bells: Our set of colorful hand bells has been used for songs, storytime, and math lessons throughout our homeschool.
19. Keyboard Books: My boys love to use these types of books for an introduction to reading music and piano.
20. Duplo Blocks: Preschoolers can use these blocks for color recognition, sorting, patterns, counting, building, balancing, and more.
Math
21. Card Games: Take out a deck of cards and have some math fun. Math Geek Mama shares these awesome games to have learning fun with math.
22. Uno: There are quite a few ways to use of deck of Uno cards for homeschool learning fun. Childhood 101 shares how to play Uno Flip for addition fun and Place Value War.
23. Activity Books: These Usborne resources have helped my younger boys actually want to work on math!
24. Fun Math Activity: 123Homeschool4Me shares this fantastic way to have fun with math-Cootie Catchers!
25. Lift-The-Flap Books:
26. Snacks: Food can be use for hands-on learning math fun. Playdough To Plato shares this Marshmallow Geometry activity. Crystal of Triumphant learning offers great ideas in Sneak In Learning With Snack Time Math. Candy Math provides resources and activities for math learning fun.
27. Board Games: We love using these board games in our homeschool:
28. Math DVDs: My boys love learning basic math facts with these videos.
29. Electronic Gadgets: Handheld devices like FlashMaster and Educational Insights MathShark are exciting ways for kids to learn and practice math facts.
30. Glow Sticks: Use these to lighten up math time!
31. Nature: Head out into the big outdoors and use safe objects found in nature for math manipulatives.
32. Paper Airplanes: Talk about angles and shapes while you make paper airplanes for math fun. Create different designs to chart and measure how will each perform. These two books have been a hit for my boys!
33. Math & Logic Puzzles: Get your children thinking and engaged with puzzles, mazes, and logic problems.
34. More Math Games!: Mary at Not Before 7 shares these great games to teach math.
35. Legos: These classic building toys can be used in so many fun ways to enhance math time. Royal Baloo shares how to use Legos to teach pictograms. Walking By The Way shares how to find perimeter and area with Legos. Brain Power Boy collected these math games using Legos.
36. Hula Hoop: Crystal of Triumphant Learning shares how to use a hula hoop for teaching time. You can also use to teach fractions (divide circle into slices) and counting.
37. Outside of the Box Thinking: Math time is fabulous for including different subjects and problem solving approaches. Encourage your children to think outside of the box with books like:
38. Money: Grab that spare change jar and start having math fun like The Hmmschooling Mom.
39. Math Apps: Karyn of Teach Beside Me rounded up these 100 Best Learning Apps By Subject. Scroll down to find her math apps recommendations!
40. Life of Fred: Our family loves this math curriculum! The elementary series starts with Life of Fred Apples and continues up through college level math.
Science
41. Your Backyard: You can have so much fun in your homeschool with activities found in the Backyard Scientist: Easy Activities For All Ages.
42. Don't Teach It!: More great advice from Lynna of Homeschooling Without Training Wheels. She offers her ideas on why it is okay to not teach that science lesson today-and what you can do instead.
43. Worms: Kids often love these slimy creatures. Take Karyn's advice from Teach Beside Me and Make A Worm Tower.
44. Netflix: Use this or other video streaming to watch educational science films that get your kids thinking and excited to learn. Dianna of The Kennedy Adventures shares this amazing list of science movies and documentaries for kids on Netflix..
45. Easy Experiments: Amanda of Raising da Vinci has the coolest 10 Easy No-Prep Science Experiments That Keep Kids Busy (includes a demo video!)
46. STEAM ahead!: STEAM Kids: 50+ Science / Technology / Engineering / Art / Math Hands-On Projects for Kids is a best seller for a reason. This book is filled with amazing ways to have science learning fun!
47. More Legos!: Sheila from Brain Power Boy rounded up these LEGO Learning: Awesome LEGO Science Projects!.
48. Outside The Box Activities: My boys are loving this new addition to our homeschool. It is full of hands-on ideas to approach science in a new way.
49. Microscope: Let your kids explore the microscopic world and watch their excitement grow! Mary at Not Before 7 is using this model with success in her homeschool. I recommend using this amazing book with internet links!
50. Comic Book: For a super fun addition to your homeschool science, use a comic book approach! Dr. Bonyfide Presents are fabulous for an effective approach to anatomy.
51. Snap Circuits: Whenever we need a boost to our homeschool day, this set of Snap Circuits does the trick.
52. Kits: There are many science kits out there that can add some pizazz to your homeschool. My boys have enjoyed this potato clock, tin can robot, and make your own bouncy balls.
53. Nature Study: Head outside and study the world around you. We use and love Exploring Nature With Children as our main resource for studying nature.
54. Butterflies: When the weather is warm enough, adopt some butterfly larva and watch nature unfold before you. We host butterflies at least twice a year and learn something new every time. This butterfly habitat has lasted us for several years.
55. Lapbooks: Liven up science reports with lapbooks. Great ways to demonstrate knowledge and enjoy the creative process!
56. Rockin' Game: My boys will be studying geology later this year and we are adding this game to our studies.
57. Trivia: Our family loves to learn with trivia! Professor Noggin's Wonders of Science trivia set absolutely rocks!
58. Solar System game: This game for space exploration looks brilliant! You get to plan a space mission and comes with an educational workbook. Adding to our list of homeschool science fun!
59. Edible science: Play Ideas shares this list of 25 Edibles Science Experiments. The Natural Homeschool shows us how to make an edible 3D atom.
60. Gross Them Out: For some odd reason, kids really dig gross stuff and want to learn all about it. I Can Teach My Child shares these Gross Science Experiments to get you started.
Reading/Writing
61. Life of Fred Early Readers: These simple yet effective early reader books featuring Fred and Kingie have added a splash of learning fun for our younger boys.
62. X-Ray Vision: Scanorama books have been an excellent addition to our homeschool fun-so engaging!
63. More Early Readers: This set is new to our homeschool and Bear (5) is loving it! Highly recommended with its colorful illustrations, helpful information to help parents teach reading, and activities at end of every book.
64. Comic Strips: My boys love to create their own comic strips with this free printable pack!
65. Sight Words Fun: We use this free printable Lego sight words game for homeschool fun. Brain Power Boy has awesome ideas for action sight words games.
66. Poetry Teatime: One of our family's favorite activities! This resource has been invaluable to creating a successful poetry teatime.
67. Magnetic Words: We use these DIY magnetic letters and words for learning fun. This magnetic poetry set looks amazing, too!
68. Creative Writing: Let your kids' imagination soars with opportunities for creative writing fun. This book is a great resource to get you started.
69. First Writing Help: Initial attempts at writing can be overwhelming. Help your kids have writing fun with helpful resources like this book.
70. Story Cubes: Add a dash of fun to your homeschool writing time with Rory's Story Cubes.
71. Banangrams: We use these affordable letter tiles in so many ways in our homeschool and on-the-go learning! Great use in teaching sight words and spelling!
72. Scrabble: Fantastic board game to improve spelling and vocabulary. The Junior version is awesome for young learners.
73. Apps: There are tons of great apps to help your kids have fun learning how to read. Starfall and Learn With Homer have been fantastic for my boys. Epic is a phenomenal app that is filled with books for kids with all sorts of interests.
74. Play School: Many kids enjoy pretending they are the teacher with siblings, parents, or stuffed animals as students. Introduce a chalkboard or whiteboard and watch them practice writing skills with no complaints!
75. Play Restaurant: Think about all the reading and writing skills that running a restaurant takes. Meal planning, menus, and taking orders all require both skills. Such simple ways to help children learn! My boys are loving the Create Your Own Pizzeria book that builds these skills plus teaches about entrepreneurship.
76. Window Markers: Be that fun mom and go for markers that your kids can use on glass, whiteboards, and any non-porous surface. They will be begging you to practice their spelling!
77. Hands-On Activities: Understood.org shares 8 multi-sensory ways your kids can have fun learning how to read.
78. DIY Pointers: My younger boys love to have learning "helpers" when they do their school work. These DIY Reading Pointers are great for keeping the boys on task and having fun.
79. Rainbows: These Rainbow Reading Comprehension Bracelets are wonderful for guiding your child in narration.
80. Writing Jar: Krista of Far From Normal gives amazing tips on how to use a writing jar. She also shares 100 Free Printable Writing Prompts to fill it!
History
81. Timelines: My boys have enjoyed this hands-on approach to timelines.
82. Toys: Professor (11) is a history buff. He loves history-related toys for use in reenactments and general play.
83. Trivia Games: These sets of trivia cards from Professor Noggins are a huge hit in our home. My boys beg us to use them all the time.
84. Salt Dough Map: Consider making one of these with your kids for hands-on learning and to reinforce concepts while having history fun.
85. Documentaries: Dianna of The Kennedy Adventures is my go-to site for recommendations of documentaries on Netflix. She shares these suggestions for Ancient Rome.
86. DVDs: Liberty Kids has been a helpful way for me to get a break while my kids continue to have learning fun with history. Great for on-the-go in our van and super affordable!
87. Internet-Linked Resources: Usborne has truly amazing books that provide engaging content, images, and internet links to boost history learning fun. (The World Wars book is Professor's favorite!)
88. Games: Hands-on history fun is possible with board games. Catan Histories: Settlers of America Trails to Rails and Ticket To Ride are two popular history games.
89. Lapbooks: History is another great subject that comes to life through lapbooks.
90. Fact Cards: These Second World Wars Fact Cards are often taken out by my boys for studying and quizzing each other.
91. Sticker Books: These history-themed sticker books are great ways to provide your kids with hands-on learning fun.
92. Unit Studies: Our homeschool is using this Time Capsule: Medieval England from Homeschooling Your Boys. Absolutely amazing resource that is filled with hands-on learning activities!
93. More Legos: These building blocks can be tools for learning fun in any subject! Check out these ideas from Homegrown Learners and Milk and Cookies. The Lego architecture sets are also great for hands-on history fun.
94. YouTube: Watch these YouTube history videos for kids for homeschool fun.
95. Book Series: Emily of Table Life Blog gives her book series that can help kids get hooked on history.
96. History Apps: iGame Mom shares suggestions for amazing apps for history learning fun.
97. Puzzles: Jigsaw or 3D, puzzles are super for history fun.
98. Interactive Game: Journey Through Time Eye Found It! provides tons of fun from prehistoric time to the present day.
99. Model Kits: More hands-on learning fun! Get your kids interested in history with model building.
100. Reenactment: Really get into the time period that you are studying with history reenactments! Costumes can make it more fun.
Oh, and a good scavenger hunt (indoor or outdoor to get some fresh air) can be super cool, too!
Wishing you tons of Fun Homeschool Days! Share how you'll have a fun homeschool day 🎉
Wow this gave me great Ideas for me so I can help my baby sister learn after online learning!
Oh that makes my heart so happy! And it's so sweet that you're spending time with your sister 🙂
Thank you You include some of my favorites likelego, craft and United States history and other that definitely need to review with my young ones like the complete book of microscope!