Need a Lift? Tips to Beat the Winter Blahs

Winter’s dark, damp days often bring a certain amount of boredom, at best. At worst, you could suffer from isolation or even depression. As the temperature plummets, so do attitudes all around. Need a lift?  Here are several tried and true tips to beat the winter blahs.

So if you need to beat the winter blahs, read these strategies to help inject some fun and energy into your homeschooling:

1. Spend time with others – Go on Field Trips!

I clearly remember visiting an uncle and aunt in Texas as a kid in the winter. We were bored out of our wits staying in the house. But it just so happened that a relative in the area was an employee of Kraft Candy Kitchens. So our family was able to go to the CANDY FACTORY on a Saturday and see how they made all. that. candy.

I’m not much of a candy fan now, but then…. it was unimaginable fun for my brothers and me! And all those samples we got to try! It sure lifted our spirits, not to mention our cavity numbers, I’m sure.

Beat cabin fever by resisting the urge to stay inside during these dreary days.   Get a group together and go to an inside skating rink or bowling alley, or even better, take a field trip. Get a small group of homeschooled children behind the scenes at:

• Your local fire station
• The post office
• Your favorite grocery store or local bakery
• A local manufacturing plant
• Your local water treatment facility

Arrange a tour with your support group or a few other homeschooling families, then have a bag lunch or playtime afterward.

If you can have the kids burn up energy outside, that’s the best. But if the weather doesn’t permit playing outdoors, perhaps a gym in a local church or recreation center would allow some indoor playtime during the morning or early afternoon hours when they are usually empty.

2. Evaluate and plan for next year.

Often we resist the urge to think ahead in favor of just plugging along, nose to the grindstone, trying to get this year’s school work finished, but this is actually an excellent time to evaluate what you are doing and how you are doing it, as well as to identify specific areas needing attention next year for each of your children.

• Considering each child at a time, ask yourself, what progress has s/he made this year spiritually, academically, etc.? Are there new interests developing that should be explored next year? How does s/he learn best? Do we need to plan to focus more on improving writing or arithmetic skills, working more independently, or strengthening character in certain areas?  What habits would you like to be instilling in this child?
• How will your family change next year? Will you have more or fewer children to teach? Children spread out between kindergarten and high school for the first time? Do you need to prepare to teach middle school or high school?
• Consider your teaching method and curricula you are using (or not using if you are more of an unschooler).   Is it working for you now?  Will it continue working for you? Is it working for your children? Are they engaged, learning, and enjoying what they are doing for the most part? (Or are they bored, unchallenged, unmotivated, or losing interest?) Put your thoughts in writing. How can you boost their learning and engagement in homeschooling?
• Are there new areas you would like to build into your homeschooling, such as family devotions, nature study (plan a spring garden!), lap-booking, notebooking, journaling, hymn study, picture study, or music lessons? Make notes about what you want to add to your home education week.

Would you like more formal help assessing how you’re doing this year meeting your home education goals? Here’s how to do a mid-year home assessment.

3. Beat the winter blahs by lightening up on yourself!

Make sure you are getting enough sleep, as much as possible. If you have a baby or sick kids and you don’t sleep much, cut down on what you require from yourself the next day.

• Can your kids start on their independent work first?
• Make it fun by having a pajama day, and when everyone has room time in the afternoon, try to grab a little rest yourself.
• Have breakfast for dinner. How about scrambled eggs and toast or oatmeal? (Anything easy.)

 

4.  Beat the Winter Blahs by planning more of the “extras”

Are you having difficulty just wading through the three R’s, let alone getting in any fun stuff? Amazingly, the non-negotiable stuff goes much faster with something to look forward to.

Often livening things up can be as simple as assigning each Friday in January or February as a pajama day, build-a-tent-out-of-the-furniture-and-read-in-it day, make an edible map day, or get together with others for lunch day (see #1).

After spending time evaluating in #2, did you identify some new areas you would like to include in your studies or child training next year?  Why don’t you consider starting one or more of them now, perhaps on a smaller scale, so you can see how it works and be better prepared to start in earnest in the Fall?  Here are some how-to posts that might help:

• Make a lapbook
• Creative Language Arts Lessons using Real Books
• How to do Picture study for older students

 

5. Beat the Winter Blahs by Planning “Academic” Activities with Other Families.

As a family or with a few other families, research and cook a meal or plan an event that pertains to your history, geography, or religious studies. Choose one or more of these activities:

• African or Egyptian night, researching and cooking traditional foods from the culture or period you are studying and eating them like they were eaten in the past or today (mainly if no utensils are used – wildly popular).
•  Olympic Games Day, complete with costumes and patterned after the Olympics of Ancient Greece. (But you might draw the line at how athletes competed in Ancient Greece – without clothes.  Brrr.)
• Celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim in March. Read the book of Esther and yell Boo! at any mention of Haman and cheer with abandon when Mordecai is mentioned.  You may also plan a feast, give to the poor, and eat Hamantaschen or Haman’s Ears!
•  Renaissance Fair. Create appropriate costumes, research music, games, food, and more that might have been appropriate for that event.  Make sure to take pictures!

 

6.  Celebrate a Holiday to Beat the Winter Blahs

Choose a holiday, research it, and celebrate it as a family or with others. This could be a holiday on the calendar, such as these celebrated here in the U.S.:

• Black History Month (the month of February)
• American Heart Month (the month February)
• Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14^th)
• President’s Day (Feb. 20^th)

Or, it could be a wacky holiday that you make up or that someone else has  made up, such as:

• World Introvert Day. (Jan. 2)
• Festival of Sleep. (Jan. 3)
• Bean Day. (Jan. 6)
• Houseplant Appreciation Day. (Jan. 10)
• National Hat Day. (Jan. 15)
• National Popcorn Day. (Jan. 19)
• Penguin Awareness Day. (Jan. 20)
• Random Acts of Kindness Day (Feb. 17)
• National Pistachio Day (Feb. 26)
• Johnny Appleseed Day (Mar. 11)

Maybe each of your children could make up their holiday this month and (of course) write down why s/he chose the holiday and how it should be celebrated!

Try one or more of my tried and true tips to beat the winter blahs! And may patience, flexibility, and creativity help you get through the winter and enjoy every day of it.

 

Warmly,