Easy Homeschooling Ideas

For me and my little family (Gabriel is 7 and Michael is 4), homeschooling started a few months ago. At the time, I did not think it was important to keep track of our endeavors online, but I’ve received so many questions from so many different readers that I have decided to make it a recurring part of my blog.

​I myself was in the public school system up through high school, and left to become homeschooled in the ninth grade. My brother was in middle school when he began. I always felt incredibly bored in school, and often got into trouble. My brother was diagnosed with ADHD when he was very young, and always had great difficulty sitting still for hours on end staring at a chalkboard while listening to a teacher drone on and on about historical facts and mathematical equations. My mother decided to give homeschooling a try, and let him complete his schoolwork in small increments over the period of the day.

We followed a Christian-based curriculum, which not only included all of the standard school subjects, but also Bible study. In my opinion, this is an important part of a child’s education, and I myself teach the Bible to my children. Below are a few of my favorite Bible-based children's books.

When deciding to homeschool, you may be overwhelmed with the amount of information that is floating around online. I will write different posts at a later date telling exactly how to get started with homeschooling, but the purpose of this post is to be brief and lighthearted, and to give you a quick rundown of how I teach my children at home.

I do not follow a curriculum. Many people frown on that. I consider myself more as an ‘unschooling’ type, as I do not believe in strict teaching methods. There are simply way too many resources out there to help your children learn aside from making them sit still for hours on end going over material they simply do not need. Gabriel does have dyspraxia, and he gets very frustrated if he has to sit still for a long time while going over and over something. Once I decided to back off and let him learn in his own way, he has really blossomed.

Just like any other child, my kids absolutely adore video games. I’ll let them play all the video games they want, as long as 80% of that is educational. ABC Mouse is a wonderful resource that both of my children enjoy. I really cannot say enough good things about it. I will go in depth about this program in a later post.

YouTube is another wonderful resource with an infinite amount of educational videos just for kids. Anything from math to English to science videos can be found there, and is a free way to help you explain a subject to a child you may not feel comfortable explaining yourself. This is such a wonderful and easy way to give you a break while your children can still learn. I run this busy website, take online courses, and care for my home and animals aside from creating crafts and recipes to post here. When I need time to create a blog post or do anything else, I simply put on a YouTube playlist, and I feel good knowing that I can still accomplish my chores while my children are learning. If you would like to check out a few of my favorite playlist on YouTube, click HERE and subscribe to my YouTube channel.

I also use workbooks that I find on Amazon that have craft ideas, puzzles, coloring pages, and writing sheets in addition to everything else I have listed above. My kids absolutely love these. You can find them for any age or grade level, and are fairly inexpensive. I highly suggest grabbing a handful of these, and I will link to a few of my favorites below.

It’s very easy to help your children learn even while they play. For example, just the other day Gabriel was playing with his Legos. I asked him how many Legos he had in his hand, and he told me. I took two of them away and asked him how many he had then, and he told me. I’ve turned a simple amount of playtime into a math lesson, and he doesn’t even realize that he is learning. So many parents complain that they cannot get their children to sit still and do their homework when they’re homeschooling, but if you make learning fun, you won’t have any problems.

There are so many ways to help your children learn, and these are just a few that I utilize in my home. If you do anything else that is fun to help your children learn, please leave me a comment down below and tell me. I’m always on the lookout for new ideas.