Hope for Your Homeschool: Beating the Winter Blues

After the fun of Christmas is over and winter break comes to an end, are you experiencing the winter blues?  I hear you!  It can be hard to find the energy to get our school routine going again and not just for the kids, but for the homeschool parent, too!  Here are ten tips for going back to school in January.

1.  Start slow - start with a few subjects and layer in more things over time. 
   
2. Go outside - yes, it's freezing, but the kids don't care, so bundle them up and encourage them to get outdoors each day to move their bodies and if you join them, you might feel better, too!
   
3.  Enjoy the coziness of winter - start a fire in the fireplace or light some candles on your table at breakfast, it warms the dark, cold days of winter.
4. Snow days - you can do some homeschool necessities, but still take time to go play in the snow. 
5. Snacks - snacks have been a part of our home school in every season, but in winter it can be fun to have some hot cocoa and a small treat.
6. Winter themed books - When the kids were small, we enjoyed Jan Brett's The Mitten and many of her other beautifully illustrated books.  Older children could enjoy stories read aloud like the wintry tales of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods.
7. Games - winter is a nice time to pull out some fun board games to use during the dark evenings we have played Monopoly, Scrabble, Sorry, Quirkle, and Uno for fun.
8. Music - Listen to music together in the evenings after supper, especially if any of you play instruments.
   
9. Movies - Pop some popcorn and choose some movies that you can all watch together and talk about afterward.
   
10. Routine - establishing a simple morning routine can help to get everyone going each day.  A typical routine for our homeschool mornings was breakfast and reading aloud at the table, get dressed and ready for the day, and then start with a few minutes of handwriting practice at our table.  We did this each day for many years and it was nice that the kids knew what was expected while I was getting my own chores done in the morning. 

What are some of your favorite ways to beat the winter blues? Feel free to share in the comments below!