The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Do you remember this commercial? I have to admit, it is cute and I do get tickled at it, but when I stop to think about it, it's really kind of sad that so many parents really do feel this way. It's such a relief to get their kids back to school so they don't have to deal with them all day every day.

But you know, for me, I also love back-to-school time. I had planned on schooling through the summer, but it hasn't worked out that way for us and I am starting to feel the itch. I love getting back into a new school year and the fun we have learning. Does that sound crazy?

It's so easy to get into a rut and get burned-out with homeschooling. That's why I keep it light and fun with our learning. Naturally English is English and there's not much 'fun' you can do with that (not that I have found anyway) and there are days when all of us would like to chuck our math books into the garbage, but instead of boring ourselves to death with a science or history textbook we get up and out of our chairs and go outside for science, we get our hands dirty and have fun doing experiements. We read exciting and interesting books for history and even...GASP... watch movies that have some historical value to them in order to better relate what we're learning about. We go on fun field trips and we play and laugh and create!

This year we'll be starting out by doing an Olympics study! We'll read and learn about China, make and eat our own Chinese food, have our own mini Olympics competition, learn some geography as we trace the torch route, study athletes and olympians, read about the very first Olympics, not to mention watch the Olympics and keep track of how many medals the USA wins! Doesn't that sound like fun? It does to me. And it's something the kids will really enjoy and remember. We did this four years ago and they still talk about it.

So come on! Get excited and make up your mind that this school year is going to be FUN! It can be if we just chill out and relax and realize that we're not doing 'school at home' but we're teaching our kids to love learning!

By the way, if you'd like some help planning an Olympic study, here are some links for you...

*Summer Olympics 2008 Unit Study
*Olympics and China unit study
*Olympics Unit Study by the Notgrass Company
*Wilma Unlimited-this is the unit study I put together and used for the 2004 Olympics

And there are a lot more ideas here, put together by other homeschooling moms!