Homeschooling my daughter means that I am with her ALL the time. It is very easy to get on each other’s nerves, especially if one or both of us are in a less than happy mood. In addition to school work, she must also accompany me on all the household errands and chores. Though it may be challenging it really helps our day move along smoothly if I try to make our daily activities a bit fun.
- Have something to look forward to. Going grocery shopping at Safeway is less painless when we make it a point to visit the bakery and get a free cookie (they always have a box to give to children).
- Hum a tune. My daughter will always wake up with a smile if I start to sing “Good Mornin'” from “Singin’ in the Rain”. We often get each other stuck on certain songs and we have fun taking turns on the lyrics.
- Take a spin. Even at 9 years old, I will swing my daughter’s arm when we are walking hand in hand and spin her around once. Sometimes she’s not in the mood but a few minutes later, she will initiate a little turn.
- Add a story. When doing homework, some subjects can get a bit monotonous such as math. I found that if I add some kind of story to a simple equation using family members or animals, the ideas are understood better and stick longer.
- Get them involved. Sometimes I do things myself because if I let my daughter do it, I fear that it will double my workload fixing what she did. She actually loves helping to cook and giving her a specific job makes her excited to help. Two of the jobs she feels responsible for are folding the towels and peeling the carrots.
- Kick up your heels. Doing a little ‘happy dance’ here and there doesn’t hurt. If you also blast some of your child’s favorite music, they will be jumping on their feet in no time to join in.
- Tell jokes. We, as parents, need to be serious but we don’t have to be like that all the time. Kids love telling corny jokes and we have found that they love hearing them as well.
- Get busy. Even though we aren’t very active, we try to have some fun chasing our daughter around the house or visa versa. We also race and tease each other fairly often.
- Gitter and glue. Crafts are always a good idea. Just using markers, paper, glitter, and glue will make any mundane project a work of art and a priceless memory.
- Use more. More hugs, more kisses, more tickling, more singing, more dancing, more “I love you”. Time will only move forward and we never want to regret that we didn’t have fun with our daughter when we could.
Our children are only young once. Pretty soon they’ll get to the point when they are embarrassed to have us hug them in front of friends. So I am determined to have her remember her childhood as a happy and fun one.
I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and The Hub blogging program/contest, making me eligible to get a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.
2 comments
What a great reminder. I don’t think you have to be a homeschooling mama to take ideas from your post. We can ALL have a little more patience, a little more play, and a lot more love.
Crystal
Thanks for reading 🙂
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