10 Terrific Ways to Refresh Your Homeschool in January

How to Revitalize Your Homeschool in the New Year

If your enthusiasm is dragging and your kids are grumpy about starting back to homeschool after a Christmas break, you might need to hit the reset button and consider how you can refresh your space, routine, curriculum, or activities for the new year. Here are 10 ways to refresh your homeschool in January.

1. Get Organized

It’s January! Of course you have organization on your mind. One way to refresh your homeschool for the new year is to put in place some basic organization. It might not sound exciting, but being able to quickly access supplies, find your digital files, and keep track of what your kids are learning will save your time and sanity.

Decluttering

After the Christmas gift-giving season, your home may feel even more cluttered than usual. Give your space a refresh by removing items you no longer use or need in the space. You may choose to donate or sell items, but if you feel uncertain about getting rid of them, boxing up a selection of things you haven’t used in a while and storing them in a garage or closet to give some white space in your home can be an interim step to letting go.

Storing Books and Supplies

Do you or your kids struggle to find their books, games, pencils, or notebooks? Think about how to group, sort, and arrange items so that they are easily accessible and stored in a way that makes sense for your family. Remember the rule—a place for everything, and everything in its place.

Here are a few possibilities for storage and organization:

have an area for each child to store supplies (shelf, bin, desk, etc.)
group books and supplies by subject (on a shelf or in bins or baskets)
arrange material according to when you use them (daily, morning work, Mondays, etc.)
use a rolling cart for shared supplies your kids use in multiple spaces

Digital Organization

It’s just as important to organize your digital life as your physical life. Create a file naming system for your digital homeschool files on your hard drive, and use the same naming protocol in your Google Drive and anywhere else you store electronic records. I even use the same folder naming system for saving bookmarks in my web browser.

Read: How to Organize Homeschool

ways to refresh your homeschool in January

2. Change Up Your Routine

Another way to reinvigorate your homeschool mid-year is to change up your routine. If you’ve let all your routines go over Christmas break and your kids have been sleeping, snacking, and watching endless TV, maybe you need a routine to start the year. Either way, involve your kids. Ask them to create a routine they want to try.

try a block “schedule” (divide up subjects or topics into specific days of the week)
take Fridays off, or use as a field trip day
choose one week per month to do unit studies or projects outside of curriculum
add a specific activity to your daily routine: read-aloud, joke of the day, this day in history
make lunchtime fun: have a daily theme, watch a funny video, listen to an audiobook

3. Add Fun Educational Decor

A new year might be the perfect time to add some inspiring decor around your home/homeschool space.

bulletin board display: word of the day, grammar jokes, show off your kids’ creative work
start a timeline on the wall (it doesn’t have to be ancient history—have your kids make a timeline of their own lives)
whiteboard conversations: would you rather questions, journal prompts, this or that questions
inspiring quotes
funny movie quotes: have your kids guess which movie it’s from
famous first lines from literature

Read: January Prompts for Three Things Thursday

4. Try Unit Studies

If you’ve been slogging through a textbook or online curriculum and you can tell your kids are losing interest, take a break with a unit study. Ask your kids to choose something they want to learn about and dig into it.

For monthly unit study ideas, check out my series of posts detailing unit study ideas for each month of the year based on some fun holidays during the month. You’ll find links to every month on my Homeschool Resource Page.

5. Do Hands-on Activities

Your kids likely don’t want to spend all day doing worksheets and reading textbooks. Engage them in hands-on activities either in a specific area of their interest, or as projects to accompany their current study.

Read: 60 Creative Ways to Demonstrate Learning (No Worksheets Here!)

science experiments
build a model
make art
observe nature
make a movie
play with blocks, LEGO, circuits, gears
do a craft
perform a play, re-enactment, skit, dance
play board games

One source I love and have recommended frequently is John Spencer’s YouTube channel. He provides resources for teachers related to project-based learning, but you’ll find videos on his channel written directly to students offering maker challenges, creative writing prompts, and projects that will light up your child’s imagination.

6. Find Classes and Community

Another way to recharge your homeschool partway through the year is to find a class or social group for your kids to engage with.

The options for online classes are many and varied. Techie Homeschool Mom has a helpful list of online classes for homeschoolers and I highly recommend heading over there to check it out.

The new year may also be a good time to join a co-op or sign up for an in-person class offered in your area. A simple Google search for “homeschool classes (YOUR CITY, STATE)” will get you started. You can also search Facebook groups for local homeschooling groups in your area that meet up for academic or socializing activities.

7. Go on Field Trips

Whether you started the school year with grand intentions that faded, or you didn’t even plan field trips in the first place, getting out of the house to learn in a variety of environments is a great way to refresh your homeschool in January.

A field trip can be to a grand destination or exciting event, but it doesn’t have to be. Help your kids observe what’s going on around them. Visit a store and pay attention to all the work going on: stocking shelves, cashiers, customer service. Take middle or high school students to walk around a college campus and observe the activities: sit in the student center, visit the bookstore, the sports fields.

The options for field trips will vary depending on your location, but here’s a quick list to jumpstart your brain in this direction.

concert
theater
zoo
aquarium
science center
museum
manufacturing facility
state capitol
workplace (ask around of friends, parents, church members to find places to visit)
nature park
downtown city (skyscrapers, subways, bridges)
construction site (observe from a distance outside the site, obviously!)
airport
train station
library
hike

8. Get Moving

After the holidays, you and your kids may be feeling more sluggish than usual due to increased sugar consumption, late nights and lots of activities. One of the best ways to feel refreshed and reinvigorated on a daily basis is to get regular exercise.

You can incorporate movement into your homeschool routine and exercise along with your kids. The magical thing about this is that your energy levels will increase, and your kids who need to move to release excess energy will moderate their energy levels.

add a morning workout: yoga, stretching, cardio, weight-lifting
take frequent movement breaks: do jumping jacks, lunges, pushups
have contests: who can hold a plank the longest, who can do the most burpees
take a walk after lunch
go for a bike ride on Friday afternoons
play active games weekly: Throw Throw Burrito, charades, cornhole
make an obstacle course
incorporate movement into learning activities
- throw a ball at the correct answer on a posterboard
- run back and forth across the room to match word cards with definition cards
- act out a scene from a history book or novel
- shoot nerf guns at math fact flash cards

9. Ask Your Kids for Input

One way I love to shake up what we’re doing in our homeschool is to ask my kids for input.

grab a whiteboard and brainstorm fun activities they’d like to do or things they want to know about
use a jar and slips of paper for them to write “I wonder…” questions on and choose one to research or answer each day or week
have them make up their own schedule for the week
ask your kids what they want to learn or try
find out how your kids would choose to order their time
ask if there is anything they want to change, add, or remove from your regular homeschool activities

10. Offer Encouragement

As a homeschool mom, you are often instructing, correcting, and pointing out things your kids need to work toward. The beginning of a new year is a great time to think intentionally about how to speak words of encouragement to your kids. They’re probably getting plenty of correction and instruction, but are they being built up and encouraged with words describing how delighted you are with their growth, character development, perseverance, relationships, habits, and learning?

Our words are powerful and will be long remembered, especially if our kids hear them as harsh, or feel they can never live up to our high expectations. Make an effort at the start of this year new to offer encouragement to your kids every single day and see what a difference it makes. You’ll never hear anyone complain that they received too much encouragement today!

Make a Fresh Start

It doesn’t need to be January to make a fresh start. All of these ways to refresh your homeschool can be accomplished any month of the year. If you need to change things up, try one of these ways to implement some fresh ideas, routines, or systems into your homeschool.

Visit my homeschool resources page for monthly unit study ideas, projects, and homeschool planning help!

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