Homeschoolers: Difficulty Getting Back into "School"

With my ds, I had to create a school-like situation. He sometimes wanted to lie in bed in his pjs and just read ("no math today, Mom, ok?" that sort of thing). So I set the alarm, had him get dressed, packed a lunch, and had him "report" to the school room.

Also, you might do something that finalizes, in a concrete way, the end of vacation and the start of the school semester. Sometimes in a homeschooling situation, there just isn't that physical, tangible separation between "home" and "school" in a kid's mind.

Maybe you could go out for pizza or ice cream, talk about the holidays, and talk about how the vacation is over, and how school is now back in session. Ask your daughter what she would like the school day to be, where she likes doing her work pages, etc. Ask her to pretend to be the teacher for a minute. What would she do differently? If you listen carefully you might get some clues as to why she is balking.

Make sure your school area looks like school. If you teach her at the dining room table but it's still piled high with Christmas cards to respond to, or decorations that haven't been put away, that won't be conducive to schooling. And maybe you could go shopping for a new notebook, or some super shiny fun pencils, or something that she could put on her school desk (a tiny cactus plant, or a special little picture frame, or a little kitten figurine or something).

I have a dear friend who has homeschooled for many years - her kids are teens now. She never takes a holiday break. They have school every day to some extent. They might do some holiday shopping first, or cook etc, but they do hit the books sometime within the day.

She knows exactly how much time and what parts of subjects they have to do each day. I think maybe you might want to consider this since you know your daughter will do this.

Dawn

We have trouble with that too!

I figure the best way to do it is to jump back in with both feet. Kind of like getting into a cold pool!

We set our alarm and get up and sit down ready to do our work. I ignore all protests.

But then I usually start out with something fun like art or some games. I also give her easy work that's just review. Once she gets back into it and sees that it's fun and also that she can do the work, the protests stop and by the next day we're fine.

Good luck!

Hi there!
We don't take many days off, 3 days H., or two days there, we don't follow the regular school breaks, so that helps a lot. After Christmas, we have 3 days off and then the kids started school again. They started with reading and science, then after New Year' s Eve we took 3 days off and then 2 subjects, that is....The older one who is 11 is already on his normal routine, and I am teaching him all the subjects; and the little one, 5, like yours is just doing little things related to math, reading, arts, science, etc.etc....Wit little kids just start little.....Actually the older one gets more reluctant and distracted to start..but the little one is always so happy to "study"..Just make it fun and take 10 min breaks.

My kids go to public school, but they also are not happy going back. Just thought I would let you know it is not just happening at home, but with public school once they are either on the bus or dropped off, they tend to go along with what the whole class is doing so it is easier I assume. Good luck.

We took time off because my oldest was off. She is in the public high school. Today she went back so today we started. It was hard but I found a huge project for history and they are excited to start that,.

Evan More History Pockets, in the Teacher Stores. THey have them for 5-8 yo's and then 9-13 yo's.
Take her to your store and let her pick out a new unit.
Revise your goals for her, if she does 20 minutes of math, reading grammar, social studies, science, then you can gradually make the times longer.

She'll get back into it, you need to be consistent. From 8-2 or whenver you are teacher not mommy.

We don't take a lot of official breaks. Only if my husband is off or we're on vacation which helps. But she's really young so just do a little bit and ease her back into it. I would do about 15 minutes with her and then let her do something fun. Set a timer also. My kids are older and they still have trouble coming back after a break. Hang in there!