It seems like many homeschoolers begin to see the fire die out around this time of year. Yet it doesn’t always take a whole lot to get the flames burning bright again. It may be one small change in your routine. Maybe it’s trying out an idea you’ve been pondering for awhile. Or you might need to throw on a bit of kindling on to fuel that fire.

Let’s see some sparks of imagination as we encourage one another, sharing ways to get your homeschool efforts cooking again. What is something you’ve done, or thought about doing, to “fan the flame” of waning motivation?

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It's sad but true... we do run out of educational steam about this time of year.  There are so many distractions around the holidays and I feel like I'm fighting the current to get us back to business in January and February.  At the beginning of February, we also start co-op classes once a week, which the kids enjoy and does get us fired up in some ways - but the downside is that we do have to adjust our weekly schedule to allow for that, and sometimes that is hard to do!

Looking forward to the book fairs and homeschool conventions, and starting to plan for the next school year - that motivates me.  It's kind of like needing to finish my main course before I can move on to dessert!  I start planning what I might need to buy for next school year, what areas we'll want to cover in science or history; and then realize that we need to get cracking on this year's work or we won't be able to jump into the next fascinating topic as soon. 

One thing I need to work on is keeping up with grading, and with the Homeschool Tracker.  When I get behind on grading work or entering assignments in the Tracker, it just gets more daunting the longer I leave it.  And I am a procrastinator, so you can guess how that will turn out if I don't stay on top of it.  This year I have really let myself get behind, and its discouraging to think about.  I've been plugging away, a little at a time, to get it caught up though, and my goal is to have everything ship-shape well before third quarter grades are due.

For more motivational ideas, visit  The HSBA Post