Oftentimes homeschooling can get rough when it comes to muddling through day-to-day lessons. A great resource to help plan an unconventional homeschool year, or ideas to make ordinary lessons more enjoyable is the “Days of the Year” Calendar! This online calendar is an excellent way to take the stress out of learning. With funky days like “Bathtub Day” or “Count Your Buttons Day” you can help your children learn through enjoyment on a daily basis.
Some great ways to incorporate the calendar is to choose to follow it on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis for a certain amount of time. Each month has a theme, i.e. Chicken Month. Use that month to incorporate chickens into your math lessons, into your art projects, and even delve into the science of chickens, you could even have different chicken dishes for lunch! This idea works for any age and is open to interpretation for each parent.
If you decide to pick and choose which days you want to observe, there are several ways to make them educational. Use United Nations Day to talk about the United Nation’s role in our world, what their jobs are and what it means to us. Some homeschool families will even choose a book to read to their kids as a group that deals with a specific topic in the week. It’s a great way to include kids of all ages and help them learn from each other.
If the topic can’t quite be recognized as an educational topic, use it to aid in recreation of extracurricular subjects. Like “Cake Day” can be used in Home Ec class, or can simply be observed as a special treat at the end of the day. “National Jelly Donut Day” can serve as a special treat for breakfast too! Don’t want your kids eating the sweets? Use the opportunity to teach your kids to help others and deliver them to a local nursing home or food pantry instead! However you use the days, there are always valuable lessons to be learned, and this is just a fun way to encourage learning in all ages!