Surviving the Homeschool Winter Lull

The tree has been taken down. The decorations are packed away. Your visitors have all gone home or your travelling is done, and the festive chaos has subsided. All that is left is…winter…and you homeschool your kids. It’s not so bad, right? It’s only three months to spring, just January, February, and March to survive. Well, those of you who have survived this season in a homeschool year know what I’m talking about. It is looong! However, as a home educator myself, I know there are tricks, activities, and resources that help to not only survive but to thrive through the winter lull.

Our homeschooling journey began the year Covid hit. As a junior high and high school teacher turned entrepreneur, I knew I wanted to homeschool my children during their grade seven, eight, and nine years. However, the pandemic arrived the year my oldest was due to start homeschooling, and we decided it was best for our family to educate all five of them at home. We went from zero to sixty, and what a whirlwind of a year we had! However, there are absolutely no regrets (though it was a little nutty). We had just gotten into a good routine when Christmas arrived and then those winter months came. There may have been some craziness, maybe even some arguments amongst themselves and with me. How can I change the atmosphere that was settling in? Desperate times called for desperate measures.

When life feels stuck in a rut, my go-to choice is to change up routines. Children not getting out of bed on time? We threw out the alarm clocks and chose rest over punctuality. We worked on that again later. This simple change allowed some breathing room, a relaxed atmosphere, and minds ready to learn. Sometimes we’d go for a walk first, then start school. More often though, I’d send them outside to run the loop in our driveway to get the blood flowing. This is still something some of them will do today when their minds get slow and they feel lazy. We also took advantage of snow days. Skating on the lake and sledding down the hill were favourite activities to enjoy before starting on the work for the day. What did we not compromise on? Healthy food eaten together was a non-negotiable, especially after the Christmas sugar high. Moving our bodies, face-to-face family time, and alone time were also prioritized. These are choices we are still recommending to our children as they control their own schedule more and more. These little tricks were great the first year or two of our homeschooling journey, but we’ve raised the bar since those early days.

As the confinement days of Covid started to loosen up, we moved from switching up the routine to introducing more activities. Library visits to explore the world through the printed word became a weekly adventure. We also took advantage of the local swimming pool, visiting friends, and taking music lessons again. One of my all-time favourite activities was to visit a museum or historical site that was relevant to our social studies lessons, to bring history to life. We also gardened and raised some farm animals. Our oldest started an egg business, which helped him realize that farming was not the life-long career option for him. Such wonderful memories, but they were also meaningful activities that were used to enrich our learning.

Likewise, I love to add subject-specific activities when we need a break from or a supplement to the regular curriculum. Something fun, engaging. If you are looking for something similar, here are a few ideas for you based on core subject areas:

Math	Elementary Play math games for the warm-up. If your curriculum doesn’t already use them, provide manipulatives to bring math to life (bonus if they are edible). If the math curriculum has an abundance of practice questions, reduce the workload by taking away some of the work. Keep plugging away at the curriculum but reward consistent hard work with a special treat or activity. Junior High/High School As mentioned above, reduce the workload by choosing some-to-most of the practice questions but not all. Create a top ten reasons list of why math is essential in daily life. Bribe their hard, consistent work with a reward. Play some math games to sharpen mental math skills (search math games for teens online and you’ll find a wide selection). Create a poster for a roller coaster design demonstrating the algebraic formula used.
English Language Arts	Elementary Read an exciting novel aloud. Have a weekly spelling bee. Play scrabble or other word-based games as a family. Do an individual novel study with a book cover as the project. Read funny poems and then have them write their own. Have some fun with a homophone and homonym unit. Junior High/High School Do a Shakespeare unit and then watch a movie version of the play. Do a multi-genre project over the span of a month. Do a poetry unit. Make it serious or comedic while having fun with a variety of poem types. Write a persuasive “Dear Father/Mother/Etc.” letter in old English. Rich and archaic vocabulary is a must!
Science	Elementary Not all science curricula focus on experiments. So, if yours is like that, incorporate experiments. Bonus if they are edible ones or create a (not too big) mess. Maybe the curriculum is very experiment-heavy. Take a break to read science books and then create a poster of the topic instead. Take part in a science fair for homeschoolers. Study the life and times of a scientific hero. Watch and then create a Heritage Moment of their own based on an important discovery (if you know, you know). Junior High/High School As mentioned above, add in or take away experiments. Do a unit on bridge structures, then design, build, and test a bridge. Watch and then create a Heritage Moment of their own based on an important discovery. Create a PowerPoint presentation on an important scientist.
Social Studies	Elementary Print off lesson specific colouring pages to colour while the lesson is read. Write key words around the picture for further retention. Use building blocks, sticks, craft supplies, pillows, etc. to build a structure appropriate to the lesson, like a house or a castle, for example. Don’t forget to snap a picture. Make a recipe together from the time-period you are studying. Dress up like an important historical figure and talk about who they are, what they did, and why they are important. Print off and colour maps that coordinate with the unit. Do a map-based scavenger hunt. Take part in a heritage fair for homeschoolers. Junior High/High School Let your teen(s) plan and make a meal from the time-period you are studying. Create a skit around a significant event. This can be filmed or acted live. Create a Lego stop-action film recreating a day in a life of someone from your current unit. Create a PowerPoint presentation instead of doing the quiz or test. Have your student(s) prepare a trivia afternoon with the content they are studying. Print off, colour, and label a map that coordinates with the unit. Go winter geo-caching.

Perhaps I am stating the obvious here, but the goal is not to incorporate all these activities! Pick the subject that is getting the most push back from your student and switch the routine up in that area. Or stick to the curricula for the subject areas you don’t personally love and choose a fun activity for the subject area in which you are skilled. To also note, these activities are meant to replace the regular work but are not meant to diminish the importance of the content and learning outcomes. As homeschooling is increasingly coming under scrutiny, we homeschoolers need to maintain a high standard of academic excellence while enjoying the freedom and flexibility this lifestyle offers. Lastly, while these are activities I might choose, have fun figuring out what works for your family. And please let us know what ideas you have for switching up your routine!

The next step to thriving through winter may be the need to go beyond tricks and activities and invest in some resources. It has been so much fun sourcing out products for The Study Room storefront, and perhaps some of these resources would be just the thing for you. There is a nice selection of manipulatives for both math and language arts. For example, work on sight words, reading comprehension, and basic math skills through the power of an interactive pen. Or use a dot-to-dot workbook to warm up letter or number skills in the morning. We also have audio CDs with engaging history lessons and with exciting adventure stories. Though these resources are a great complement to what is already at home, sometimes a curriculum needs a total overhaul mid-school year.

Did this year’s choices, though great, not work out with your student for whatever reason? We can help! The Study Room offers a curated and growing selection of curricula in most subject areas. Our goal is to provide resources that are known for their high academic standard and quality materials. Book a free consultation with us this winter to determine what options are best for you and your family, whether it be for this school year or next. We want to see our fellow homeschoolers thrive through this winter and the next.

As for me, what I am doing this year to survive our winter lull? Now that my kids are older and some are back in public school, there has not been the need to adjust wake-up times, nor have I felt the need to make them run the loop. Most of our subjects have been a hit this year. Loving our science, history, and geography programs. Math is progressing satisfactorily. But as a language teacher, I had to switch that one up a bit by replacing the writing aspect of their curriculum with other writing projects. My homeschoolers are tackling their first multi-genre project in English Language Arts to start. They have chosen their theme, the four projects they will complete, and what messages will guide the content. So far so good. Afterwards we’ll do a little Shakespeare and a novel study, then back to the curriculum to finish off the year. This new plan was our breath of fresh air to help us thrive through our winter lull. What are your plans?

A blog post by Nathalie Davidson

Jan 16, 2026.