Our 2023 Homeschool New Year’s Resolutions
Every New Year, we make a resolution for our homeschool. This year, we’re making a promise to keep it simple. Here at The Waldock Way, we’ve decided to focus on having fun, staying active, and going on lots of field trips.
Our resolutions are all in addition to our one thing for 2023. The “one thing” is a focus we choose at the beginning of the year for our homeschool.
In the past, we have focused on things like playing more games, strewing, and art. Having one thing to focus on helps ensure it doesn’t fall through the cracks when we get busy.
Want to learn more about our one thing for 2023 and our homeschool New Year’s resolutions? Keep reading to discover how we’re going to have more fun, stay active, and see it all this year.
Keeping Homeschool Simple This Time Of Year
I really like to keep it simple at this time of year. After all, we’re still recovering from the holidays and easing back into our homeschool routine. So, we like to take a more laid-back approach to homeschool lessons during this time of year.
Each January, we read a book and play a game each day. Reading aloud together isn’t just for early readers, kids of all ages benefit greatly from being read to and it’s a good way to build connection too. I like to pair a book with a fun game so we can enjoy the advantages of gameschooling too.
In January, if we manage to read a beautiful book and play a fun game together, the homeschool day is a success! Sometimes we get more done, but that’s the minimum we like to achieve. I’ve found it’s a great way to keep the learning going while we ease back into our homeschool routine.
Our 2023 Homeschool New Year’s Resolutions
This year, we’re doing things a bit differently. We have adopted some New Year’s Resolutions for 2023 that I’m really excited about! Discover how we’re going to make homeschooling more fun for the whole family this year down below.
Having Fun
We’re making a commitment to have more fun! For us, that means sticking to traditions like our Book & Game Challenge and embracing new activities too. If you’re looking for more ways to have fun in your homeschool this year, check out some of the fun ideas below:
Stay Active and Get Outdoors
Another New Year’s resolution we’ve adopted for 2023 is to stay active as a family. There are so many fun ways to keep active with kids of all ages!
Recently, we participated in a local 5K. Running together as a family was a lot of fun and a great way to instill healthy values while staying active while soaking up some sunshine.
State parks are another great place to get active with your family. Nature walks, geocaching, and hiking are all fun family activities you can do at a nearby state park to learn together and stay active. Some state parks even have fun activities like archery and canoeing available for visitors.
Check out some of my outdoor-themed unit studies to encourage your family to get outdoors and get active too:
If you can’t get outdoors at this time of year, that’s ok. You can still make a commitment to stay active indoors. Some of our favorite ways include playing games like The Floor is Lava, doing yoga together, and even playing games together on the Wii/Switch.
Yoga isn’t just a great way to stay active indoors, it’s also proven to have lots of psychological benefits for kids and adults. Some of our favorite ways to add yoga to our day include Cosmic Kids Yoga videos on YouTube and participating in Animal Yoga with Alexa.
Plus, discover how we use YouTube in our homeschool in addition to yoga for more great ideas.
Go On Field Trips
Another way we’re planning to make our homeschool more fun this year is by going on more field trips. We all spent a lot of time at home in 2020 and 2021. Now, I’m ready to get out and travel again!
There are so many amazing field trips you can enjoy together as a family to bring your homeschool lessons to life, extend the learning, and even build relationships with other homeschool families in your area. It’s a fantastic way to create socialization opportunities when you’re homeschooling an only child too.
Check out some of our favorite recent field trips:
- Mote Marine Lab & Aquarium
- Crayola Experience Field Trip
- Homeschooling at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter
My One Thing For 2023
Every year in our homeschool, we choose one thing to focus on. Having a focus like this enables us to incorporate more things Emily enjoys and is curious about into our homeschool lesson plans for the year. It’s a great way to explore new things too.
Have you ever tried to start learning a foreign language or poetry tea time with your homeschoolers only to have it fall by the wayside when life gets busy or get pushed aside in favor of math? Having “one thing” helps us make sure we stick to our plans and really do whatever it is we wanted to do more of during our homeschool year. In years past, art projects, field trips, and even poetry have been the “one thing.”
My one thing for 2023 is critical thinking. We’re working to spend more time building critical thinking skills and practicing logic in our homeschool. Don’t miss my Homeschooling Logic Made Easy for tips on how to teach critical thinking skills in your homeschool.
One of the ways we’re adding more logic lessons to our homeschool plans is by playing lots of logic games. Some of our favorite logic games include ThinkFun games. We really like these games because many of them are single player games which makes them ideal when you’re homeschooling an only child.
Another favorite way to practice critical thinking skills here at The Waldock Way is by completing Mind Bender books. These puzzle books contain logic puzzles that encourage kids to think critically, practice reading comprehension, and build problem-solving skills. Plus, they’re tons of fun too!
Do you have a favorite way to build critical thinking skills in your homeschool? I’d love to read about your favorite logic activities in the comments and try some of them with Emily in 2023. Plus, don’t forget to share your homeschool New Year’s resolutions with me in the comments!