Whether you are new to homeschooling or a seasoned homeschooler, here are some great non-traditional learning activities to help you get your homeschool mornings started in a fun and meaningful way!
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Each day of homeschool can be different
When you homeschool, each day can be different, and your homeschooled children are different, learns differently, responds differently.
Therefore, sometimes, we have to get a bit creative to keep things fun and exciting in our homeschool routines!
Depending on your homeschool teaching style and your individual personality, each typical homeschool day can vary.
From alternating subjects, doing projects, including trips and outings, each day that you homeschool is a chance to instill a love for learning and instruction in fun and exciting ways.
This type of learning experience is one that you can’t always get in the formal lessons taught in a public school setting.
After years of homeschooling, I’ve learned that my homeschooled kids do best when we don’t wake up and jump right into our main studies (like math, spelling, etc.), but instead, do some sort of fun morning activity with each other.
I would like to disclaimer and say that these non-traditional learning activities for your home education are not only limited to morning time but can be done throughout your homeschool day.
Why is it a good idea as a homeschool family, to do some sort of morning activity before jumping to daily lessons?
Doing a morning activity is a great time for your kiddos to fully wake up, get their creativeness ready for the day ahead, and for you all to come together as a family and begin the day together in a fun way.
I’ve noticed a difference in my own children when we do a fun morning activity together before jumping into our school studies.
How are these 19 Non-Traditional Learning Activities counted as “learning”?
Underneath each activity idea willl list a few ways that your student will be learning from each non-traditional learning activity.
One thing we, as the homeschooling parent (especially for us who were public schooled), need to get out of our heads, is that learning is NOT just when being done on paper, or doing a specific curriculum in the school day.
Learning is done all around us, every day, and even all year!
You will see as I go through each activity.
Here Are 19 Non-Traditional and FUN Learning Activities For Your Homeschool Mornings
By adding these fun and non-traditional learning activities to your homeschool routines, you will add fun and joy to your homeschooling mornings as you navigate through your school year.
**The following listed “learning skills taught” are not the ONLY skills your children will learn. But rather, a few skills are listed to show you as an example of how your children will be learning.**
1. Coloring While Listening to the Bible/Audio
This is one of the simplest things ever, but we’ve been doing this a lot to start our homeschool mornings. My homeschool kiddos grab coloring books and sit at the dining room table while listening to an educational audiobook or listening to the Bible on audio.
Coloring in coloring books can also be counted as handwriting because it strengthens their handwork as they practice and focus on coloring within the lines.
Why not kill two birds with one stone? Right now my children are loving American History, and we have a bunch of old-fashioned American history audios they like to listen to. So not only are they working on their art and handwriting, but they are also LEARNING history as they listen!
Learning Skills Taught: Handwriting skills, art, listening skills, history (or other subjects depending on the audio chosen).
2. Bible Reading and Memorization
In the mornings we do Bible reading and practice memorizing scriptures together as a part of our morning devotions.
Learning Skills Taught: History, reading, reading comprehension, oral presentation, ethics, literature.
3. Fun Art Project
Ready to switch things up?
Start your morning off with a fun art project instead of jumping right into their studies!
This project can pertain to a lesson you recently did in homeschooling, an interest your child has, an upcoming Holiday, etc.
Learning Skills Taught: Extended project to a previous subject, art appreciation, creative arts.
4. Reading a Book as a Family
As a homeschooling family, we do a lot of trips to the library to check out new books.
In the morning you can sit down with your children and read some of the books you’ve checked out from the library, or books you own at home.
These books can pertain to upcoming homeschool lessons for the day if you’d like.
Learning Skills Taught: Reading, reading comprehension, oral presentation, literature.
5. Listening to Music/Audios During Breakfast
While making and eating breakfast, turn on an audiobook for your children to listen to while eating. We love listening to Bible stories or old-fashioned audio dramas.
Learning Skills Taught: Listening skills, thinking, conversational skills.
6. Bible Trivia
Have you recently read or studied a certain chapter in your Bible with your children? Make up your own Bible Trivia Questions and ask them questions for prizes! This can also be done with a book you’ve read together.
Learning Skills Taught: Reading comprehension, history.
7. Board Games
Not only are board games fun, but they also teach your children to play fair and have good sportsmanship.
We love these board games:
- Rummikub- this is a super fun game!
- Checkers- my kids are obsessed with checkers!
Learning Skills Taught: Teamwork, focus, manners, good sportsmanship.
8. Art Appreciation
Teaching children to appreciate and respect art is a skill that isn’t taught much anymore. You can instill a love for art in your children by showing them beautiful paintings, looking at the paintings together, discussing what you see, how the painting makes them feel, how they think the character feels in the picture (if applicable), talking about the weather the artist drew, etc. And then you can even have your children paint or draw their own replica of the painting.
Oh, how I love art; it’s so fun!
Learning Skills Taught: Art appreciation, observation, creativity.
9. Practice a New Language
This could be as simple as downloading a free language app on your smartphone or tablet and learning that way together. Make it fun and do it together as a family!
Learning Skills Taught: Foreign Language, grammar.
10. Meal Prep
Meal prepping and planning is something every child should be taught. This is something that is our responsibility as a parent to teach our children so they can make healthy and frugal meal choices when they move into adulthood.
After you choose your dinner for the day, have your children help you meal prep that morning for the upcoming dinner. This could be, slicing vegetables, measuring out dry ingredients, teaching them about proper thawing methods, placing food in the crockpot and turning the crockpot on, etc.
Learning Skills Taught: Measurements, fractions, math, meal planning, home economics, cooking, nutrition.
11. Playing “Grocery Store”
This is a super fun learning activity for homeschool to teach your children about budgeting and spending their money wisely. They will also be practicing addition and subtraction math skills as they total up the items in the “Grocery Store”.
How we play it- I make a bunch of price tags on pieces of paper and attach them to items like toys and other household items. The children are then given a budgeted amount of money and then they go shopping for items within their budget.
One child plays the cashier and the other children play the shoppers.
You may assist or oversee the cashiers in making sure their addition and subtraction amounts are correct.
We absolutely love this game because the children are having so much fun, yet they are practicing real-life math skills.
Learning Skills Taught: Money skills, addition, subtraction, multiplication, budgeting.
12. Putting on a Play
My kiddos love doing this as a learning activity for homeschool. They make up their own play or act out a Bible story, grab their own props, set their own scenes and put on a favorite Bible story or another story.
Learning Skills Taught: Public speaking, confidence, teamwork, oral communication skills, improvisation, confidence.
13. Indoor Hopscotch
Sometimes the weather isn’t always the best, but yet our children need a bit of exercise. One fun thing to do is use painters tape and make hopscotch on the floor in a room and let your children get their exercise indoors.
Learning Skills Taught: P.E, taking turns, counting skills.
14. Organization
Whether it be the sorting through socks and making matches, helping to organize the junk drawer (don’t act like you don’t have one!), organizing mixing bowls from largest to smallest, organizing in alphabetical order… the list goes on.
Learning Skills Taught: Sorting, organization, smallest to largest, matching, alphabetical order.
15. Paper Airplanes
This is one of those activities that my kids love to do. They grab scrap pieces of paper and construct their best paper airplanes to have a contest to see who’s can fly the farthest. You can even take this outside and measure who’s fly the furthest.
Learning Skills Taught: Measurements, engineering, critical thinking, problem-solving.
16. Going on a Walk or Bike Ride
Getting your legs and body exercised and stretched out for the day ahead is a great way to start the day. Breathing in the fresh air and soaking up that vitamin D from the sun is essential to your overall health.
The children can grab their bikes, scooters, you name it, and take a nice family stroll before you start the rest of your day of homeschooling.
Be sure to discuss the different trees, plants, animals, and weather as you stroll along.
Learning Skills Taught: Nature study, exercise, health, weather.
17. Family Puzzles
This is a great team-building activity you can do together as a family. Not only do puzzles help with critical thinking and problem-solving skills, but they are loads of fun to do together as a family and see the finished product.
Grab your favorite puzzle and begin your homeschool morning by working on the puzzle together for 20-30 minutes before starting your other homeschooling subjects.
Learning Skills Taught: Team-building, problem-solving, critical thinking.
18. Sand or Shaving Cream Spelling
Instead of the traditional paper and pencil way to practice spelling words, begin your day with some fun sensory fun!
Grab an old cookie sheet and pour sand or shaving cream on it and let your children practice their spelling words that way. They will love it!
Learning Skills Taught: Spelling, reading, sensory-motor skills.
19. Lego Addition/ Subtraction/ Multiplication
Instead of using your traditional ways of counting objects for math, let your children use legos for some fun math practice.
For example- 3 red + 7 green = 10
The kiddos would grab 3 red lego bricks, and put them with 7 green Lego bricks, count the total and write it down. This can be done using a whiteboard or piece of paper and practiced with subtraction and multiplication as well.
What a fun way to practice math facts!
Learning Skills Taught: Math skills, counting, following directions.
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