Positively Homeschooling Podcast Episode 8: January Homeschool Ideas Your Kids and You Will Love
In this episode, I’m sharing a variety of fun and engaging January homeschool ideas and activities that your kids (and you!) will love. From seasonal themes and nationally recognized fun days to interest-led learning and unit study approaches, there’s something here to make your homeschool days more enjoyable and meaningful.
I’ll also share my simple approach to weaving fun into your homeschooling without stress: keeping it simple, staying flexible, and finding ways to integrate fun activities into your routine. Let’s make January a month full of excitement and learning adventures!
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- How to Make Homeschool Fun Happen:
- Practical tips to simplify and enjoy fun homeschool activities.
- 3 Ways to Make January Fun:
- Themes like snowflakes, penguins, and Hobby Month.
- Fun Days including Trivia Day, Winnie the Pooh Day, and Hot Chocolate Day.
- Just Because Activities inspired by your kids’ unique interests.
- Unit Study Ideas for January Themes:
- Crafts, hands-on projects, baking, and art activities.
- Music and history connections, including famous birthdays and events.
- Science topics, like snowflake experiments and hibernation.
- Literature studies, featuring authors born in January, like J.R.R. Tolkien and A.A. Milne.
Resources Mentioned:
Quick Recap:
I covered simple strategies to incorporate fun into homeschooling, shared my three favorite approaches for January homeschool activities (Themes, Fun Days, and Just Because), and provided inspiration for turning themes into cross-subject unit studies.
Connect with Me:
Have questions or ideas to share? Email me at rockyourhomeschool@gmail.com.
Spread the Word!
If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend or two. Your support means the world to me—thank you!
🎧 Tune in next time for more homeschool tips, ideas, and encouragement!
Prefer to read? I’ve put the transcript to this episode below! Let me know if you have any questions 😊
Easy Tips for Enjoying Homeschool Fun by the Month
I’m so excited to talk about fun January homeschool ideas and activities that your kids and you will love.
I’m all about homeschool fun. It’s such a big part of our relaxed, eclectic homeschooling. So, I’ll be sharing a variety of ideas that you can enjoy throughout the month of January. Fun monthly themes can be fantastic ways to guide your learning adventures, keep it chill, and help you easily make the most of this special time with your kids.
Before I get to January-inspired ideas, I thought it would be helpful to share my approach to homeschool fun by the month. I talk more about homeschool fun in episode 7.
I often get asked how I make homeschool fun happen. Like, how do I actually follow through with the ideas and plans? I totally understand those questions! Because it can already feel overwhelming as a homeschool mom to get done “regular” school work plus responsibilities.
I have a few things that I do to help our homeschool enjoy fun activities without all the stress.
- Keep it simple
- Stay flexible (I know – easier said than done)
- Weave fun activities throughout our homeschool day and week
3 Wonderful Ways to Make January Fun
- Themes
- Fun days
- Just because
- Themes:
There are so many fun January themes to celebrate in your homeschool! You can go with seasonal themes for winter, like:
Also, you can choose themes based on January Monthly Observations, like:
- Hobby Month
- Hot Tea Month
- Oatmeal Month
- Soup Month
2. Fun Days have been big hits in our homeschool. These nationally-recognized days can be silly or serious. I have a free printable Fun Day Calendar for Kids that you can use. Some of our favorite January Fun Days are:
3. Just Because
A more recent way that we’ve been having fun with January themes (and beyond) is picking ideas that each of us like, based on our interests. Right now, I’m actively homeschooling 3 of my boys (my older 2 boys have graduated homeschool high school). So, those 3 boys and I will each have a week to pick for special January homeschool fun.
For example, my 13-year old is really into the guitar (acoustic and electric). He’s been obsessed with listening to different types of guitar music (especially blues, Jimi Hendrix, and The Beatles). So, one week out of the month, we will focus on taking deep dives and going on rabbit trails with guitar-inspired activities.
My 10-year old is into Minecraft – so we will do some Minecraft-themed crafts, bookmarks, and activities for a week.
I love how these deep dives and rabbit trails help my boys explore their interests AND share them with all of us!
⭐ Free printable cheat sheet ⭐
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Another Cool Way to Enjoy January Themes
Back in episode 7, I shared that I believe that homeschool fun is relative. So, what we think is fun might not be your cup of tea. Totally cool!
One amazing way to enjoy homeschool fun in January is to take those themes and fun days and apply them to different subjects and skills. This approach is more unit study like. And can be wonderful for weaving fun throughout the entire month!
I’ll share some fun ideas for subjects and skills with January themes that you can use for inspiration. I encourage to tweak these ideas for your family:
January Crafts
Coloring
Projects
Baking & Cooking
- Build kitchen skills by making food and drinks with January themes, like:
- Hot chocolate
- Soups
- oatmeal
Art
- Enjoy homeschool art projects with January themes
- Also, learn about artists born in January, like:
- John Singer Sargent
- Paul Cezanne
- Edouard Manet
- Jackson Pollock
Music
History
- What historical events happened in January? You could look at local and state events, as well as national and world events, like:
- English explorer Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings (January 3, 1922)
- Captain James Cook discovers the Hawaiian Islands. (on January 18, 1778)
Science
- Snowflake science
- Hibernation
- Cold weather
Math
Reading
- Books with January themes
- Study authors born in January, like:
- A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh)
- J.R.R. Tolkien
- Jack London
- Lewis Carroll
Okay, time to recap this episode for fun homeschool January themes!
- I shared reminders of simple ways to enjoy homeschool fun activities
- Then, I talked about 3 ways that I like to loosely plan January homeschool ideas with Themes, Fun Days, and Just Because.
- I shared our most recent way to make homeschool fun happen – interest-led picks.
- Then, I chatted about using a unit study approach to homeschool January themes for different subjects and skills.
Your turn! What ideas do YOU have for January homeschool fun? Please share by emailing me at rockyourhomeschool@gmail.com
And do you have any questions about these January themes? Let me know!
Well my friend, that does it for another episode of Positively Homeschooling. If you enjoyed this podcast, I ask that you please share it with a friend or two. Your sharing means so much – thank you!
