how do you beat the Monday morning blahs with your kids and get school going?

[sadiegirl]

We usually travel and stay very busy on our weekends this time of year and it makes Monday mornings difficult for all of us. What do you do to jumpstart your week with a good attitude? I have 1 son that has my personality and we are morning people and doers from the time our feet hit the floor. My oldest takes time and let's just say he doesn't "share our enthusiasm" in school. How do you get your mornings to "flow" and mesh together different morning attitudes? Sometimes I feel the need to remind him how blessed we are to homeschool and have a relaxed morning schedule as long as it works for us. Any ideas?

[GreenKitty]

Mondays always seem hard to get going, especially when I feel blah. Unfortunately have no helpful advice for you.

[Susie in CA]

Well, after 4 years of homeschooling I have come to the conculsion that there is nothing to make Monday easier. I now just start and do it - no frills or anything.

 

Susie

[FloridaLisa]

Monday is cereal day! Easy on mom, easy on the kitchen and motivates the kids to get out of bed. Actually, it only works for my 13 yo on down; the olders just have to learn to get up. Part of life. Part of our routine.

 

If your traveling schedule really saps the kids' energy and they need more sleep, have you considered modifying your Monday schedule? Start an hour later so long asthe kids know that they'll work an hour longer? Or make Monday a lighter day and Tues - Fri a bit heavier?

 

Above all, don't feel like a slave to your schedule. Freedom over our time and calendar is one of the best things about homeschooling IMHO!

 

Blessings,

Lisa

[Pensguys]

No help here....we're starting back today after Spring Break for our last 5.5 weeks. It is like pulling teeth here. I understand where the kids are coming from because *I* don't want to do it either!

 

We're just putting one foot in front of the other until we're finished.

[StacyWithFourRugrats]

let me know! I haven't even done lesson plans for the week (busy weekend) and am doing that now while they clean up. However:

 

I just don't want to! :lol:

[St. Theophan Academy]

The biggest thing for me is to take that hour or so on Sunday evening to prepare myself for the day. If I am organized, then we tend to get going, if I am not, then the day tends to slip away. And of course, there are just some Mondays you have to let things slide - for example - why am I posting on Monday morning? because ds 9 had a birthday party yesterday evening, and I decided it was better to give him 30 minutes to play with his new playmobil Roman figures and Keva planks (these things are awesome!) than to try to drag him to school protesting. We try to start school at 9:00 (I gave up on the 8:00 thing a while back, and it has made all the difference in the world for my sanity and for attitudes - dd7 is the one who can be hard to get up, this way, I don't stress as much that we are behind on our schedule - b/c when I stress I get irritated and cranky with them, which never helps their attitudes :) but this morning I am letting them all have a little extra play time to make it easier on me!

The other thing that helps me is to have a schedule for the day - and have no extracurriculurs or errands planned for Mondays! If we have a good Monday, we usually have a good week, and I find it can be the most productive day of the week for us.

[tinkgumby]

I like FloridaLisa's idea of making Monday a lighter day, and Tues-Fri heavier. Maybe Monday morning could be a time to go take a stroll outside, or play a game together, or some other fun thing to get everyone awake and interested! (That depends entirely on personalities, though. I'm afraid if I did that with my older son, he'd never want to settle down after the fun stuff!)

[St. Theophan Academy]

I love this idea too - wish it would work for us :) Unfortunately my husband has a non-traditional work schedule - so when he is off, it is usually a Tuesday or Friday - so those have to be my light days! I count on Monday and Wednesday to be my heavy get it done days, and usually we take off the day he is home (Tues or Fri) except for Math and Latin. I also find that we lose steam by Friday anyway, so I like to have that day lighter than the others, I cannot imagine counting on Friday as a heavy school day, I would NEVER pull that off myself!

I also love the idea of a walk in the morning - but that has never worked well for me. We seem to find it very hard to come in and get the day going too! Really, for us spending the first of the morning doing chores seems to help - b/c by the time they are through with chores, they are glad to do anything other than chores :) Even school work sounds better than helping mom clean!

[mom31257]

My ds LOVES school work and dd doesn't, and he's a morning person while she's not. I have found that my attitude makes a lot of difference. I do get things ready the night before and that helps. We start school by 9AM. I let my dd choose the order she does her subjects in (most of the time) and that puts her in control some. I think incentives might work. My dd will work harder if she gets to do something after that she really likes (a computer game, etc.) Maybe say let's get this much work done, then we'll go for a walk, play a game, or do whatever your child wants to do the most. Maybe let the child that's not the morning person be more involved in the planning of those days.

 

Amy of GA

11yo dd, 4yo ds

[TracyR]

Interesting because our Monday's don't always start to well either .

[Jenny in Florida]

. . . given that it is now mid-way through Monday afternoon and I'm still working at getting my son to accomplish anything of note today, perhaps I'm not the right person to answer!

 

In his defense, we took an impromptu road trip this weekend to attend his big sister's year-ending concert. We drove 1600 miles in in just a little over two days and made it home shortly before midnight last night. So, I suppose it's fair that his routine is a little off.

 

In a word, though, that's the answer: Routine. The one and only way I've found to get back to work on Monday is to simply do it. Always. Every week. Without discussion, whining, argument or excuses. Once you establish that as the expectation, it gets easier to make it happen.

[teamturner]

Monday is cereal day! Or make Monday a lighter day and Tues - Fri a bit heavier? Above all, don't feel like a slave to your schedule. Freedom over our time and calendar is one of the best things about homeschooling IMHO!

 

Mondays around here have become a lighter day. Reviewing where we ended the previous week and finishing any leftover work. Then Tuesday has become our "Monday" and we work harder on that day. Plus, I find myself doing more housework on Monday's to put the house back in some sort of order after the weekend. I think having flexibility in our schedules is what keeps us sane!! :D All that said, my 8yo ds woke me up this morning fully dressed telling me he was going to start his school work (it was 7am) so he could be done faster. This may be due to the fact that as I tucked my boys in last night I reminded them that tomorrow was a school day and whatever work didn't get finished in the morning would be completed during their free time. So because of this son's earnest and motivation, we had most of our school work done before lunch....which rarely happens around here. ;)

[Closeacademy]

Sometimes we just take it slow but most of all we just buckle down and get it done. A lot of times, I find that we have to do a bit more review or brain joggling on Monday mornings.

[mom2abcd]

If we can treat it as a normal day, we do. But if we're all blah'ed out, then we often ease into it... Read aloud first thing... Then let them choose what they do next (which they usually do anyway, but I don't have to ask and get an answer, they just do it;o) I usually insist on having math done before they eat lunch and that helps.

[Kelli in TN]

Mondays are never great around here. Today was worse than usual.

 

Sometime over the weekend somebody locked up the schoolroom with the one and only schoolroom key in the room.

 

After about 30 minutes of activity involving a pry bar, a screwdriver, a rubber mallet and some yelling I got in there.

 

But by then I was in a bad mood.

 

Happy Monday.

[Julie in MO]

My 12 year old still loves this. Some Mondays (especially after a long or busy weekend) I wake them up at the regular time and just move them to my bed where we snuggle and read a really good book (Johnny Tremain was always our favorite - sometimes we just do picture books for the fun of it). Some days we were there for quite a while, but others we felt more motivated within a few minutes and were able to get going. There's just something about getting to stay in "jammies" that makes home schooling feel like a privilege!:)

Julie

[Mallory]

I have one who is a bear to get out of bed.

 

Our day starts at 8:00, time for breakfast and chores, and be ready for school by 9:00.

 

But he really loves video games, and if he sets his alarm before 8 (usually 7:00) he can play video games. This makes him so much nicer when I need him to start helping with the day.

[ClassicMom]

We all have trouble getting started and keeping the ball rolling on Mondays.

 

We take naps.;) While not the most productive answer, it does help us get through Monday and yet keep it going.

[Parrothead]

It helps me to have everything ready Sunday evening. That way on Monday morning all we have to do is get up, dressed, and breakfasted before we start school.

[LilyK]

Start a little later than usual. (9:00 or so)

If weather permits, start outside on the grass on a big blanket.

 

As far as the actual school work, here is what I do to neutralize the Monday Blah's

1. start with read alouds. Let them lie around, and get their head back on while you do this.

2. Mondays are an oral spelling day.

3. eliminate a few problems from the math lesson

 

After doing these three things, I usually find that they are back on track by Tuesday with very few complaints.

[OneRoomHomeSchool]

I make very sure to have my Monday lessons done Friday.

 

I prepare Sunday night.

 

Have cereal for breakfast.

 

Start just a bit later.

[asher]

I also try to "plan" things on Sunday evening. I get all the books together & have a general idea of what I want accomplished during the week. This ind of gets me amped. :P Also, MTW's are really our most structured days (we're pretty relaxed) as I nanny on those days, so that helps a lot. :)

[Kim in SouthGa]

I finally realized I could not "make" my 9dd a morning person like me and the boys-she is like her daddy:) So I sat down with her and figured out how much time she needed to do her morning chores and about how much time it takes her to do her schoolwork. We then decided what time was the absolute latest she could get up and start working-for her, she has to be dressed, teeth brushed, chores done, and starting her school work by 10 am, so she usually sleeps til about 9. Anything we have to do together as a family, we do later in the morning or right after lunch.

HTH

[Beth in SW WA]

Well, after 4 years of homeschooling I have come to the conculsion that there is nothing to make Monday easier. I now just start and do it - no frills or anything.

 

Susie

 

Same here. Just get up and get rockin' & rollin'. It does help that they have their Writing tutor on Monday mornings. She can deal w/ the weekend hangover :)

[skimerinkydo]

Today was a Monday after a vacation trip. We started late, and they watched a science video while I got the lesson plan ready. I usually save those educational videos until late afternoon but today the video first thing really worked well.

[Peela]

We start with chores and music practice. The kids get up by 7am and have to get moving, in fact one has a music class at 8am so theres not much time for dawdling. There are no frills, nothing special, and I guess thats because i don't really have a problem with Monday morning. We also go out to our coop part of the day, so the kids have some social life and fun to look forward to- it seems to be good to have that on Mondays.

However, I am also obsessive about getting enough sleep, and pretty organised with anything I need to do for Monday, so I think that helps. However, I am also obssesive about keeping my Sundays as relaxed as possible, because I work and have band practice on Saturdays.

My kids do not particularly love getting into their schoolwork any day, but Monday is not particularly worse. I just keep a pretty tight routine going- lots of morning chores and music practice get the brain going before attacking the books.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

We have piano/voice lessons on Mondays. The teacher comes to our house. My dd does piano and voice. My ds does piano. My niece comes over for her voice lesson. Even my 2yodd gets in on the act (she has to have her (5 minute) piano lesson, too!). It's like a big party.

 

Then, niece goes home to do her homeschooling lessons. We have lunch. 2yodd goes down for her nap. And, the older kids and I settle in for a few hours of lessons.

 

When my kids were younger, we always did Art on Mondays.

[King Alfred Academy]

Not sure if this would work for you as I don't know your schedule, do you have to do school on Monday? We don't. We school 4 days a week and use Monday to go to Storytime, the Library, run errands, and occasionally will finish something up from the previous week that did not get done. It has been working for us nicely. A gentle way to ease into the week especially after a go-go-go weekend. Oh, and Tuesday mornings are not a problem since they had Monday to "prepare".

[Linda in NM]

I have to get grades in on Mondays for my university courses, so we have a lighter start to our week...my son starts his day with reading and viola practice, and we usually watch a movie or read aloud...we use the day for math review (Carmen Sandiego on computer), and have music lessons and PE in the afternoon...then, T-Fr become more rigorous...

[Sarah CB]

Advance preparation helps my kids the most. On Sunday, when everyone is feeling happy, I'll talk about the plans for the week, I'll ask for everyone to pay attention to attitudes, and we'll discuss the perks that we'll enjoy. If I wait until they have bad attitudes then it's generally too late to turn things around.

 

Sarah

[ACEmom]

Mondays are tough in our house, too. I try to make Mondays a "light" day to sort of ease into the week...then hit it full speed ahead on Tuesday.

 

Jerriann