In all my years of home educating, I always struggle in January. I think it is largely down to the UK weather and the fact that our usual places are just not as inviting in the cold and wet, we often end up sick in January and its post Christmas. January always hits this home educator hard.

We have always been a home educating family that likes to get out and about, we like going for walks, exploring places or just going to our usual parks (and of course cafes). But the past week I have just really struggled to get that motivation to get us out. And now that both kids are teens they really are not scared to voice their thoughts on going out in crappy weather.

When the kids were younger I would always try and fill January with exciting projects and try even harder to make their learning activities more engaging but now with one revising for her last two IGCSE subjects and the other starting his IGCSE subjects it really is book work and more book work, the fun learning activities seem to be few.

My oldest never complains, she just gets on and completes her work and if I am totally honest she will gladly go out in the worst weather you could imagine especially if it includes a hot chocolate break somewhere.

My son, however is full on teenager, he can not be persuaded with a hot chocolate and is more than happy to stay home out of the miserable weather. He is currently finishing his Year 9 but because he has finished his Science and History we have actually already started him on IGCSE Biology and IGCSE Physics. Part of me feels a bit worried that he is moving so fast through his work but the other part of me is more worried that he will get bored if we don’t. Luckily just before Christmas he decided to start writing his own book and I must admit when he started reading it to me I was blown away. So I decided that his English for January will just be his book, I am leaving him to write it, edit it and work on it as much as he wants. But I also thought it would be fun to add something new to his Science learning so I decided to add the Oaka Books digital platform, just to change things up a bit.

I have no magic answer on how to beat the home educator January slump, I wish I did. All I can say is go easy on yourself, this is not a race, try and get out when possible and if you can add something new and fun to the learning then go for it. Often even a small change can help.

For us I definitely need to just layer up, and drag my kids out. Because often (not always) once we get out we enjoy ourselves. Often sitting at home looking at the grey sky, seeing the cold weather forecast is far worse than actually going to that park or fun place. That being said if you get out and it really is miserable, I have found hot chocolate often helps to save the outing.