How to spice things up this school year?

[Tassy]

DS is 5th grade age and tonight his best friend was stressing how lucky he felt that he gets to go to school and see his friends all the time.  Tonight was the first time since kindergarten began that he asked to go to school.  For a ton of reasons that don't even need to be restated, this is not an option.  BTW, best friend lives 15 miles away in a different state so they wouldn't even be in school together.

Soooooooooo, I am looking to bring some more FUN into his homeschooling life.  We live in a very rural area with abundant natural beauty and I feel challenged to help him appreciate the benefits of homeschooling in a way a 10 year old can enjoy.  I would LOVE ideas!   From practical to zany, bring it all!  Thanks!

[zebra15]

My son is going to be 11 so I can relate (a little bit).  DS is the opposite, he begs NOT to go to school LOL.

I know you said you live rural but are you in a HS group or a pre-teen type group for your 10 yr old.  I've found many of the HS groups have tons of little kids and DS was longing for something with older kids, so we are going to try a group that is geared toward 9-14 yr olds.  The parents still hang around but the kids have more space, the younger sibs don't come along, and the activities are planned by the kids (to a point).  Some times they meet at coffee shops and have a game night of sorts.

If you live where there are actual seasons, I live in the desert and its just hot here, you can do tons of awesome fall/autumn activities (just google for some),  Nature is great for fall stuff.

Are you anywhere near a 'city'.  Even if its a couple hour drive? Can you make a day trip out of it 1x a month or every couple months?  Pick a museum, walk the downtown, explore something new?  It just could be that your DS is getting older and is wanting some new experiences?

Last year my son also started to enjoy tickets to some semi-formal plays and the theater.  For the holidays we saw 'The Grinch' at the theater, we got all dressed up etc.  I am looking to plan a couple things again this year.

[OTMomma]

Random ideas:
Boy Scouts or other scouts
Create a Lego team with other kids his age-it could even include school peers if you are short on homeschoolers: http://www.firstlegoleague.org/challenge/thechallenge
Explore what other local clubs or classes he might be able to do, even 4-H
Find an adult to mentor him in an area he is interested in- fishing, car repair, cooking, whatever- boys that age are supposed to need more guy time from what I hear.

Good luck making it a great year!

[SweetSilver]

My girls are much younger, so I can't speak for kids your son's age.  I usually ask my girls what they want to do.  Some things we can do right away, others need some prep work.  Somehow they decided to build birdhouses.  So, here we go....

We were going to do a Wilderness Awareness course for families, but they doubled the cost, so we've opted for their home study books for kids.  This is mostly my thing, but the girls are interested enough to read, though they haven't actually done anything specifically related to the book.  Whatever.  We've just started, and at their age it's more like planting a seed in their heads.  They are outdoors a good chunk of the day and are busy explorers.

The books are "Kamana" and offered by the Wilderness Awareness School in Duvall, WA.  They also have an adult home study.  They are online, and you might find others.  I don't know if your son is interested in tracking or firemaking and all that, but I find it fascinating and learn what I can in the limited time I have.  Tom Brown Jr.'s "The Tracker" was an excellent book to read and could be fine for a 10yo with good reading skills.  His survival series is appropriate for older kids and adults.

What would be the benefits of this?  You could never have the time to teach this in ps.  Again, I don't know how interested your son would be, but if he were, this would give him a good excuse to spend large blocks of time exploring.