Putting the Fun Back in Homeschooling

For the past few months, I have been in survival mode.  That's where I do what needs to get done not because I am passionate about what I am doing, but because ....it's what needs to be done.  I am in box checking mode.  Have you ever been there?  Being a first born, some what perfectionist, I tend to lean that way rather than the other.

Yes, I'd rather being lying in bed all day eating bon bons and watching NCIS, but that's not gonna happen. 

I have this pull that keeps me doing at least the minimum things for my husband and family.  I have been in survival mode not just with homemaking and my husband and children but with homeschooling.  I am at the point where I so want to NOT be in Korea, that I have only been doing what needs to be done...and I am so over it.

I'm not saying that I now have this wonderful sense of motivation, because I don't.  But what I can tell you is that my kids are bored with the mundane work that I have been giving them and they are looking for more out of their day.  The problem with that is I had hoped the paperwork we filed to return to the states early would have been approved already and we would be at my parents' house by now.  But we are not there yet, so all of my prep work for a move, which included packing up the games, paints, craft supplies and other homeschool fun things, was premature.

I am realizing that if we are here for another 10 days or another 50 days, I need to go back to adding in the fun elements of our homeschooling day that we had been doing last year.
What fun in checking boxes, just to say you did it?

So without unpacking everything that I have already packed up, how can I make our homeschooling day fun again?

Here are a few ideas that I have come up with so far:

Go back to following a schedule ( I know this sounds simple, but it made the day go smoother with everyone knowing what was going to happen, instead of just waiting until I was tired of the whining to have them do something)

Add art and craft time back into the weekly schedule.

Make time to get out of the house and do something fun.  (With the weather varying from day to day, this is not always easy.  We could at least head to the library regularly like we used to.)

Learn Spanish (my husband's first language) and hand's on fun about Puerto Rico (where my husband's parents are from)

Find topics the girls are interested in and add them to our learning each day.

Since we are limited by living in another country where we don't speak the language and there are no other local homeschool families, I am hoping the ideas I came up with will add at least some fun to our daily homeschooling routine.

What do you do to make your homeschool day fun with your children?