This post isn’t so much practical advice for your homeschool, but more giving you permission to not have your homeschool be this perfect Pinterest picture. I don’t know how you do it? A question I hear often from friends and family. I get overwhelmed sometimes often. Trying to keep the house clean, the laundry done, parenting a line up of littles and then you add homeschooling into the mix. Getting overwhelmed is normal, it’s how you respond to it that makes all the difference. Here is my homeschool advice- that I need to tell myself more– on what to do when you find yourself in overwhelmed mode.
Homeschool Advice #1: Know Your Why
Why do you homeschool? The answer to this question is not a one size fits all. We all homeschool for different reasons. Some reasons are the same, but most are different. The important thing here is to know why YOU homeschool. Take all those reasons and write them down in a notebook or on your computer. I love this post from Raising Lifelong Learners on 101 reasons to homeschool.
Why is it important to know your why? So on the hard days you can read those reasons for encouragement to keep moving forward and not give up. I hate to tell you, but hard homeschool days happen. There will be days you are swimming in housework, need to go grocery shopping and no one has clean pants. Sleepless night mean you will be tired and can barely get through the reading lesson. Other days your child won’t understanding a math concept, throw their pencil across the room and say they are done. Siblings will argue and it will seem like someone is crying or fighting every 5 minutes. One kid will need a snack while another needs help in the bathroom all at the same time. Trust me, being able read all the reasons why you homeschool will ground you and remind you why you started.
Homeschool Advice #2: Grace, Grace, Grace and Evaluate
Why is it so hard for us mom’s to give grace to ourselves? I don’t know! We tell our sisters, our mom friends, our neighbor mom’s, the mom at Target to give themselves grace, yet taking our own advice seems impossible. Ladies, we have to stop this! Especially in our homeschool.
How do you give yourself grace? First know you are not the only one who feels overwhelmed, behind or stressed out. Take a minute in a quiet room to pray and tell yourself that with the help of Jesus you are a good wife, a good mom, and a good homeschool mom and right now you are just having a bad day or week. Remind yourself why you homeschool. Go to your list of reasons and read them to yourself a few times. Ground yourself again and move forward. Next, get off social media! It is not the time to be scrolling Pinterest or Instagram when you are feeling overwhelmed, you will end up just feeling more overwhelmed. Those pages should be used as inspiration, when you are in a place to receive information as inspiration, not condemnation.
Homeschool plus homemaking
How do you homeschool and get all the homemaking things done? Short answer. I don’t. Even shorter answer. Grace. However, sometimes being overwhelmed for a day or week turns into multiple weeks or months and that is when it’s time to go beyond grace and evaluate. I do this by making what I call, A Stress List. This is a list of things that are currently overwhelming me and I pinpoint exactly why it is stressful, then I make a plan to change it. For example, laundry was overwhelming. The reason it was stressful was the multiple piles of clean laundry never getting put away. I made a change and now laundry isn’t near as overwhelming as it once was.
READ: Easy Laundry Routine for Mom’s That Actually Works
Can you take a day off to get caught up? That is a big… yes! Yes, you can take a day off school to get caught up with housework. In fact, we do a light school day every Friday and then the rest of the day is for cleaning the house, grocery shopping and getting the house ready for the weekend.
Homeschool plus toddlers
How do you homeschool with a toddler? My answer: Laugh, otherwise you might cry. I would recommend that if you have a child between the ages of about 12 months-3 years old in your home while you are trying to homeschool that you give yourself some extra grace. Kids this age are getting into everything but at the same time want to be involved.
READ: How to Homeschool With a Toddler
Want my best advice though for toddlers? Look for the treasure that can be found in the toddler ages. It’s there, past the messes and tantrums. Once you find it, stay focused on that and keep pushing forward in your homeschooling. You will get through the challenging times of homeschooling with a toddler and believe it or not your mama heart will hurt when they finally do grow out of the toddler stage… motherhood is so weird, isn’t it?
It’s okay to be marked absent
Will your child fall behind if you don’t get to everything on your list? No. I’m going to say that again, NO! Give yourself grace in your schedule. Don’t hold yourself to tightly to your schedule. When you are just starting out it’s easy to overschedule your day. It’s okay if you had planned on science this week, but didn’t get to it. When you are starting in your homeschool journey, focus on the main subjects until you get comfortable with your new schedule. Try not to have every minute planned out because it’s easy to get off schedule and then feel defeated. Have a schedule, but a flexible one.
Homeschool Advice #3: Make Your Homeschool Unique to You
Are you homeschooling the right way? If your kids are loved and learning, then yes, you are homeschooling the right way! You do not have to make your homeschool look like public school. With that, your homeschool also does not have to look like your friends homeschool. If your friend does nature study, but that’s not what your family likes, then don’t do them! You do you. Take inspiration from other people, but be confident in your choices for your homeschool.
How do you create a -you do you- homeschool? Go back to the beginning. Refer back to your list of reasons of why you homeschool and incorporate those reasons into your homeschool. For example, if one of your reasons is more time to spend outside, then plan mid morning park dates or nature walks. Maybe a reason you homeschool is because you can spend more time reading, so incorporate that by having every morning be snuggle on the couch reading time. Use your list of reasons why you homeschool to make your homeschool unique to your family.
Homeschool Advice #4: See Your Kids
Are your kids having fun? If you don’t know, ask them. Also ask yourself if you are having fun. When I focus too much on the tasks I start overlooking my kids and that leads to feeling overwhelmed. Remember that homeschool is also about connecting with your kids and having that time to just spend together. Surprise your kids with a day off school and go on an adventure.
READ: 20 Homeschool Outings Your Kids Will Love
Are you taking full advantage of homeschool? If not, you definitely should be! Be careful not to get so caught up in the curriculum part of homeschool that you miss all that homeschooling has to offer. Get outside everyday. Read books everyday. Play everyday. Your kids might be overwhelmed too when all you do is focus on tasks. If my kids are playing or being creative I don’t stop them so we can start language arts. Them being kids is more important than finishing a lesson in their schoolwork. Kids are only kids for a short time. That imaginative play only lasts for so long. They have their entire lives to learn sentence structure, that doesn’t go away, they don’t outgrow that.
Focus on their heart and character building
What is most important? Personally, I think the most important thing to remember about homeschooling is to focus on who you are raising. I love this quote from Barbara Frank, “When it comes to my children, my greatest goal for them is Heaven, not Harvard. If they go to the latter on their way to Heaven, that’s great. But if they reverse that equation, I’ve failed them.” Yes, math and reading are important and we need to teach those subjects to our kids, but don’t get so caught up in the book work that you miss the heart work.
Homeschool Advice #5: Relax and Pray
Am I enough? Nope! Did my answer surprise you? Here’s the thing, we aren’t enough, by ourselves, without God. However, with Him working and moving in us we can experience a freedom only He can give us. Without Him you will believe the lies that you aren’t qualified to homeschool, your kids aren’t learning anything and you are not good enough. God has equipped you to homeschool your children and you can trust Him. He knows your strengths and your struggles, He knows your kids and their strengths and struggles. He cares about every aspect of your life and you can invite Him into your day by starting each day with prayer. When you feel overwhelmed throughout the day, pray out loud. Stop what you are doing and pray. Your kids will benefit from hearing you ask God to help you in your words and actions.
Do you promise to relax? I hope you said yes. Learning is happening all of the time, whether you are working through a curriculum or playing outside. You have the ability to decide how, when, where and what you want your children to learn and this will look different for all homeschooling families. Some families are very structured and traditional and other families are completely opposite. You know your kids best and you know what type of homeschool puts a fire in you. As long as you follow your state’s laws, you can’t mess this up!
0
20
20
