Writing Rockstars Blog 

Feeling Homeschool Burnout? Rejuvenate Yourself First!

I’ve been reading and hearing a lot about burnout in the homeschool community lately. It’s something we almost all experience, especially at academic mid year.

Things get hard because you’re not entirely sure how you’re doing with your homeschooling. You often don't have mentors nearby that can guide you through a difficult lesson or a challenging behavioral period with your kids, especially if you're in a unit of study that none of you much enjoy.

If you’re feeling restless, bored with a curriculum, or in need of a change of pace, listen to that feeling. Most of the time your kids pick up your feelings and echo them. Take a break, and do something educational but fun. It’s ok to digress from the schedule for a while. For example, you could take a two week break from the regular school schedule to do fun elective units or community service work.

Feel free to tweak your purchased curriculum or skip parts of it altogether. You know your kids better than the curriculum writers do. Sometimes lessons in even the most tried and true curricula won't work for your kids and your homeschool at certain times. It’s perfectly fine to change things. Think of curriculum as a guideline, not a concrete word of law you have to follow perfectly.

Don’t get any false ideas about keeping up with traditional brick and mortar school teachers. Here’s a secret: public school teachers fall behind in their curriculum every year too. For the most part, county curriculum is so packed with content, traditional teachers would have to lecture or have kids work directly out of a textbook all day every day. They'd have no time for hands on projects and creative activities.

Fight the isolation. This can be the biggest challenge for you as a homeschooling parent. Aggressively pursue contact with other homeschooling parents so you can get assistance and support around the difficulties you’re experiencing! Being a good teacher is very hard work. It's extremely important to find others to talk to about homeschooling challenges, exchange ideas, and learn about new approaches to homeschooling.

Keep it simple. When you’re feeling over scheduled, overwhelmed and stressed, remember the basics. What are the three or four most important things you need to teach your kids? Certain areas of content are going to be most important, but after that, it's the skills your kids learn that will serve them most through their lives.