You know when you’ve spent hours researching that perfect curriculum to only see it fail or when you reach the end of the school year and see that you have fallen way behind and you start to get anxious, perhaps pushy while rushing the kids to move onto the next thing. Then you’ve lost your way.
As a parent and as a homeschooling parent there’s a lot of pressure on you to ensure that you are doing the best for your children by providing the best education for them. However, when things don’t go as planned, it’s easy to fall into that let’s just finish mode as we push our kids along in the schoolwork.
Why are you homeschooling?
Are you teaching them because you want to check off the super long to do list that you have in your teaching plans? Or are you teaching them so that they will learn and apply what they’ve learned into their life? I like to take stock of where we are every couple of months to see how we are doing and to see what is working and not working for us. If I leave this to the end of the year, I find that I feel pressured to get that book completed or that course done by June and I put that pressure on my child. Which is definitely not the way to learn.
Cut down to the basics
When times are tough and things pop up, I know that I’m just not going to get through a full day of school then I cut it down to the basics. My basics are math, reading and writing. Every day these are subjects that have to take place no matter what, if we’re in a crunch then the other subjects can wait. They will be there when you get back.
Is there a better way?
Can that stressful feeling of homeschooling be remedied? Is is the curriculum that needs tweaking? Can the schedule be changed? Perhaps you need to cut back on outside activities. Find what it is that is creating havoc in your homeschool and see what you can do about it. Maybe it’s not school but it’s the house or cooking. Enter meal planning and a slow cooker, through everything in to your slow cooker in the morning and then it’s ready for dinner. Ta da. Enlist help from your children with the house and meal prep so that you are not overburdened with everything house wise.
Ask your children, what are their thoughts, what can you change to make things better for everyone.
Stop. And breath.
You are doing this for a reason and I’m sure that one of those reasons was that you wanted to spend time with your children. Stop everything and just hang out with them. Enjoy them. Realize that there will always be school but your time with your child at this age can only last for so long. Go to the park, declare today beach day and get into your swim suit and grab some towels and pretend your spending a day at the beach. Just have fun and remember that homeschooling is a lifestyle, school doesn’t have to begin and end at a specific time, learning can take place anytime and anywhere.
Have you lost your way? What have you done to get back on track?
Take a look at the other posts in my Dear Homeschool Mom series as well.
Maria Hass says
I find myself re-evaluating every few months as well. There’s curriculum I’ve purchases that didn’t work out and is up on the shelf. It’s ok. Kids learn better from a state of rest instead of a state of stress!
Maria Hass says
Stopping by from mom2mom link up #22