www.TheOldSchoolhouse.com
• You’re thinking Easter might be a
good time to start back to school after
Christmas break.
• You find yourself checking out boarding schools on the Internet.
• You ask Jesus to return before school
tomorrow.
• You’ve said to your children recently,
“Not right now, honey; Mommy is
having a nervous breakdown.”
• Your get-up-and-go has gotten up and
went.
• You’ve considered graduating your
9-year-old.
• You’ve made a list of all possible school
break holidays: President’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, Ground-hog Day, Talk Like a Pirate Day, Hug a
Troll Day, National Waffle Day.
• When asked about the benefits of
homeschooling, you answer, “I’m sorry,
the number you have reached is no
longer in service.”
The biggest homeschool enemy you
face is YOU.
Burnout is a very real malady for
homeschoolers. After all, you’ve had
a long first semester and are staring at
some mighty long, bleak months ahead.
Even when you squint, you can’t see the
light at the end of the tunnel, and summer feels like a light-year away.
Mom, I know you love your kids
and love the idea of homeschooling
your children (whether or not you can
admit it at this moment). You started
this adventure thinking it would be
fun learning together, but you can’t
remember the last time you smiled.
Can I offer some advice to fight a bad
case of homeschool burnout? Here’s
my advice:
Try Something New
If you haven’t liked the math program
you’ve been using, try something else.
If you feel like you’re trudging through
the school schedule, shake it up and
move things around. Maybe do the first
things last and the last things first.
Throw it Out
If you or your children have absolutely hated doing a certain subject or
curriculum, toss it. Don’t keep doing
something you all hate in hopes that
the results will change. You might not
feel the freedom to toss out math forever, (they’ll need that skill later in
life) but maybe you can shelve it for
two weeks and do something else like
play math games during that time. It
is amazing how much better you’ll feel
knowing you don’t have to face that
little monster each day. So if you hate
it, throw it out, and don’t feel guilty
about it.
Renew Your Vision
Part of the reason you feel the burnout is because you’ve forgotten the impact you make in your children’s life
each day as you homeschool. You’ve
forgotten that what you do in your
homeschool matters more than having a clean house, being caught up with
scrapbooking, and hanging out with
your friends at a restaurant for lunch.
Familyman:
Dad 2 Dad
Todd Wilson
Homeschool
Burnout
The biggest homeschool enemy
you face is YOU.