Is your homeschool working for you, or are you fed up with homeschool? Overwhelm doesn’t breed happiness or peace, and that’s ultimately what we all want in our homeschools: joy, connection, and a sense of fulfillment. But sometimes, as homeschool moms, we hit a wall. We feel burnt out and frustrated. Transform Your Homeschool—Get the Free Mini-Course! The Big Question: Why Do We Feel Fed Up with Homeschool? There are so many reasons why we might feel fed up, but here’s the thing—since we’re all unique humans with different circumstances, the reasons we’re overwhelmed aren’t all the same. However, there are some common threads. Let’s dive into a few of them: Trying to keep a clean house while homeschooling Comparing ourselves to other homeschool families or conventional schools Constantly trying to please everyone , whether it’s family, friends, or your child’s needs Feeling like homeschooling has to look like someone else’s version of it (Charlotte Mason, John Holt, etc.) Expecting perfection and not giving yourself the grace to grow with your kids. And while these reasons might sound familiar, let me tell you that you are not alone, and it’s okay to feel this way. Overwhelm is common in homeschooling, but there are ways to shift from burnout to balance. Fed Up with Homeschool? I’ve got strategies to help you regain your joy. 1. Require boundaries: homeschool moms need separateness. Being a mom at home all the time, always available to our children, means that we sometimes lose our sense of separateness. These kids don’t actually want us all the time (not usually anyway), but since they are just down the hallway putting together that electrical circuit thing with their siblings they will surely need you within minutes as they don’t always share with their siblings. These kids know they shouldn’t interrupt you on the phone or chat with you while you’re using the toilet, but they do anyway. Cause you’re there. Sometimes we forget that we’re separate human beings outside our homeschool mom role too. Because we’ve been doing this homeschool thing for so long , also because that is sometimes the only name we hear all day long: “Mom”. We don’t know we’re separate human beings with separate brains and separate life experiences. Sometimes we need to tell our kids (and ourselves) to do something separately , like leaving the house without kids or toileting without an audience . Whatever it is that helps you maintain separateness, make sure you’re doing that something. And if you’ve forgotten who you are and what you might do separately, this might remind you. 2. We need to take activities off the list if we’re fed up with homeschool. More is not better. More can overwhelm the kids’ senses too (not just yours). You don’t need more… curriculum study time learning opportunities extracurricular activities friend activities chocolate eating (okay, maybe chocolate eating) A little solitude can go a long way in encouraging your child’s creativity. Fewer extracurriculars and activities might enable kinder energy between their siblings. And since we are not trying to jam our kids’ brains with every last educational tidbit (because we’re not training them to be god or google), we don’t feel it is required to offer them every last activity available to humankind. Less is definitely more in the homeschool. 3. We have to learn how to exist together. We love our kids, and we are so grateful to have this opportunity to homeschool, but when we’re together all the time (or at least most of the time), we quickly learn that our primary goal is to cultivate relationships and learn how to communicate with one another. And there’s a whole lot of opportunity to learn how to communicate better. Can I hear an amen? Learning… to listen to one another, then to hear the other person’s subtext, to care about what other people need, to hear their perspective, which is not yours… …is an art that is really only gained when you have the opportunity to do it. You, homeschool mama, have a couple of opportunities to learn. Mwahahaha. (Sorry about that one, but this is definitely what we signed up for as homeschool moms). 4. Fed up with homeschool? You need time alone. We just do. (Yes, we do, really, we do, even if you’re an extrovert…I can argue this one till the cows come home: you need time alone ). Even if it’s an hour at the grocery store alone, we all need time alone. Because when we return to our homeschool family nest, we are happy to see our kids and our kids are happy to see us. (This might be a benefit of having your child in school: you are actually delighted to see them again.) However, if you are going to the grocery store as your only source of alone time, let’s chat . You need something more interesting than that. Do you remember what it wa
