Sometimes I feel a little tired of the Homeschool Routine. After all, I have been teaching my children at home for 22 years! Preventing the mid-year homeschool blues can feel like a herculean task!
I always start off the homeschool year with such enthusiasm and strength of purpose. I feel the hope welling up in my heart at all the things we will accomplish in the upcoming homeschool year. I am so excited to mold my children into godly young men and women! I am energized! I give much of my time to crafting a winning curriculum specific to each individual child’s gifts and talents as well as their weaknesses. I plan out our schedule and activities and I can just feel the anticipation of a new school year!
We start off strong and disciplined!
Fast forward to January and February and my enthusiasm for home educating my children has diminished just a little. You see, homeschool reality has settled in and we are usually behind schedule. I am behind on grading. Things come up, children get sick and all my best-laid plans are in disarray!
There is also the constant pressure of making sure your children are becoming well-educated individuals. Who else is there to blame when things go wrong? The feeling of failure is never far from me and can rear its ugly head at any moment. Halfway through the year it always seems to appear that we have gotten irreparably off track! That can lead to discouragement and feeling blue.
Yikes! What’s a woman to do?
10 Ways To Prevent The Mid-Year Homeschool Blues
1. Take a teacher in-service day. Schedule a well-deserved day off to regroup, re-evaluate, and get back on track.
2. Schedule a day for a prayer retreat where you can draw on God’s strength to see you through your homeschool journey.
3. Reread a book that encourages your desire to homeschool your children. Pick a new homeschool book that looks interesting.
4. Do what rejuvenates you. For me, I just love to paint my toenails, take a bath, and read a good historical fiction book!
5. Search through your homeschool files, videos, and curriculum and see if you have something on hand that will put a little excitement into your mid-year! Check out the library too.
6. Give your kids a prize if they double up on a specific subject. My kids will do almost anything for a cookie 🙂 The only two still in school are my 16 and 13 years old and it still works like a charm! Give yourself a prize if you catch up on a homeschool area that you have fallen behind in.
7. Take a field trip to encourage your children on a subject that is becoming stagnant.
8. Follow Homeschool bloggers to inspire you with new ideas! Here are some bloggers who inspire me. HodgePodge, Bible-Based Homeschooling, Teachers of Good Things
9. Set up a “Mom’s Night Out” or have a bunch of friends over one evening to watch the movie. I have not laughed so hard in a long time! Moms’ Night Out
10. Focus on the facts, like one hour of homeschooling is equivalent to 5 hours in a regular classroom!
Are you looking for more encouraging posts about homeschooling? CLICK HERE!
YOUR TURN…
What do you do to prevent the mid-year homeschool blues?
I am praying for you!
Blessings,
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Great ideas, Janelle. I usually just power through, which isn’t necessarily positive for any of us. I try not to be a pessimist, but I worry a lot about gaps in my children’s educations. I guess now that Faith is the only one at home I shouldn’t, but because she is the only one at home I think she should have a top-notch education. Unfortunately, she is not concerned one jot with a top-notch education. I start comparing what she is getting to other schools and homeschool programs and I worry I am not pushing hard enough. That’s what happens to me after the newness of the year wears off, and I start to see we’re not powering through the books quite as quickly as I’d like. So, I think the winter doldrums for me are a combination of reality and being stuck inside for long stretches at a time. On your list, I love numbers 3, 7 and 10! And I will remember that this week my daughter learned the word “lugubrious” in her 7th grade spelling book — a word I’m sure I didn’t know until college. 😉
Hi Barbara! I concur with your feelings…I am always second guessing if my kids are getting enough of what they need! Please tell Faith that I am duly impressed by lugubrious! I am going to look it up now 🙂
Thank you! I really needed this. It’s so hard to remember that most of us homeschooling moms are in the same boat with school. Some days I feel like such failure and all alone. I’ll look into the blog suggestions too!
I know exactly how you feel! Remember you are not alone…you are doing God’s work every day even when you feel like a failure!
Janelle, I can only imagine how hard these months are on Home schooling mamas!! Winter is plain hard period, and add to that home schooling!! Those sound like wonderful tips.
I have a dear friend who wrote an amazing series of Historical fiction about Westerville! You would LOVE her books…
Check out Rosslyn Elliot’s “Fairer Than Morning”… I have been on “Sweeter Than Birdsong” for months… too many other books got in the way, but I think you would really love these!! 🙂
Winter is really hard for me, especially here in Ohio with all the grey days! I am so thankful to have the Lord to guide me through the tough times! Thanks for your comment Chris!
Thanks for the encouragement! We are definitely in the mid-winder, cabin fever slump right now! Going to dig out some of those encouraging mom books you reminded me about! 🙂
So thankful it was an encouragement!
I don’t homeschool, but great ideas!
I think all moms are technically homeschool moms:)
I just want to say I am beginner to homeschooling. I’m likely to bookmark your blog!
Excellent read, I just passed this onto a friend who is homeschooling. Thanks!
Thank you so much for passing this on to your friend!