Avoiding Home School Burnout
When we parents take on the responsibility of educating our child, one of the more common complaints in the first year is home school burnout. There are many reasons for this exhaustion and boredom, illness, new family members, added responsibilities, a change in routine, plus multiple others.
Symptoms of burnout vary from a lack of patience during lessons to overeating or emotional instability without any apparent reason.
Stressing Over Home Schooling – Just A Wake Up Call
Surprisingly, a home school related burnout need not be such a bad thing. This can serve as a wake-up call – an indicator that perhaps the home schooling is not going as well as planned, and that a new curriculum or schedule is required. Reversing or avoiding a burnout is possible if you pay attention to the early warning signs.
Some good first steps, if you feel a burn out coming on, is to consider lowering your expectations. Many new home schooling parents strive for perfection and then become depressed or disappointed with the results. Learn to take good days with the bad.
Next, when a lesson or lesson plan does not seem to take ground, look for alternative methods to educate or inform. Flexibility is a key factor to successful home schooling. If tension begins to mount just take a break until you come up with a new plan of action. You may consider changing your style of teaching as well as your lesson plans.
Another consideration is to avoid packing too many ‘extra’ activities into your curriculum merely for the sake of socialization. A worn out mom usually equals an uncooperative child. No matter where you are in the world you have multiple avenues for support when you are tired, burnt out, or discouraged. Get help from your spouse, a neighbor, or even a home schoolers support group. You don’t need to be in this all by your self.
Home schooling means happy schooling.
If the Stress is Too High, Consider Unschooling
Unschooling is another style of home schooling that doesn’t get much press anymore. However it is a viable alternative to rigid educational styles at home.
There are no curriculum and no boundaries in unschooling. Many new-to-home-school parents feel apprehensive about such freedom. But, when explored, unschooling has certain guidelines that make it a great method.
The gist is to allow your child to express their interests and select the topics. If he or she wants to learn about plants, educate about the various grains and seeds, their functions, parts of the plant and so on. Just keep it appropriate for their age group and don’t overwhelm with facts and tests. Allow children the freedom to stop when satiated.
In unschooling, parents expand their child’s areas of interests with the use of books, videos, internet resources, fun quizzes, magazines and games when available. Simultaneously, broaden your own interests. The more you know and/or are excited about learning yourself, the more your child learns.
Un-schoolers are astutely aware of all opportunities for learning in daily life. When in the kitchen preparing a snack or meal, they discuss the vitamins in fruits and vegetables. Or what makes tomatoes red, lettuce green and how leafy vegetables benefit the human body. One area of interested and engaged learning leads to the next this way.
Laura Childs
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