What do you do when you start getting homeschool mom burnout?

Question

I need something to help my enthusiasm. I feel busy all the time.

Answer 1

I take a few days off.  Sometimes I give the kids a little less work to do to give me a break, or we go visit someone out of town, go on a field trip, go skiing for the day.....etc.

I feel busy all the time too!!  I just have to keep telling myself, this too shall pass!!  And all too soon, my oldest is 24 and it seems like he shouldn't have grown up so fast.

Busy Mom:  I wanted to email you but it's not allowed, to tell you that I love Todd Wilson!  I met him at a homeschool convention and bought all of his books.

Answer 2

Take a little time for your self. Read a good book with a glass of wine, and some chocolate. A break always refreshes me.

Answer 3

look at the rewards, and if your still burning, call the fire dept,,,

Answer 4

Depending on the ages of your kids, they should be able to do a lot of it independatly.

Answer 5

I step back and take a break.  

My son is not enthusiastic about learning and sometimes I just force myself to give him 'busy work' while I take a break to regroup and recharge.  

Our yearly state conference helps me every year but that is at end of school year, so usually too late to be of benefit for the winter blahs.

Answer 6

the joy of homeschooling is YOU are the principal, the teacher, the school superintendent! so YOU make the schedule. perhaps you need to do half days, or you need a week off of NO lessons for no reason. i do it and my kids are on target and i'm happy! i usually get overwhelmed with house work than i do with school work. a lot of home schoolers only do 4 hours a day. i give out the weeks assignments on monday and their work is due on friday. we go to the school room between 1-5 everyday. i know woman who do LESS and their children are doing great! point is  you may have to  redo your class time. atleast just till you feel better!

Answer 7

Travel. We load up and drive for a few hours, and then stay and explore.

Answer 8

Take a field trip. There is nothing like getting out of the house to renew your energy. Even if you do nothing more than go shopping, there are lots of things to discuss. Pricing, such as a calculating a 40% sale price, marketing, what makes one thing more attractive than something else, even the design and layout of the store.  With smaller children, you can look for shapes like circles and squares. And of course other options are museums and aquariums, zoos, battle fields and other historic locations, etc., etc.  Enjoy!

Answer 9

Slow down, breathe. Many parents get over committed. Take a long hard look at your life and see what needs to be done, what can be politely delegated to others and what can be abandoned entirely. Consider taking spring break right now and taking the kids to the woods, lake, beach, mountains, zoo, etc. Just get down time for everyone. Teach the kids to make chocolate covered strawberries, then help eat them. Spend an afternoon out with your best girlfriends, take a long bubble bath, leave the kids with a sitter and see a matinee with your hubby (he may be at the end of his rope too) , go getcha do did, maybe get a massage or your nails done.  If money is an issue, go to the vocational school and get it all done for next to nothing.

Answer 10

You need a field trip or take a day off.  I feel that way sometimes too.  I have been homeschooling for 15 years.  I still have 5 years to go.  Is there a homeschool co-op near you?

Answer 11

Busy is probably an understatement in most home school families.

Every morning I get a cup of coffee; I blink and it is bed time .^_^.

What do you do? Well you take a break, and give the kids a break too.

It's okay not to cook for a day or two, no one is going to die from having a bowl of cereal, peanut butter and jelly, or canned soup for dinner.

Secondly you take this time to re-evaluate what the contributing factors are that lead to the burn out, and show them the door, fast.

Perhaps there are to many activities?

Maybe you need to have one day a week off for whatever you need to do at home, or outside the home; we do no school on Friday's; it's a day for everything but school work.

On the other hand what you are presently doing for academics may not be working as well as it could.

Look into a different method, or scale back on some of the subjects for a while.

Do math, and language arts two to three times a week, history and science once week on the day's you do no math, or language arts.

Read together in the evening, or use more games instead of books, it's worth a try.

Most of the parents who burn out hold to a strict schedule that is tied to a prescribed curriculum, and feel they need to follow it otherwise they are behind, or not doing their "job". :(

Home schooling is something we feel we can never be behind on, since we set our own schedule, and pace; this may at times look like we are doing less than we need too, however this has shown not to be the case at all.

Relax, and if all else fails, read this little book, and you will know you are definitively not alone.

Lies Homeschooling Moms believe by Todd Wilson.

http://www.familymanweb.com/store/lies-h...

Answer 12

Take a break for awhile.  We HS year-round just for that reason.  We can take "mom" or "student" breaks as needed.

Try going to a four-day week.  We did that in the past, with Wednesdays off for errands, cleaning, and fun time.

Attend a "mom's night out" with other HS'ers.  OR go with friends who do NOT HS, so you won't have to talk about HS'ing at all! :-)

Have your DH give you "mom time" each evening or on the weekend.  Have him teach some subjects.

Visit your local public school and that'll get you to get excited again about HS'ing :-).

Evaluate all your activities and see what you can drop.  Give each child one sport, one instrument, one outside class, etc.  Don't try and do it all.

Depending on the age of the kids, find another HS mom to "co-op" with for days off.  You'd take her kids one day a week (or month, whatever) for play dates or fun activities, then she takes yours another day.

Find a local HS co-op that can ease the burden of some of your courses, and/or time out of the house.