If there’s one thing I’ve learned from studying science, or history for that matter, it’s “Everything runs on a cycle.” In science we learn about the water cycle, the carbon cycle, the cell cycle, etc. Our years are based on seasons that cycle through one after another. History also repeats itself. This is best shown by what we know as the “pride cycle” in the scriptures. So does it surprise you to find that homeschooling also has a cycle?
It goes something like this.
Planning: This stage involves gathering curriculum and supplies, deciding what to focus on with each subject, and scheduling special field trips.
Implementing: This step is usually approached with much gusto and excitement. New books to read! New art supplies! Lapbooks and unit studies to do!
Eventually the initial excitement begins to wane.
And then we get to the dreaded “B” word. BURNOUT of course! What? You didn’t know that was a natural part of the cycle? You are not the only one to have days (or weeks, or months) with no motivation! I have never met a homeschooling mom who hasn’t hit a roadblock in her homeschooling journey. Maybe teaching the multiplication tables has become a chore, or a much longed for and loved new baby is dealing with colic – interrupting sleep patterns and school days, or winter has really set in with no sunshine to be seen in the forecast for the next two weeks and everyone is getting stir crazy being cooped up in the house. I have experienced each of those scenarios (and much more!) and I bet you have too.
Guess what?
IT’S OKAY!! Burnout is part of the cycle. Knowing this helps us to fight our way out of it so we can spend more time in the other stages of the homeschool cycle.
Here are some helpful tips for facing homeschool burnout:
- Change things up! Sometimes just re-doing your schedule, switching science Fridays with music Mondays is enough to dispel the burnout. If you normally teach one way switch to something completely different for one week. Instead of doing workbooks do a nature study outside. Invite other homeschool buddies over for a co-op lesson.
- Schedule Breaks. This can be as often as taking every other Wednesday off. Or every once in a while declaring the day to be a “Stay in Our Jammies and Read Books on the Couch Together” type of day. It can also be a permanent part of your homeschool schedule. Back in March I wrote about our yearly homeschool schedule of doing six weeks of school, then having one week off. This evolved because after a couple of years of homeschooling I realized spacing out breaks in this manner greatly reduced (notice I didn’t say eliminate!) our burnout periods.
- Talk to friends. Just sharing your struggles with those who understand can help to lift our burden. They can give us ideas for dealing with the burnout. They can also remind us again of why we are doing this!
- Take One Day at a Time. Sometimes that is all you can do! We were reminded of this in January’s CES Fireside by Elder D. Todd Christofferson. After quoting part of the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day, our daily bread.” Elder Christofferson said,
“Jesus is teaching us, His disciples, that we should look to God each day for the bread — the help and sustenance — we require in that particular day. The Lord’s invitation to seek our daily bread at our Heavenly Father’s hand, speaks of a loving God, aware of even the small, daily needs of His children and anxious to assist them, one by one. . . Take it one day at a time. The Spirit can guide us when to look ahead and when we should just deal with this one day, with this one moment. To deal with something very big, we may need to work at it in small, daily bites.”
Educating our children is a big task! It is a commitment: of time, of love, of selfless service. Because of our mortal tendencies we will falter. We are so blessed to have a knowledge that with the Lord’s help we can make it through. He will help us!
Help us on to the next phase of the cycle.
Rest. Even the Lord rested after creating the earth. Rest is good for us and our children. Just be sure the rest doesn’t turn into a long period of idleness.
There are other ways to deal with homeschool burnout. How have you dealt with it? What suggestions can you offer for others? Do you have questions about dealing with homeschool burnout? Let me know in the comments!
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I just have struggled to start. I’m not exactly where to start or how to find the right fit for our family. Without knowing where to start seems very overwhelming. So I haven’t even started the cycle. I just avoid it. 😀 My boys are little yet. So my question is where do you start?
Have you done homeschooling from the start with all of your children? I’m considering it starting this fall. I just registered my oldest for Kindergarten and where we live it is full day, five days a week. On top of questionable material I think that is just too long for a five year old to be away from home. I am completely lost here with where to start. I’ve googled some. Looked at your homeschooling tab. If you were me and had the knowledge you have now, any suggestions with what to do? I also have a 2.5 yr and 4 mo at home.
knew there was a cycle but have never been able to articulate it like you have here. I like the term “burnout” and especially your suggestions for dealing with it
We are just now rebounding from a rough couple of weeks all cooped up and irritated – might be the moon phases because I’m hearing of similar challenges from friends and family across the country
I feel like we are going all the time so when I feel a burn out coming on… it’s weird that I can feel it… I schedule something different. We’ll go to the library and do our lessons there. The change of atmosphere is good for us, and it lets me have all the books that I want at my hands.
We do book days, and music days too. I’ll put on music, all kinds and we’ll listen and sing and dance to what is on.
When I schedule really well, we’ll have a science day, and do 4 or 5 science experiments that day. We’ll talk about each one and even youtube some to see how ours differed from others.
Thank you for your insite… sometimes it’s nice knowing that others have the same problems and are going through the same things.
I love homeschooling and wouldn’t change it, but we definitely have our days!!!
ps… the other that commented… You can’t screw up kindergarten!!! just do it and you’ll figure it out along the way. your kids will let you know what they need, and you will be surprised at how good you are at teaching them.
I feel this cycle has really started for me this winter. It is a struggle. I have a 7th grader whom is struggling with Algebra, Science, and Grammer. This makes wanting to do school even harder for me.
He seems to need lots of hand holding. I mean with me sitting right next to him going over each question.
How am I suppose to do that with a special needs 6 yr. old who needs that same kind of attention?
How do you do this with all of your kids?
I enjoyed this post when you first posted it on LDHS, but have been really thinking of it this past week (ish).
I really think this applies to all areas of our life and it is really important to recognize and feel how to change.
I think we have to give ourselves the time as well. When we feel burntout from school, we take a break. I love your 6 weeks on 1 week off. We keep changing it up to find what works for us…lucky thing kids are pretty resiliant.
So, once again, your insight (and the ablility to put it into words) were right on and resounded with me. 🙂
I took 3 weeks in December off and came back strong on Jan 4th, but I just had a burn out this last week. Complete meltdown, what in the world am I doing this for type day and then I prayed, read my scriptures and finally realized I needed to switch up my schedule a bit to do less in a day, but more of that lesson. It has helped so much to break it up instead of trying to do it all in one day!
Seriously, thank you for this great post. I totally needed to read it, because sometimes I do feel like I am the only one that feels this way. Glad to know I’m not!
@Wendy and @ KJS You both have excellent questions that I will address in the next couple of week with the homeschooling posts on Fridays.
@Dana When my older ones start to struggle and get in that “sit right by me and hold my hand” stage I do a couple of different things.
1) I set aside time to help just them with school work. My younger ones have a time just for them as well. I strictly enforce this! If one child interrupts I have to remind them that their turn will come, to do what they can and leave the rest for when I can help them. It may take a few days to learn but if you are consistent and truly take the time to help them each individually they will learn to be patient.
2) When they are having difficult learning a concept I look to see if there is another way to teach it that might help them. Often I get stuck with only teaching one way.
3) Sometimes, especially with math, it is hard to learn new concepts when previous ones haven’t been mastered. When that is the case we have to backtrack a little and continue to review before going on. This usually helps a great deal!