Today I wanted to bring you my top 10 ways to de-stress your homeschool. Let’s face it, homeschool has its ups and downs. Everyone has bad days, there are favorite subjects and hated subjects and power struggles because it’s hard being the teacher and also the parent sometimes. Even certain seasons seem to bring more stress to our homeschool. Extra busyness or the winter blues can effect attitudes and mindsets. Deadlines and chaos can add even more anxiety.
So without further ado, here are 10 ways to de-stress your homeschool.
10. Plan
One of the biggest ways to take the stress off our homeschool is to make sure I have a good homeschool plan. If I am stressing over getting everything done or making sure my son learns everything he needs to know it is alleviated by the knowledge that I have a good plan to cover everything. If there is a lot going on in our lives, and I am personally stressed for non-homeschool reasons, having a plan takes the guess work out of what I need to teach that day. This makes it easier to leave that stress out of our homeschool time.
9. Take the day off
If you’ve lost the fun in your homeschool and stress is leading to poor attitudes all around, give your permission to take the day off. As much as I like to stick to my plan (see above), sometimes you just need to take the day off and do something fun and non-school related with your kids. If tensions are high, ditch the books for a day and reconnect with your kids outside of the classroom.
8. Be Silly
Do you stress? Are your kids stressed? Loosen up! Be silly! Get up and do some silly dances together. Make some crazy selfies together or make a Tik Tok. Try to lighten the mood by using laughter. This is one of the simplest ways to de-stress your homeschool.
7. Play Games
Learning doesn’t always look like books, worksheets and tests. Learning can come in many non-traditional forms and one of the best ways to take a bit of stress out of school is to game school. Play some games as almost every game has something to teach and not just the ones that are created for learning. Strategy, logic, math, spelling, geography…all of these things and more can be taught using games. And the best part is you will all have fun doing it!
6. Get outside
Sunshine and fresh air really can do wonders sometime, so get outside. This can mean going to the park or taking a nature walk. But this can also mean grabbing a couple clip boards and a blanket and literally taking your school outside on the lawn for the day.
5. Bake something together
One way to reconnect with your kids in a fun, productive way and reduce tension is to bake something together. Grab some ingredients and make a treat, like some cookies, and make it part of your homeschool. Baking can teach many things such as math and following directions on a recipe. Kids love having treats and making them with you is fun!
4. Remind yourself to live in the present
Stress often comes from fear and uncertainty about things that could happen in the future. In those times where the anxiety about the future is clouding your thoughts, remind yourself to live in the present. Your children will only be this age once. Savor the here and now. Give your children the gift of your presence in the present.
3. List the things you are grateful for
So many times our stress is rooted in our attitudes about what we think is wrong in our life, in our homeschool, or with our children even. When you are hit in the face with the things you feel like you can’t fix or needs improvement, sit down and make a list of things you are grateful for. There’s a song I’ve been listening to lately from Lauren Alaina called Getting Good that is all about that when we finally get to the point where we are happy where we are at we will realize we already have a good life. It reminds me to be grateful for where we are right now.
2. Play Music
Speaking of music, play some! Play music to start out your homeschool! It can be serious or funny, but play something you all love to listen to or sing along to. Music can really help lighten your mode and soothe a weary soul. There was a period of time where we started out every school day with a few worship songs from a playlist of Stephen’s favorite songs and it always helped us start out with a good attitude.
1. Pray
If all else fails, pray. NO! I put pray as number one because you need to do it first. Pray about your homeschool. For good attitudes for everyone. Pray for that breakthrough with your kids stumbling blocks. Definitely pray for insight on your children’s hearts, and how to reach them when things are going off the rails. Pray, without ceasing. De-stress your homeschool by giving it all to God.
Those are my top 10 ways to de-stress your homeschool. What ways have you found to reduce anxiety and stress in your homeschool? I’d love to hear them!
Thanks for reading!
