How do you deal with the hard homeschool days?
Homeschool has all the freedoms, except for those days.
Those days.
- The ones where you wake up a little heavy.
- The wintery world outside is dreary.
- The littles are speaking thirty decibels louder than your head can manage.
- And you can’t find the Advil bottle.
Those days…when it doesn’t matter what you do to quell that child, she wants to challenge everything you say, report everything her sibling is doing wrong, declare she can no longer read, can’t compute basic calculations, or spell three-letter words.
Those days…when I think, Why would I write a blog titled “capturing the charmed life” when I know darn well that a charmed life is never static.
The charmed life isn’t static: how does one learn life’s lessons without a few challenges? This kind of charm doesn’t come for free.
This kind of freedom is earned through hard work, mostly work in the interior.
There’s no manual for parenting, no manual for home educating (okay, actually there are, but know there is no manual for YOUR kids).
But here is all sorts of help for your different, but challenging, hard days:
- How to deal with your unrealistic expectations
- How to deal with homeschool mama guilt
- How to manage your impatience with 14 strategies
- How to address homeschool overwhelm
- How homeschooling requires us to address our shortcomings (a podcast discussion)
So continue to…
- determine what you need
- determine what your kids need
- determine what you don’t need
- determine what they don’t need
- determine what you were meant to do.
Keep on keeping on so you’ll learn what you need to learn so you have fewer of those days.
Big Emotions Journal for the Homeschool Mom
Introducing the Homeschool Mama’s Toolbox, a set of resources designed to help homeschooling mothers deal with big emotions and specifically address their thoughts. Your brain and thoughts are important tools that need to be regularly sharpened, and the Toolbox is here to help you do just that.
Incorporating mindfulness practices into your homeschool is one of the most effective ways to separate yourself from your thoughts and be present. The Toolbox includes three questions from Dr. Amen, author of Change your Brain, Change your Life: What am I feeling? What is the thought behind my feeling? What is the story behind my thought? These are questions that you can practice regularly to get the most out of them.
The Toolbox also encourages a daily meditation practice to help you distance yourself from your thoughts and just be present. Guided meditations such as Guided Meditation on Controlling Negative Thoughts and Guided Meditation for Inner Peace & Calm can help you get started.
Additionally, the Toolbox offers a Thought Care Checklist to help you deal with challenging situations that may arise in your homeschool. By considering alternative perspectives, you can reframe your thoughts and deal with the situation in a more positive and constructive way.
With the Homeschool Mama’s Toolbox, you can learn to influence your thoughts and create a better reality for yourself and your family. Download the Toolbox today and start sharpening your tools!
People also ask:
- How to Deal with Anger in Your Homeschool with Judy Arnall
- How to Address Homeschool Mama’s Big Emotions: Sharpen the Tools in your Big Emotion Toolbox
- Dealing with our Homeschool Mama’s Big Emotions Toolbox Part 2
- Homeschool Mama Big Emotions Toolbox Part 3: Your Feelings
- 7 ways to find quiet, build boundaries & handle overwhelm
Teresa Wiedrick
I help homeschool mamas shed what’s not working in their homeschool & life, so they can show up authentically, purposefully, and confidently in their homeschool & life.
Great quote! Here’s hoping those days are not all in a row! 🙂
Haha. Some seasons…
And those seasons are usually called Burnout.