Have you ever felt that no matter how hard you try, homeschooling still feels stressful?
I've been there. For years, I was stuck in the cycle of chasing perfection, overloading my schedule, and ignoring my needs. But here's the thing—I didn't have to stay in that place, and neither do you.
Today, I'm sharing the 12 tips for homeschool moms to lower stress are overlooked strategies I wish I had known when I hit the wall in year 4 homeschooling.
These are the 5 mistakes I made that you don't have to & 12 insider tips for homeschool moms to lower stress.
I have learned how to feel intentional, confident, and mostly satisfied in my life -- but I didn't come by it naturally and it wasn't my default setting.
My default setting was to look for the challenges, not the charms. To perseverate on the imperfection and notice how things weren't going well.
I share with you what I wish I had known decades ago so I could have lived my earlier homeschool years more confidently, intentionally, and more satisfied...and a whole lot less stressed.
These are the 5 mistakes I made that contributed to my overwhelm and stress as a homeschool mom:
1. Perfectionism
Trying to create the "perfect" homeschool leads to stress and burnout.
I wanted to do right by my kids, so I tried to create the perfect home education that didn't miss a beat. This translated into too much "sit at the homeschool table" time, less focused kids, a more frustrated mom, and a whole lot less fun.
2. Over-scheduling
Packing too many activities into your day can overwhelm both you and your kids.
I wanted to do right by my kids, which meant that I bought into the idea that more is more. More extracurricular activities would mean a more meaningful life.
When in fact, what it meant was overwhelm for the kids and me, feeling like we were zooming through life and not allowing for margins of quiet and solitude throughout our days.
3. Ignoring Your Needs
Neglecting your own needs reduces your energy and patience.
I wasn't trying to ignore me, it's just that I wasn't acknowledging that I was a human being who had needs too. I was a stay-at-home, home educating mother which translated to = I'm here for everyone at every time of day, except me.
Beyond ignoring the basics of dressing and grooming each morning, I had seasons where I neglected nutrition, and exercise, but most importantly, I didn't take time away from my family with enough regularity.
The grocery store without kids isn't a respite and refill station for stay-at-home, home-educating mothers.
4. Comparing to Others
Constantly comparing your homeschool to other's can undermine your confidence.
Back in my early homeschool days, I didn't participate in social media because that wasn't yet present in the world. However, now it's easy to compare your homeschool to other people's homeschools.
How I compared? When a homeschool mom shared at co-op that her kids practiced their violin for an hour every night, I was dismayed. (I was lucky if I could my kiddos to routinely practice 15 minutes!)
When another homeschool mom told me her teenage son created a successful snow-blowing company when my kids were still selling lemonade and the occasional container of homemade slime, I wondered if I was doing something wrong.
Honouring that each of our children are ever so different and we are uniquely different as homeschool parents too, helps us clarify what really matters in our homeschools. You're homeschooling the kiddo in front of you, not other people's kids.
5. Lack of Flexibility
Sticking too rigidly to plans makes it hard to adapt to your family's unique needs.
When I put something in my Daytimer, it was officially deemed as consecrated by God, etched in gold and required to be completed that day entirely.
Or if I had purchased a curriculum teacher guide and THEY deemed a certain combination of activities as "enough" or "adequate" for a home education, I didn't question the veracity of their choice.
I've since come to understand what real learning looks like: truly absorbed learning occurs under self-directed, child-inspired circumstances, not because a homeschool parent is determined to do a daily upload to their child's frontal lobe.
12 Insider Tips for Homeschool Moms to Lower their Stress...
- If I had to do it all over again, I would have started a lot earlier to assess my expectations.
- Looking back, I would have prioritized my definition of what an education is anyway and recognized the importance of child-directed learning.
- In hindsight, I wish I had simplified our curriculum choices sooner. This would have allowed us to focus on what truly mattered and reduced the overwhelming workload I self-created.
- One of the biggest changes I'd make is to regularly evaluate our activities to ensure they serve my children's needs. Learning when to adjust my expectations would have prevented unnecessary stress.
- I now understand the value of holistic homeschooling, recognizing that learning doesn't happen only within textbooks or any school approach. I would have customized a lot sooner.
And let's chat about time, routines, habits, and boundaries...
- Time management and prioritizing (aka time blocking) would have been the first thing I would have done! To clarify how much time I actually had to play with, and how much time would be consumed by trying to find the shin pads or erasers, managing kid conflict, or putting together yet another snack.
- If I could turn back time, I would have defined our homeschool and personal goals right from the start: why was I even choosing to home educate?
- I would have paid more attention to daily routines and habits.
- Dedicating time to self-care and nurturing an 'all-about-me' activity would have reduced the frustration.
- I now see the importance of setting healthy boundaries and ensuring I'm heard and seen by the important people in my life and learning to see and hear others too.
- I would evaluate extracurricular activities to determine if they truly served my kids.
- I wish I could have moved beyond the "perfect family fantasy" and just embraced the moments.
Implement these 12 insider tips to reduce your homeschool mom stress.
I have the privilege to walk alongside other homeschool moms now, to help them avoid what I wished I learned earlier.
If you would like to have me walk alongside YOU, so you can move toward intention, confidence, and satisfaction in your homeschool mom life a whole lot faster than I did, you're invited to join me for a no-obligation conversation to discuss how coaching might assist you.
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Teresa Wiedrick
I help overwhelmed homeschool mamas shed what's not working in their homeschool & life, so they can show up authentically, purposefully, and confidently in their homeschool & life.
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