Stop trying to do it all in your homeschool

Well first, let me apologize for the bossy title.

I’m not normally so forceful, it’s just that I happen to have encountered a lot of moms lately who are dealing with burn-out.

Like, drag-me-up-off-the-floor-to-make-a-quesadilla level of burn-out and exhaustion.

I think a lot of things can cause us to burn out, and right now, I think a lot of us are still coping with pandemic exhaustion.

Yesterday I was talking with some friends and we decided that the pandemic has made everything at least 15 percent harder.

Everything.

Some things are even harder than that.

• My son opening a bank account –  at least 40 percent harder than it used to be.
• Our family just bought a car – minimum 50 percent harder than it was two years ago when we bought a car.

And this applies to everything right now.

Enough

Yesterday on the way to physical therapy, I realized I forgot a mask, which is still required at the clinic. I found one ON THE FLOOR OF MY CAR, picked it up, inspected it, and put it on my face.

Near my mouth.

Where the food goes.

(Speaking of food – food is just always hard. Forever. Send Doordash.)

So if you are like me, you are always looking for ways to make things a bit easier.

That’s where this post comes in.

And my bossy tone.

Giving up?

Because none of us feels like it’s OK to give up, right?

Our culture tells us moms are supposed to work hard, be exhausted, surrender to the messy house and messy bun, and then start drinking wine at 4 p.m.

Yikes. (Yikes about the wine being the answer – I have proudly rocked a messy bun pretty much every day of my life since college).

We’re constantly told that to BE ENOUGH, we have to DO “ENOUGH.”

Now, I wrote a whole book about how this is not true, but still, I get haunted by the lies. They sneak up on me like ninjas whispering: “your bathroom sink is gross right now, you Complete Failure As a Human Being.”

Doing less in your homeschool

A while back, I sent out an email to my blog friends (you guys!) asking about your Number 1 struggle with homeschooling.

It was kind of incredible – the answers varied, but many, many of them said the same thing: being consistent.

Now I’m not saying I have all the answers, but I definitely think I have an answer to this:

Do Less.

Doing less it just easier than doing more. It’s a lower barrier to entry. It’s attainable and therefore less intimidating to start.

I know – we think homeschooling isn’t supposed to be easy, because then we aren’t “doing enough“.

But I promise you, that isn’t the case.

And if trying to do it all is causing you to feel exhausted and burned out, you’re kind of shooting yourself in the foot, friend.

Simplified homeschooling

The past several weeks, my daughter and I have been doing a pared down, simplified version of homeschooling.

And amazingly, we’ve been really consistent about it.

Here’s the thing: Less is more when you do it more often.

 

• Math: Math Mammoth
• Math update 8/2021: We’ve switched to Mr. D Math now that live classes have started.
• Language Arts: This workbook
• Geography: One of these workbooks, paired with these two books:
  • Hungry Planet
  • Material World
• History: This series
  • we use the audio + the books
  • we also pair them with boxes from History Unboxed
• Science: Working our way through a Home Science Tools Forensics Unit Study using these kits

Of course lots of other stuff is getting sprinkled in here and there. We’re constantly sharing books, but overall, this is our simple structure since my surgery back in March.

NOTE: We don’t do hard-core writing in our homeschool. My kids write, but we don’t do a formal curriculum – honestly, most of the homeschool writing curriculum I have found has taken the joy out of writing for my kids.

But, I did use this book with my son, and it set him up for college writing really well. I plan to use it for my daughter as well and it is for grades 9-12 – in ONE book!

And you know how I know it’s enough?

Every day Almost every day, we get through most of these. (Except we save one day a week and do a science deep dive with our forensics kits.)

Almost every day, I can cross off subjects in our planner, and move on feeling good.

Is it perfect? No.

Is it fancy? No

Is it infinitely Instgrammable? Gosh no.

Do those things really matter?

Hell to the No.

***

Here’s a walk through video of a few resources we’re loving right now:

A mindset shift

So as you plan our your days and weeks, I have a few resources for you to simplify things:

• My book, More Than Enough: Grow Your Confidence, Banish Burnout and Love Your Homeschool Life.

 

• Two workshops:
  • Why You Can’t Do It All (and you shouldn’t even try)
  • Cactus Schooling 101: Purposeful Planning with an Open Hand

If you aren’t familiar with the idea of Cactus Schooling, you can head here.

• My favorite homeschool planner

• Blog posts:
  • 10 Ways to Start Easy This Homeschool Year
  • 77 Resources to Help You Take Better Care of Yourself This Year
  • Planning This Year: That’s Not Your Thing
  • And if like me, you have anxiety, this post about my anxiety tool kit

 

Sending virtual hugs friends, and a reminder that you don’t have to do it all to homeschool really well.

I promise. 💙

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