Homeschool burnout can leave you feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and frustrated. This feeling is surprisingly more common than many of us think, with many parents have felt this way at least once or twice in their children’s homeschooling journey. As parents, we all want to see our children excel and want the best for their future. So naturally, many of us set high expectations by establishing a tight and stringent schedule and creating a conducive environment for our children.
However, with the home as a place for education and family, boundaries get blurred, and a conflation of work and play may ensue. Over time, this can cause tensions between the parent and child to rise, resulting in homeschool burnout. In this article, we share some tips on how to avoid it.
Be Fluid in Your Teaching Style
The last thing you will want to do with homeschooling is recreate the highly pressurized and structured curricula practiced in the traditional school system. Experts say that the most frequent cause of burnout is the overemphasis on following a strict schedule with long hours of being tied to textbooks. This tends to be highly ineffective with younger homeschoolers who require more creative forms of stimulation to learn.
Instead, explore different avenues for learning – think educational aids that combine fun and learning, such as mathematical problem-solving games, word puzzles, and science knowledge games. Don’t be afraid to venture off the home and explore the library where you can keep your child engaged with storybooks, historical fiction, and biographies to expand their knowledge and offers fodder for enriching conversations and learning. After all, interactive learning is as educational as any planned curriculum.
Avoid Overscheduling
If your child stops paying attention and becomes disinterested in work at hand, chances are your planned schedule is too stringent and will require some revision. Instead, you should be flexible with your time and be open to trying different learning options. Therefore, if you sense your child becoming more agitated as time goes on, it might be time to put the pencil down and go out for a walk at the park or play a board game.
Homeschooling provides you the flexibility of how, when, where, and what your child will learn, and that is the same amount of freedom you should incorporate in their learning structure.
Seek Additional Help
Remember, you don’t have to do everything yourself. There are a variety of resources that are available and accessible for homeschooling families. In addition, your local education board should have information on homeschooling groups that can offer suggestions on enrichment classes such as English, math, science, art, pottery, and dance that they can undertake to enrich their homeschooling experiences.
Additionally, you can even sign your child up for online classes to help take some of your load off while supplementing their learning for their weaker subjects. Do your research, check out the types of programs that online tutoring and learning academies offer, and contact them to see if their curricula might be suitable for your child’s learning style.
Accredited Homeschool Programs for Self-Paced Learning
At NFC Academy, we are committed to unlocking your child’s potential with our range of accredited homeschooling programs that cater to all our students’ learning needs. Our team of experienced academic staff believes that the most effective learning should occur at your child’s pace and their own terms.
For more information on our online homeschooling programs, please do not hesitate to contact us at (888) 960-4624!