How to Reduce Homeschool Stress

There are some days when the homeschool stress is really high. Your lesson plans don’t go as planned. Life happens. Things get crazy. And you find yourself scrambling to keep homeschooling amidst the chaos.

One of the benefits of homeschooling over traditional schooling is the flexibility to adjust your schedule. This doesn’t always mean that there aren’t days when you want to throw your hands up and just quit. It means that you need to make adjustments, possibly eliminating some things for a season. Trust me, your kids won’t suffer. To keep up with homeschooling when your life feels stressful, drop these five things.

Things You Can Eliminate to Reduce Homeschool Stress

Drop the classroom

This one might sound weird, but if you’re stressed because you have a lot of appointments and errands, your homeschooling might need to be done on the go. One of the best parts of living in a digital age is that we have a ton of online learning options for homeschoolers on the go. Your children can use apps, online learning programs, and games to keep learning even when they can’t be at their desks.

Drop the extras

In an effort to make homeschooling fun, sometimes we go above and beyond with our lesson plans. We plan a lot of extra activities and fun things to do, but our schedule doesn’t always agree. If you have planned field trips or hands-on activities to go with your lesson plans, you might need to skip these if you don’t have time. You can always do these on a weekend or a time when you aren’t feeling so pressured.

Does homeschooling seem overwhelming at times? Read these tips for reducing homeschool stress.

Drop some academic subjects

On busy homeschool days, focus on the basics that you need to teach your kids. Do they need to learn about the water cycle today? The Revolutionary War? If life seems crazy, focus on the basics and what they need to know on these subjects. If you have time later, add a fun video or something that they can do independently. If you are really busy, focus on just the main subjects: reading, math, and writing and save the rest for a day when you have a little more time.

Drop the guilt

Don’t feel guilty for relying on apps or videos to do the teaching for you when you are too busy to teach your kids. There are a ton of excellent resources out there that can help teach your kids all the things you were going to cover in your lesson plan without you having to lift a finger. On days when you’re too busy for the classroom, let go of the guilt and bring the tablets on the go.

Drop the distractions

It’s really easy to become distracted by our phones or the outside world. If you have a limited amount of time to homeschool your kids, make the most of it. Buckle down and focus on the task at hand. This might mean turning off your phone during the little bit of time you have to homeschool, or even closing the door to your homeschool classroom.

Homeschooling is not a perfect system and sometimes we will get busy. If you find yourself overwhelmed by your homeschool commitments, consider dropping these five things so that you can keep homeschooling.