We’re nearing the end of November, and in this house it means that we’re starting to experience some real homeschooling burn out. We’re slowly moving our way closer to our first break, whether that will be for Christmas or having the new baby. Around this time of year is where I typically look back at my beautifully laid plans from the beginning of the year, and I see how far behind we are.
See, ideally we would complete 4-5 lessons a week every single week like clockwork. Reality? There have been weeks that we got one or two lessons done, and even entire weeks we’ve taken off because of various issues. We started school 12 weeks ago, and we’ve only completed about 8 weeks worth of school in that time. But you know what? We are not behind, and neither are you.
We Are Not Behind in Homeschooling
We Homeschool For Flexibility
One of the biggest reasons that we decide to homeschool is to have more flexibility than we would with kids in public school. My older boys go to their biological dad’s two days a week for visitation. The two youngest boys had therapy three days a week for most of the last year. I’ve been experiencing a high risk pregnancy, so I have had tons of appointments with my OB and various specialists.
All that to say, we’ve been a bit busy this year, and the flexibility of homeschooling has allowed that to happen with minimal stress. For some seasons we need to emphasize the home more than the school in homeschooling, and that’s perfectly fine. Even though we aren’t through as many lessons as I had hoped, we are not behind.
We Don’t Need To Be Like Public School
We don’t need to do school from September to June, Monday through Friday, 8 am to 3 pm, taking two weeks off in December and two in April. We are not trying to recreate the public school system at home.
Now, every state has different laws on homeschooling, so make sure that you’re following those. For us in Washington, we have to complete 180 school days every year. It works best for our family to follow a year round (ish) schedule to fit in all of our lessons.
We’ve also been known to double up a few of our lessons when we need to finish them in a pinch. So if the local school is learning carrying and borrowing while you’re just starting to dabble in double digit adding and subtracting, it is okay.
You don’t need to constantly be fighting to keep up with the public school.
Consider What Else You’ve Learned
Maybe you haven’t checked off quite as many math and phonics lessons as you’d originally hoped. Maybe you’re still in chapter two of your history book (guilty), and maybe you have completed one science experiment out of the many that you had planned (guilty again).
It can be really discouraging to look at all of your beautifully written lesson plans and see that we haven’t completed them. Try to focus, instead, on what you and your kids have learned outside of the formal lessons this year.
We have taken more than a week off so far this school year to focus on heart issues, and we’ve seen a huge improvement in behavior and attitude in the house.
We have also learned a ton of new Bible verses this year, and Mr. C is learning more and more about our faith ever can get so hung up on checking off our lesson plans that we can devalue the learning that happens every day in our homes.
Have you been feeling behind lately? Take heart, homeschooling mama. We’re all doing our best, and we’re on God’s perfect timing! Do you have any tips for moms feeling behind this holiday season?
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