How to stay sane while home schooling
Homeschooling your kid is no easy feat.
Being home all day teaching your child everything from math, to writing skills, to how to cook a meal takes patience, diligence, and often re-learning everything you learned as a kid in school yourself.
This post is for the home school parent. Whether you chose the home school life, or are in it because of necessity, this post is for you.
Here are my Mental Health tips from a Homeschooler, for any type of homeschool parent.
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Sleeping in is good for your kid
Let your kiddo sleep.
Kids need more sleep than adults, and letting them sleep longer will help them do better in school.
If you have a 1-12 month old, they need 14-15 hrs of sleep a day.
1-3 year old’s need about 12-14 hrs of sleep, 3-6 year old’s need 10-12, 7-12 year old’s need 10-11 hrs, and 12-18 year old’s need at least 8 or 9 hours of sleep per night.
Make sure your kiddo is getting as much sleep as they need so they can function their best!
It also gives you a chance to get some alone time in before they wake up.
Using this extra time to lesson plan, or just have a cup of coffee in silence will help you be a better homeschool teacher.
Take Breaks
Take breaks as a family!
Taking breaks between subjects helps your kid (and you!) to decompress, and get ready for the next set of schoolwork.
Making a meal or snack together, or whatever short activity you want to do can help create strong bonds with your kids, and let them relax between classes.
Especially if there is a relatively challenging or frustrating class, this can help manage stress and keep a positive setting at home.
As soon as your short break is over, then get the next subject rolling.
Related Content: 7 Ways to Calm Anxiety and Panic
Don’t over-do it
Shorter is better, especially when it comes to homeschooling.
You don’t need to go 8hrs a day for home school. There is no need for it.
What I noticed when I went to college was that my class schedule wasn’t that different from my homeschool schedule.
I would have Art, History, and Science on M-W-F, and Math, Writing, and Literature on T,F.
(Just as an example)
You don’t need to do every subject every day, with the exception of math and reading.
Make certain days for each subject, that way you aren’t cramming SO much into each school day.
This also gives you extra time to pay attention to each subject, especially if one takes a little longer than you expected.
Go outside
My FAVORITE thing about homeschooling was working outside.
Getting fresh air, either at a break or during class, will both clear your child’s mind and help them think better.
Let your kids play outside if its nice, or do their schoolwork in the backyard.
This will give you a chance to have the house to yourself for a little while, or be outside in the fresh air yourself!
This is one of my favorite mental health tips from a homeschooler, to anyone learning to homeschool.
Reading counts as Schoolwork
Reading is an important part of any child’s education.
Children who read on a daily basis concentrate better, have better vocabularies, relax more easily and are often all around better at school.
Let them develop a love for reading early, and show them that reading really can be fun!
Add in an hour of reading time every day. This will help your child relax, and if they are very young, make time to sit and read with them for a while every day.
This will be good bonding time for both of you!
Add in some P.E.
Physical Education is an important part of life, at any age.
We always had some form of P.E. growing up, whether that was Soccer, Gymnastics, Tae Kwon Do, or just working out in the living room at home.
Exercise helps sharpen your brain, reduces stress, and helps kids to learn better and easier.
Give your kids time to play!
Help them find an activity that they love, and let that be their P.E.
If you can’t afford an extracurricular activity, find some fun physical education things to do at home.
We often did short workouts in the living room, such as push-ups, lunges, squats and stretching.
Chores build Character
Chores are great for learning cleanliness and responsibility.
Growing up, we weren’t paid to do chores.
Chores were part of everyone’s day, including our parents.
Dad would vacuum and clean the living room, us girls would rotate doing dishes and cleaning our school areas and kitchen counters, and mom would clean the bathrooms.
This wasn’t how the house got cleaned everyday, and we sometimes rotated rooms, but it taught us that it was everyone’s responsibility to keep our home clean and livable.
To this day, I can’t think well if I don’t set the couch in the morning.
Giving your kids an allowance to do chores isn’t bad, it just wasn’t something that our parents did. It was more to break the mindset that “I will only clean if I get paid for it.”
Making chores a break between classes is also a good way to get up and moving before getting back to school work!
You can do this
At the end of the day, you are your child’s parent, and you love them.
Home schooling isn’t easy by any means, but it is SO worth it to have this time spent with your children.
I hope these Mental Health tips from a Homeschooler help you on your journey through home school life, and that they make it a little bit easier if you are jumping in head first.
Leave me a comment down below, I look forward to hearing from you!