6 Ways The Christian Mom Can Avoid Homeschool Burnout

4. Take care of yourself

As moms, we focus a lot of our energy on taking care of and pouring into our children. But if you burn out, who will care for your family? In Mark 12:31, Jesus said to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

So, it’s important to look for those ways to help you relax! For me, what helps is setting some time aside for Bible study on my own and listening to worship songs around the house. Sometimes it’s just chilling out for 30 minutes while I send the kids to their rooms for some quiet time.

What I’ve done for the last few years is block out the first hour of my day to spend time with God, pray, and care for myself. I’ll listen to the Bible on the YouVersion app and praise & worship music on my phone while I get ready for the day. This helps keep my focus on God who gives me strength for what’s ahead.

Think about what would help you relax and recharge: spending time with God, taking a nap, having coffee with friends, or maybe diffusing some essential oils. You could even trade off with a friend and watch each other’s kids so you can go for an outing by yourself, or just have a quiet afternoon alone.

5. Don’t say “yes” to everything

We are falling into the trap of being busy and doing all the things so easily in our time and culture. We are proud to be multi-taskers, but we’re rarely able to keep focus in only one place. Our brain is everywhere.

Yes, we get the job done but the end result is purely physical and mental exhaustion! We are addicted to busy. We want to do it all, and that’s where the stress comes in.

What we need to do instead is learn our limits and create healthy boundaries in our lives.

At first, people who are not used to it may find it strange. However, this will not only give you immediate relief if you’re starting to get burned out, but will also produce major benefits in the long haul.

While it might sound heartless to say “no”, if you don’t learn to say it now you will fall back into the same trap of being busy and overwhelmed.

When someone asks you to bake something for an event, consider everything else you have going on before saying yes. Don’t feel like you have to sign up to volunteer at every church event. It may not be the right season now to teach Sunday School or a women’s Bible Study. Consider what’s reasonable given your current schedule.

And it’s okay to limit outside activities for your kids as well. Your children really WILL be okay without all the extracurricular stuff. Besides, that’s not really your priority as a Christian parent. We all want our kids to have a well-rounded and enriching education, but if we’re always running here and there to activities, that will stress us out also.

6. Work smarter, not harder

One thing I’ve learned over the past 7 years is that there’s no one right way to homeschool. Sometimes, if we become too rigid and overcomplicate things, we easily get overwhelmed.

Keep it simple

Over the years, I have simplified our homeschool as much as I can by grouping my children together for a couple of subjects. My kids have their own separate Math and Language Arts, but then they’re combined for Science and History since they’re 3 years apart.

Whatever my daughter doesn’t pick up on right now, I can go back over with her later. When my son starts 8th grade in another year he will start doing all his subjects independently, which will give me a chance to do that.

And help your older kids be independent learners, so you’re not having to do the bulk of the work and you can transition to being a guide for them as they go through the material.

Create a rhythm of breaks

One of the ways that has helped me immensely to avoid stress and overwhelm was to add flexibility to our homeschool. Homeschooling year round allows us to stretch our curriculum and take breaks more often.

I’ve structured our year where we do 6 weeks on, 1 week off. We take a Sabbatical week every 7 weeks, taking a complete break after every 6 weeks of homeschool.

This lets us work as fast or as slow as we want, taking time to create memories, dive deeper into our favorite subjects and find beauty and wonder in what we are learning. When we finish the curriculum, we finish the year. Everything is unhurried. We do less at a time, but we do better.

Homeschooling can be a wonderful opportunity to guide your kids along a path of learning and creativity, as you do life together. By giving yourself plenty of grace, flexibility, and margin to rest and focus on your own health, as well as your children’s character, you’ll replace burnout with peace, joy and fulfillment.

Soon another year of educating your kids, being their mom, and all the things that come with it will come to an end. Count the successes, learn from the mistakes, and then strap on your armor to get ready for another great year!

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This post originally appeared at Called to Mothering, published with permission.


Marisa Boonstra
Marisa Boonstrahttp://calledtomothering.com
Marisa is a homeschooling mom of two and author of Bucking The System: Reclaiming Our Children’s Minds For Christ, published in January 2016. She writes to encourage women to find purpose and joy in their God-given calling as mothers, helping them raise children with a biblical worldview. She relies on Jesus and coffee to get her through the day, and loves marveling at the cultural differences between New Jersey where she grew up and Oklahoma where her family has been transplanted! You can find more of her writings over at calledtomothering.com.

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