Secrets to navigating homeschooling

If you've chosen to send your child to public or private school in the past, it's probably for good reason. Perhaps you don't feel qualified to teach, or you need the time away from the kids. What ever your choice originally was however, for many mothers choice isn't much of an option anymore. Covid-19 has forced many parents to take their children's education into their own hands, and that can lead to a lot of stress

If you have found homeschooling your kids creating a spike in your stress levels, we have put together a few solutions to make things easier on you.

Use Your Own Schedule

One of the biggest benefits to homeschooling is that you don't have to do it on someone else's schedule. If you're cranky in the morning and don't like to think about education before your first cup of coffee, don't. School can begin at noon. If you feel great in the morning but wind down fast, make educating the kids the first thing you do.

This also goes for where and what type of schooling you do. If you are working from home and need time to focus, consider using online educational systems such as MobyMax or Prodigy to help take some of the load off.

It's also helpful to remember that you don't need to homeschool for 6-8 hours a day. Most educators recommend homeschooling for just 2-3 hours a day, which is much less stressful.

Rearrange for your comfort

Just as there is no law saying when or for how long you must educate your kids, there's also no rule stating where you have to sit. You can do your schoolwork outside, draped across the bed, or upside down on the couch.

Kids learn better when they are comfortable, and may surprise you by being more focused under the trees at the park than wiggling on a chair.

Use activities to break things up

Baking can be an excellent way to help your kids learn about fractions. Giving your horse crazy daughter a catalog for horse equipment and an imaginary budget is a fun way to sharpen basic math skills. Drawing comic books is a sneaky way to practice handwriting without endless lines in a notebook.

Activities are a fun way to help your child grow, and they may not need you for every second of the activity, letting you have a welcome break.

Know when to play hookie

If you're in a bad mood, your child isn't going to learn anything from you anyway. Likewise if you try to bring out the textbooks and get tears in response, it's unlikely they'll remember anything you try to teach them. If you're having a truly dark day, it's perfectly alright to call it a 'snow day' and choose to just let it go.

 Homeschooling during a pandemic is hard, but it doesn't have to be stressful. Accepting it for what it is will help you reduce your stress, and you may be surprised to find your children advance faster at home despite fewer hours. You never know what children can do when they're free to do things their own way.