Combating Homeschool Burnout: Part One

I recently read an article in The Old Schoolhouse(spring 2009 issue) titled 10 Burnout Busters for Homeschool Burnout. I found myself applying each of the ‘busters’ to myself and my way of thinking and I thought it would be fun to share my interpretation. I should mention that some of my responses to her ‘busters’ had nothing to do with what she was referring to!

1. Don’t subscribe to the grass is greener syndrome.

I just started laughing at this one because the grass is so brown at our house! I love to read blogs, magazine articles, talk to other homeschool moms and just listen to what people say and feel and do in regards to their homeschool. Now – I am able to discern that some of it is just not for us, but more often than not I find myself trying to figure out how to make it work for us.

So I really have prayed and been talking to God about sticking with my system and actually seeing if it will work for us and then changing it or not changing it at all! I absolutely will not allow (or will try to very hard) myself to look at other curriculum until we are done with this one or until I am failing completely!

2. Bookend each day with Prayer.

I love this idea – she says to greet the day with a “Hello, Lord – what do you have for me and my children today?” I would love to be able to do this without fear, and with complete and total faith of what he is going to hand me each day! She also suggests to end the day with praise for what the Lord has done that day. I have heard before to make a point of praising each of the kids for something that happened that day in our nighttime prayers. I really want to do this. Can you imagine what a blessing it would be for each kid to hear his name being praised at the end of every day to the Lord? I know it would fill me up so I can only imagine how it will make them feel!

3. Each day, after school is over, spend a few minutes assessing the day and planning for the next day.

This is where workboxes will come into play for me. (Editor’s Note: Julie is planning to write about her experiences with Workboxes here at The Classroom as the year progresses.) My plan is to get them loaded and ready to go, all my supplies ready, and clean up from this day at the end of each school day. I know that if I leave it until night (after the kids go to bed). I won’t do it because I will have moved into “my time.”

4. Open several Bibles around the house so that you can glean from the word as you go about your day.

This is now the third or fourth time I have heard this, and we definitely have enough Bibles so maybe I should do it?

Here is my problem – where in the world do you put them so that little ones are not messing with them? I don’t want to get into a verse or passage, get called away or not able to finish it and come back and the pages have been flipped or the Bible is simply gone! That would stink because it is highly unlikely that I would even remember where I was reading. If I put them where they aren’t going to mess with them, then they will be in places that I am not going to look. But if I put them in an obvious spot they will be in the way and they are going to get messed with by little hands.

What I have done is put verses, sayings and prayers on index cards and posted them in different spots around the house – bathroom mirrors, above the kitchen sink, inside kitchen cabinets, by my bed. The one problem with this is you have to change them every once in awhile to be refreshed and so you don’t just ignore them because you are so used to reading the same old thing and that is where I fail in doing this! I think that if I made a couple sets at a time and had them ready to switch out – that might work. If there was then a specific issue or verse I wanted to pray over, I would have to make one or two for that as an extra. The other thing I do is have a devotional or prayer book in each bathroom for those times when you are in there a little longer than usual!

5. Work toward establishing order in your life.

I am completely and totally OCD so this is no problem in our house! It is stopping it that is the problem. I always come up with new ways to organize and keep things in the place they belong, but since I am always changing things no one – except me – knows where anything goes.

God and I have been talking about this one a lot and I am convicted that He is going to keep me on track this year and help me to stop changing things – unless they are so completely failing! I keep telling myself once I do it this way, I won’t do it again. But, then I do, in fact, do it again and again and again. God and I will spend a lot of time together in regards to this and I know He will change my heart and my desires to be so project minded.

Julie can be found writing at Boys, School, and Fun…Lots of Fun

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

“Grass is Greener” photo by jypsygen

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