What do you do?

[parias1126]

When you are burnt out and need motivation? I stopped the school year about a month ago and was already so burnt out! I have been homeschooling for 9 years now and have never felt like this, but I also added a 2nd child 2 years and a 3rd chilld into the school day last Fall.

 

Last year I already had everything planned out, all classes scheduled, and all books bought! I was ready to start the new year on August 1st! I am going to our small Homeschool book fair today where there are lots of vendors and interesting speakers, and I am not even excited about it as I normally am every other year!!!

 

HELP! I need some motivation! I don't even have a clue what curriculum I definitely want to use in the Fall!! I know I'll use MUS for my daughter but my son I have no clue. We used McRuffy math last year and I wasn't crazy about it.

 

I haven't researched anything this year. Sending them to the public school is NOT an option for me so I need to get motivated!! :(

[Parrothead]

I took last year off. I could feel it coming and last summer I ordered as much as I could that dd could do on her own. It wasn't ideal and I doubt there was and depth to her education, but she tested above average on the year end assessment test so I'm okay with it.

 

Now, I'm looking forward to the new school year.

 

I dont' know if something like that would work with you. All your kids will have to be old enough to read independently.

[Mommee & Baba]

I haven't been hs'ing that long..someday I will be able to say I have and hopefully be as proud as I'm sure you are! :D

 

With that said...My first year homeschooling I was so excited and giddy and printed everything I could...used whatever I found that was free. Until the school year ended that year I realized the work I was having to put into school and the second year became not so fun. We hadn't the funding for anything curriculum related and therefore the enjoyment went away and it was more of a tug and tackle sort of thing I had to do because PS wasn't an option in my mind. Then I found this forum and MADE curriculum funding in our budget and since I found amazing curriculums that work and my kids LOVE school again I am loving it. This year is the first year that we're going to be using workboxes and that I've actually filed the entire year before starting school. With that all said..even if you hs 1 year or 9 years the burn out can come anytime I believe. I think that you need a good confidenet curriculum that your kids love and you love to teach and you can see growth. That's where I get my highest feelings in schooling. Maybe browse at the fair today, thumb through some books and possibly pick up some things that you could see yourself teaching or your kids loving. If you just don't know what that is then do some research online or on the forums. I hope that no matter what pulls you out of this icky bubble that by the time school begins you'll be ready and be able to enjoy it!

 

I know for us that adding projects into the upcoming school year as well as allowing some free days not only for the kids but for myself has helped me get through planning this upcoming year. I have a baby that will be in the mix again this year but have hopefully planned his participation during school a bit better.

 

I was loving all the filing and planning and then started to plan up geography for my 2nd grader and felt pooped about the whole subject. It looks fun, the activities with it are fun but I ran into the "Oh no have I planned enough ahead of time or am I going to be stuck running around again preparing" then I realized that if I do what's scheduled that is enough...but if I want to throw in more I can..that's why we homeschool! DUH for me :glare:..but as I went to file more of it and sort the lessons for geo..I had to stop because it made me feel so unmotivated. Then I printed the entire year of math practice books for both kids and filed those lastnight and felt so wonderful! Then I woke up this morning and went..UGH I have to get back to filing geography otherwise it won't be done. So maybe you ran into a bump like I did and just have to rearrange what needs to be done to get yourself back into doing what you don't want to do? Does that make sense?

 

Sorry I babbled alot. I just wanted you to know that I'm in that place with a certain subject and wish I could toss the whole thing this year but I know my dd will love it..even if planning it isn't so fun.

[tinkgumby]

I asked my sister (who homeschooled her daughter all the way through until she went to college) about this, since I was feeling that our routine was getting blah and we were feeling burned out as well. She suggested having a four-day school week of the subjects like math, writing and other subjects we were getting tired of, and having a day (maybe right in the middle - like Wednesday) to do the "fun" things like science experiments, more read-alouds, field trips, art projects, and so on. We're going to give that a try this year.

 

Good luck! Maybe you need some more time off for the summer, if you just stopped a month ago?

[JudoMom]

When you are burnt out and need motivation? I stopped the school year about a month ago and was already so burnt out! I have been homeschooling for 9 years now and have never felt like this, but I also added a 2nd child 2 years and a 3rd chilld into the school day last Fall.

 

Last year I already had everything planned out, all classes scheduled, and all books bought! I was ready to start the new year on August 1st! I am going to our small Homeschool book fair today where there are lots of vendors and interesting speakers, and I am not even excited about it as I normally am every other year!!!

 

HELP! I need some motivation! I don't even have a clue what curriculum I definitely want to use in the Fall!! I know I'll use MUS for my daughter but my son I have no clue. We used McRuffy math last year and I wasn't crazy about it.

 

I haven't researched anything this year. Sending them to the public school is NOT an option for me so I need to get motivated!! :(

 

I've obviously not had any high schoolers, but could you get your older dd involved in researching/planning her year? Then you could take a break from all things schoolish and start researching/planning for your younger ones in a month or 2--they're so young that you should be able to take a break and rediscover your joy. If you can't completely take time off, read to them, bake cookies with them, and pick up a BrainQuest workbook or summer bridge workbook that they can do with minimal involvement from you.

 

:grouphug:

[parias1126]

I asked my sister (who homeschooled her daughter all the way through until she went to college) about this, since I was feeling that our routine was getting blah and we were feeling burned out as well. She suggested having a four-day school week of the subjects like math, writing and other subjects we were getting tired of, and having a day (maybe right in the middle - like Wednesday) to do the "fun" things like science experiments, more read-alouds, field trips, art projects, and so on. We're going to give that a try this year.

 

Good luck! Maybe you need some more time off for the summer, if you just stopped a month ago?

 

We have been doing this for the last 2 years with my youngest ones and I did the same with my teen when show was little. It does work....but I'm just burnt out all together. I guess I just need more then a summer off. I was having the little ones do their ETC books every day over the summer and read one chapter out of a book, but gave up cause I got sick of the griping and complaining!

 

I think we all need a break.

[parias1126]

I've obviously not had any high schoolers, but could you get your older dd involved in researching/planning her year? Then you could take a break from all things schoolish and start researching/planning for your younger ones in a month or 2--they're so young that you should be able to take a break and rediscover your joy. If you can't completely take time off, read to them, bake cookies with them, and pick up a BrainQuest workbook or summer bridge workbook that they can do with minimal involvement from you.

 

:grouphug:

 

Love your ideas for the little ones and I'll probably do this! My highschooler was supposed to have one year left. She has all the credits she needs though to graduate now except for math. She has done Algebra 1 for 2 years now and is working with an amazing tutor (who I found through this forum!). I'm thinking of graduating her and letting her work on a real life math concepts with her tutor. She doesn't want to go to college. She wants to be a nanny and is working on steps towards that already. She may have a job at a daycare that's only a mike up the road which would be a great step forward foe her. We are just waiting to see about the background check, finger prints, and a work permit and she takes her CPR class on Saturday.

 

That alone will give me a huge break.....but I spend so much time worrying about her and her decision to not even work towards taking classes at the community college.

[VBoulden]

Disclaimer: I haven't been doing this long, so I am not sure what a long break would mean for all your kids with their ages and their subjects...

 

But, if I were you, I'd probably just stop everything that I didn't WANT to do and then just force myself to keep up with the phonics, at least, for your youngest kids.

 

For me, phonics is an absolute. I've had to force myself to do it often, but now, I am always thankful that I did, at least that, on days when I could do nothing else for whatever reason. The other subjects seem to be able to be "picked up" later. At least, that's my experience.

 

Maybe you could take your kids to the library A LOT more often. Maybe try a new library. It sounds silly, but a new library and different librarians can make a real difference in your experience with libraries and books, etc. I am not sure what your county-state rules are about this, but we can go to any number of libraries within our state.

 

Libraries often have free passes to museums, etc. You could try and use all of those.

 

Try learning the same thing in a new way, like science through experiments or nature study or even baking or cooking. I bet there are cookbooks from "around the world." Try to do them all.

 

Take your kids to the park and just enjoy them.

 

Spend time talking to them individually, looking them in the eyes, etc.

 

Read a lot yourself.

 

Do what YOU like for a day or two. ;)

 

Sew! (That's what I'd do...)

 

Teach them to sew a simple project!

 

Not sure if you are a movie fan, but you could also watch all the historical movies. You can find lists online of all the movies based on true events or all the movies that won an award, etc. Try and find those at the library or rental store.

 

Try and read every children's book that's been given a certain award or...

 

Read all those novels out loud to your kids that you've been putting off for "more important" subjects like math and grammar. ;)

 

All that said, there are lots of things to do to keep learning and be productive and make memories, even when you aren't going through the motions of school.

 

And, I bet you already do many of these things, if not all of them... but I thought I'd mention them. When I don't feel like "doing school" I try and still find something I can get excited about to do with my daughter.

 

Good luck!

[Verity]

I haven't been homeschooling for a long time like you but I know all about getting burned out and just sick of doing ______________.

My suggestion is to take a total and complete break for a while, a month or two at least. No workbooks, nothing. We just finished up a whole month of just summer time fun and I'm feeling more ready to tackle the fall, though still not there yet. During our month the kids were limited on their screen time (that was a must so I didn't feel like their brains would turn to mush) but they can swim, play with toys, cards, read, etc...to their hearts delight.

 

I also instituted a daily afternoon quiet time where we are all separate in our own spaces for about two hours. I got this idea and the determination to follow through from watching SWB's Youtube video about their afternoon quiet time. I has been such a blessing! Even though sometimes the older boys want to play together I am firm that we all need a break from each other - my youngest is now napping more often and the kids are fighting less. The big bonus is that most days I'm actually getting a kidfree break! This really helps.

 

For my middle son I had him start reading a chapter from his SL readers every afternoon at the end of quiet time and I ask the comprehension questions from the guide (this takes 2-3 minutes really). He is still a bit of a struggling reader so this keeps him on track. I read a quality storybook to my 4 year old at the beginning of quiet time and before bed. Otherwise he just builds legos & blocks, plays with his brothers, swims and enjoys being a kid.

 

Maybe for the fall you can plan an unschooling semester? Limit tv and video games, go to the library once or twice a week, watch a science/nature video weekly, park/nature walks two or three times a week, get the kids involved in sports/dance/some kind of club or group and let them follow their interests. This idea has been tough in my house but I firmly believe that if they don't have any "screens" to keep them busy that they will find interests and hobbies. For your oldest maybe an "economics" course where he/she is in charge of the family budget for a month or two, has to figure out how to budget for groceries and does most of the shopping? Does your county offer the Virtual school? This could be an option for a highschooler so that they don't get behind.

 

Have your youngers do grocery store math or watch the birds migration and do a notebook with their drawings of the birds, they could study geography that way, etc... Find something interesting that they can learn from. Classical will be waiting when you return. :)

 

Whatever you decide, just rememer to honor your needs and your family needs - the formal education part really isn't the most important thing for a season.

[Closeacademy]

I simplified and then found a good boxed curriculum that fit our needs. Since then everything has been nicer. I found my center again. I enjoy planning things out since it is not as much work. And my children enjoy learning again since the boxed curriculum I chose fits all their learning needs.

 

2 things:

 

simplify

find something else where the work is done for you

 

:001_smile:

[ChrissySC]

So that I do not burn out - I put mine in PS for the first three years. I start with a private preschool and move to K in PS. After the 3rd or 4th, I bring them home. This has worked well. Each dd has discovered the blessings of freedom and developed a need to learn. The quiet at table time is appreciated! I also have accomplished much in the way of the "social" needs and bad influences, along with the peer pressures that have been addressed. This worked for me. :) I do, however, have to afterschool teach. Although I do not try to stuff these afterschool hours with a full day's work, I do extend beyond the classroom lessons and reinforce at higher levels. For example, after the 3rd grade, dd was reading on a sixth-grade level. She was, sadly, bored with math and science. I stayed away from afterschooling math, but I hit the history and science because they were highly neglected subjects in PS.

 

Just a few ideas. A little PS does not hurt them at all! It is just another means to an end.

[Amy loves Bud]

This is me. I burnt out mid year last year. I cut down our schooling to the bare basic 3 r's and unschooled the rest. We did some fun projects like having a little starter plant business that were educational but not all that schoolish.

 

Even so, when summer came I was done! We've been off for six weeks now, and I've just forced myself to plan for next year. Now that my plans are made, I'm putting it back away until AFTER LABOR DAY. We're having a super long summer and I'm enjoying it.

 

I've also looked at how we school, and I'm organizing it so on certain days I'm doing the heavy teaching, while other days they have assignments to work on and I'm just available to them for help, but not necessarily actively teaching. I hope that will give me time to do more of my own thing during the week.

 

I'm also getting the house cleaned and organized from top to bottom so I won't be distracted by that when we start.

 

Finally, I've really bumped up my quilting and I'm getting it together so that I'll have handwork I can do while I work with the kids. I think having that distraction will help me a lot.

 

I'm not sure how my plans will work out, because like you, I'm still pretty burnt out, but I've just adopted the attitude of "fake it till you make it". PS is not an option for us at this point either.

 

Good luck! At least we an commiserate with eachother!

[Amy loves Bud]

Love your ideas for the little ones and I'll probably do this! My highschooler was supposed to have one year left. She has all the credits she needs though to graduate now except for math. She has done Algebra 1 for 2 years now and is working with an amazing tutor (who I found through this forum!). I'm thinking of graduating her and letting her work on a real life math concepts with her tutor. She doesn't want to go to college. She wants to be a nanny and is working on steps towards that already. She may have a job at a daycare that's only a mike up the road which would be a great step forward foe her. We are just waiting to see about the background check, finger prints, and a work permit and she takes her CPR class on Saturday.

 

That alone will give me a huge break.....but I spend so much time worrying about her and her decision to not even work towards taking classes at the community college.

 

Oh wow, this changes a lot in my mind. So it sounds like things will be resolved for your older dd in the next few weeks? If so I would take off of school completely until she is somewhat settled. What you described, while exciting, has also got to be quite stressful. Just give yourself the time to hang with her and help her get where she needs to be. Make sure your little ones have books and crayons and playdoh and call it good.

 

Then after your dd is settled in her new job and moving forward in her math, take a look at grammar stage school with fresh eyes. Two or three months at 5 and 7 years old will not matter in the long run, and it may improve things if you can come back with an attitude of excitement about what you are doing instead of drudgery.

 

:grouphug: I hope your daughter finds the perfect path for her!

[Jilly]

I am experiencing burn out this year too. I have been homeschooling the twins from the beginning, and I have never felt this way. :confused:

 

The first thing I did was to take the whole summer off. At first we were going to keep on schooling, and I was trying to plan our history for next year, but I burnt out quickly, so I declared a school-free summer. This is helping me, as I think I really needed some time away from everything having to do with school.

 

To get ready for next fall I am having the twins pick out everything on their own. I have given them guidelines, and they have to pick out what they want to use (I already have my youngest son's curriculum). They are having fun deciding on what they are going to use next year, and their excitement is getting me a little more excited about it too. I also bought them each a daily planner and told them they would have to be fairly independent next year. I will still do a read-aloud, and I will be there for when they need guidance or help, but other than that, they will be responsible for themselves. I am hoping these changes help me get through the coming year.

[Night Elf]

I have been homeschooling for 9 years now and have never felt like this,

 

Me too, 9 years. My attitude has definitely been changing. As my children have gotten older, their motivation and interest levels have decreased as well. Up until this past school year, I still carried an enthusiasm that got me through their 'are we done yet', eye rolling, and big sighs. But just a little ways into last year, I felt defeated. School became a chore. *big sigh of my own here* Although I did ask for the bored behavior to stop, I could still feel it in their manner and school remained unpleasant. My dd12's school became centered on her outside classes: literature, creative writing, and introduction to chemistry. If it wasn't for MUS, the rest of her school stuff would have been intolerable, not that there was much of it. I tried to find interesting history and it was all a bust.

 

So I finally resigned myself to accepting the unhappiness and the fact that our happy homeschool days are over. Ds14 is even more unhappy now that he's in high school. The work load is heavier than he's used to and the writing frustrates him. Dd12 has more schoolwork this year because I told her she was going to be prepared for high school even if she didn't like it.

 

Picking out materials was not fun. I used to enjoy it because there were so many good things to choose from. I didn't feel that way this time. But I chose stuff, spent hours writing out a schedule, and told them they had to check off the boxes. They now know exactly what is expected of them and when the last box is checked, they are done for the day. Come to think of it, that's another reason I planned out the schedule. "Just do the next thing" way was not working for them. They had no concept of how long the lesson would take because there was nothing concrete in front of them.

 

So I'm pretty much done. We have our stuff, it's scheduled, and they know the days we school. I'm just thankful they don't fight me. They may not like doing school but they are good kids and do it.

[Wee Pip]

You can read my burn-out post here.

I think one of my big reasons for burning out is that we school year-round. Even after the baby was born 2.5mos early last year, we were still carting school books to NICU. We have absolutely no structure, except that we keep on going. We take a day off when the errands or housework over run us, and it reaches a state of emergency. Eventually, I found it very discouraging to never have a "done" point - never have a point where our books were finished (if we finished mid-year, we ordered the next one). Every day is bad attitudes, and resistance to starting school, and dragging thru our school day. This is bad enough to deal with. But then *never being done*? Talk about the proverbial rolling a rock up a hill...There seems to be a lot more to my burn-out than just that, but taking a big break and stepping away for a bit really helps. Put out the big fires adding to your stress, put everything else away, and just "be" for a bit.

[Karis]

This may or may not be an option but ...

 

homeschool academies are great for this sort of thing. They are a unique hybrid. and cropping up everywhere.

 

Two day drop offs - all of the students are homeschooled.

 

 

You get some time to yourself (but are still actively homeschooling.)

 

great support for the moms & dads

 

the costs vary

[creekmom]

I don't know how often you come to the WTM forums, but I suggest taking a break from here. I know when I start reading all the threads that say, "what are doing for ___ grade?" - and then I read 3 different languages, a literature list that would make a college kid cringe and 15 different subjects for a 7th grader.... :tongue_smilie: - No offense to those hs moms/dads, but it can make an average mom feel overwhelmed and burnt out before even attempting to plan for the upcoming year! Don't get me wrong, I love coming here and being a part of this group, but it can be very stressful to read some of these threads. So take a break from hs physically and mentally to recharge!

[parias1126]

Love this post! So glad to know I'm not the only one feeling this way after 9 years. I love the idea of giving them a schedule so they know exactly what they need to do. This might help to not have to listen to the moaning, groaning, and "are we done yet???"!

 

I went to the book fair today and bought a few "easy" things for the kids to do in the Fall. I picked up Easy Grammar because it is really just that....easy! I also picked up q few history readers for my 7 year old that show could read independently as well as some living books that I will read to them.

 

 

My 6 year old has decided that he wants to use his play rug from IKEA that has roads, helicopter landings, etc on it to build a city. So this is his new project. I just back from Walmart buying crafts to even make electrical wires for this pretend city. Sounds like a ton of fun qnd he is so excited. Maybe we can work from their interests and unschooled for a few months and have some fun!

 

Thank you everyone for all your great ideas! This post alone has helped tremendously! I love this board!!

 

Me too, 9 years. My attitude has definitely been changing. As my children have gotten older, their motivation and interest levels have decreased as well. Up until this past school year, I still carried an enthusiasm that got me through their 'are we done yet', eye rolling, and big sighs. But just a little ways into last year, I felt defeated. School became a chore. *big sigh of my own here* Although I did ask for the bored behavior to stop, I could still feel it in their manner and school remained unpleasant. My dd12's school became centered on her outside classes: literature, creative writing, and introduction to chemistry. If it wasn't for MUS, the rest of her school stuff would have been intolerable, not that there was much of it. I tried to find interesting history and it was all a bust.

 

So I finally resigned myself to accepting the unhappiness and the fact that our happy homeschool days are over. Ds14 is even more unhappy now that he's in high school. The work load is heavier than he's used to and the writing frustrates him. Dd12 has more schoolwork this year because I told her she was going to be prepared for high school even if she didn't like it.

 

Picking out materials was not fun. I used to enjoy it because there were so many good things to choose from. I didn't feel that way this time. But I chose stuff, spent hours writing out a schedule, and told them they had to check off the boxes. They now know exactly what is expected of them and when the last box is checked, they are done for the day. Come to think of it, that's another reason I planned out the schedule. "Just do the next thing" way was not working for them. They had no concept of how long the lesson would take because there was nothing concrete in front of them.

 

So I'm pretty much done. We have our stuff, it's scheduled, and they know the days we school. I'm just thankful they don't fight me. They may not like doing school but they are good kids and do it.

[momto2Cs]

I'm backing off on a lot of stuff this year, and in a sense allowing more to be child-led. We will still do the Three "R's" daily, and I plan to read aloud from Great American History Stories (Pratt), but really that's it. The kids are directing everything else. Right now they are into dinosaurs, Native Americans, and ds is really into the Wright Brothers and airplanes. So I try to support those interests the best I can. We went to a Big Time (Native American) Festival yesterday, and I have More Than Moccasins on hold at the library, we're reading The Real Book About Indians, etc.).

 

We've only been homeschooling for 4 (going on 5) years, but so far they've all been through a charter school, and honestly, until we left this spring, I had no idea of how much I was doing just to satisfy their requirements. I also remember how much fun we had ds's K year, when we explored different topics - he learned a LOT.

 

When I sat down and tried to plan out the fall, I found myself getting unhappy. I want simplicity this year, serendipity, happy learning! Stepping back, taking a deep breath, and rethinking how I want to approach things is really helping. I also have to get the kids' inputs since afterall, they are the ones that have to do the work!

[Mandy in TN]

We are beginning year 9 next week.:)

 

A couple of years ago I was bummed about school. My boys were never rah!rah! about school, so nothing had changed there. I found that it helped me to sit down and look at why I wanted to homeschool. Then, I tried to choose products that met that philosophy.

 

I have never had a child beyond say age 5 that was excited to do school work. My oldest loves to read, but not if it's something I want him to read and my middle and youngest would be quite happy to spend all their waking hours playing video games. (This is why in the middle of Aug I will be back to not having internet at home.:()

 

Anyway, any joy of schooling must stem from my joy of teaching. If your kids aren't excited about school, then just find things that fit your homeschool philosophy and make you grin.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[birchbark]

I would cut it down to bare-bone, non-teacher intensive 3 R's for a year.

 

No real "experience" here, just what I would do.