It’s that time of year again, where homeschool moms and teachers alike start to feel that weariness of the school year. Homeschool burnout isn’t a new thing – in fact it isn’t even unique to homeschoolers. I have friends who are public school teachers who experience burnout about February/March each year too.

My biggest tip for overcoming homeschool burnout is to give yourself permission to take a break, or change things up – like taking the day off to celebrate Robinson crusoe day   .  Take a ‘unschooling” day or a field trip. Try a new project. Curl up together and watch movies (yes they count as schoolwork too!) or listen to a free audio book from Librivox.org or the library. Or my favorite, play in the garden, or head to the park for the day.

Learning will take place. Taking time off from the schedule or plan will not set your child back – in fact it probably will help you all focus more. As homeschoolers we have that flexibility. There is no reason why things “HAVE” to be done on  a certain timeline. It will get done – learning will happen. I promise.

The key to overcoming homeschool burnout is to let go a little. Recharge, Get re-filled. Spend sometime  in God’s world and in God’s Word. And know that through Him, by trusting in Him, it is possible to overcome the dullrums and weariness that cause homeschool burnout, and that your children are wonderful, creations of His, fully capable of learning.

Here a few more resources/articles that we’ve shared on Living Life at Home in the past, that are still relevant. I hope you find more encouragement and ideas for overcoming homeschool burnout here:

• Overcoming Homeschool Burnout – Part 1 - More of my thoughts on overcoming homeschool burnout and how I plan for the inevitable February burnout period.

• 26 Tips for Overcoming Homeschool Burnout - Karri Feiglein – a homeschooling mom of 6- shares her 26 tips on how she overcomes homeschool burnout

• 7 Tips for Overcoming Homeschool Mommy Burnout - Lorry Nell, a homeschooling mom of 4 – and former public school teacher – shares her tips for overcoming burnout.

• Homeschool Mom Encouragement from Karri - Karri Feiglin shares more of her great insights for those times we become discouraged as homeschooling moms, and for when homeschooling and parenting seems so hard.

• Joy in the Journey - Homeschooling, work-at-home mom Kimberly Eddy shares her thoughts on finding joy in the journey of life and all the roles and challenges we face

• 59 Ideas for Taking Care of You - Vetern Homeschooling mom, Cindy Rushton, of Rushton Family Minstries, shares her 59 tips for taking care of you.  My favorite tip: “Go Fly a Kite!”

• Take Homeschooling Outside with Spring Science Notebooks - Here’s a fun thing to do when the kids don’t want to be indoors anymore – take learning outside with notebooking – another great article from homeschooling vetern, Cindy Rushton.

 Enjoy!

…Shannon

Music education is a requirement at our house. Greg and I just had one year’s worth of musical instruction each and can barely pick out a few songs. But it is one of our regrets. We wish we had stayed with it longer. And so, we have required each of our kids to pick and learn a musical instrument, and stay with it for 2 years worth of lessons.

K played the violin for almost 3 years, and has translated that to now playing at the keyboard just for fun (and she’s much better than I!). Z and Little E each chose the guitar and are awaiting their turn for lessons, but for now enjoy making up songs on their own. (Can you guess what color Little E’s guitar is?…yep, pink!)

But J has had to wait the longest for his instrument. A few years ago, he decided on drums. Now he has a good ear, and can pick out some pretty stuff on the piano and on the guitar, but drums is what he wanted.

Well, drum sets, and drum lessons aren’t cheap. (Neither is a violin, but we rented that.) We told J that he would get his drums, but he had to wait until we could afford to pay cash or them.  And he waited, and waited, and waited… for 2 long years he has waited.

Well, this Christmas, guess what was under the tree for him?  (well, actually it was next to the tree, because those boxes were big and heavy!)

My boy has his drum set now and he’s LOVING it! 

J jamming with a friend on his new drum set

He gets to play freestyle whenever he wants, as long as he gets his chores and schoolwork done. and he “has” to end his school day with 30 minutes of drum lessons and practice. His favorite part of the school day.

It was a lesson in Patience for J. But now he’s got his wish, and I’m getting a huge lesson in drumming, and am loving hearing my boy explore his musical side. Don’t you love it when you can make something happen for your kids?

On my Learning to Read: Celebrating Success post, Bobbie  asked about the Bob Books, a series of books for beginning readers that we use. So I thought I’d do a quick review.

Bob Books, Set 1: Beginning Readers

The Bob Books are these short little books, that come in sets of 12, that incrementally build on each other. The very first book, covers just four sounds (M, A, S, T) and on sight word (on), and each book builds from there.

The stories are so short and so doable for a beginning reader that they instantly give the child a sense of success. They’ve read an entire book!

It’s an incredible thing to be able celebrate, and the beauty of the Bob Books is that they give that opportunity to succeed early and often. 

The books themselves are not a reading program and should not be used on their own. Every child needs help learning the phonemic sounds, phonological sound combinations, and sight words of the English language. What the Bob Books give are an opportunity to practice reading in a book format very quickly, building on that sense of success.

Personally I’ve looked at and tested a LOT of different reading materials and tools over the last 10 years, as I’ve sought materials to help my own children learn to read, and I have to say that the Bob Books are crucial element to our reading program, especially at that early reader stage.

Even Z feels success with these books (he’s able to read the first few, and that knowledge that he can read at least some books, helps build his confidence and motivation for further reading).

Here’s an example of what you’ll find in a Bob Book. I grabbed the third book from the first set off our shelf. It’s title is “Dot”. 

As you’d expect the book is about Dot. The whole book uses 9 words total to tell the story of Dot, her dog and cat, and a hat.  So there’s a lot of repetition of common words, using sounds the child already knows.

At the beginning of each book is a list of the sounds that are covered in the book, which is helpful for determining if your child knows the sounds they need for that particular book.

Each page in the first set usually only has one sentence, but I have noticed that towards the end of each book, there might be a page that has one or more. So the child is feeling confident on each page, and has read the words in the book a few times before they get to a page with more words, like this:

As you can see the pictures in the book are simple, and not overwhelming, which for my kids is very important. When they are learning a new skill, they do much better on pages that are simple and in black and white, so this works perfectly for us.

I borrowed my first set for K, when she was just beginning her learning to read journey, as I always like to test something before buying it. Since then I of course have purchased my own copies (and have lent them out a few times too) of all three sets. J used these in early in his learning to read journey, as has Little E.  

Z of course is still working through the first few books, but that’s Z and with his dsylexia these books play an important role in his feeling successful in his efforts.

Again, these are not a complete program, but rather one (essential) tool in your learning to read tool box. I do use other readers as well, but these are the first that my children use in their journey.

If you don’t already have access to the Bob Books, I recommend either borrowing a copy from a friend or fellow homeschooler, looking for a used copy (if you can find them), or grabbing a set on sale. (Today as I write this I see Amazon has a great price on them, so you might check there as well)

Hope this helps!

…Shannon

P.S. Thanks Bobbie (Clumsy Crafter) for asking the question!

P.S. S. Here are a few more of the resources we use for Learning to Read:

If you are studying biology this year like we are, here’s a great way to reinforce those biology facts – with biology songs. 

Songs for Teaching has a whole page of biology songs to help reinforce those biology facts.

If you click on a song link, it’ll take you to a page that gives you the option to listen to the biology song and gives you the song lyrics written out.

There is also an option to buy the download or CD, so if you are having younger kids access the site, you may want to instruct them as to which button to click to listen to the songs.

The science songs page also include numerous biology-related songs, including life sciences, botany, and human physiology (anatomy).

As my daughter is on a mission to do a full year’s worth of high school biology in 2 months, we’re always on the look out for activities that reinforce her learning outside of the biology text book. You can bet, this site is going to be on her to-d0 list for next week!

Many thanks to Karri Fieglin for sharing this resource!

Is it really possible to make money working from home and homeschool at the same time? 

Absolutely! I’ve done it for over 11 years, and so have many other homeschooling parents.  In this episode of the Living Life at Home podcast, Teisha Shelby-Houston (aka LadyT) and I share our insights into working from home while homeschooling.

Teisha is  The Business Coach for Moms and the author of Get Your Home-Based Business Up and Running in 30 Days, Even with a Baby On Your Hip. 

Teisha is a work-at-home, homeschooling mom to 5 kids, four boys and one girl, ages 17 to 3.  And she is passionate about helping moms, like you and I, stay at home with their kids.  

In today’s podcast, Teisha shares her heart and experience on how it is possible to earn money working from home while homeschooling your kids. Some of the topics we talked about included:

• What the first thing is you need to do if you want to make money from home

 

• How your interests, passions, and God’s plan for you factor into how successful you will be

 

• The question you should ask your friends and family that will help you find identify which options are best for you

 

• What prayer can do for your work-family balance

 

• What homeschooling looks like in her household

 

• What it means to set our kids up for success

 

• How to balance kid activities with family needs and work

 

• What your children learn from your example

Teisha and I had such a fun converstion, I wish we had more time than the hour to talk ‘cuz Teisha is really generous with her experience and expertise and so passionate about helping moms like you and I succeed in both our personal and professional endeavors. I hope you enjoy listening in as much as I did recording it for you.

To listen in, simply click the play button below. To download the recording to your computer, right click on download link below and choose ‘Save Target As’.

Insights on How to Make Money Working From Home While Homeschooling Your Kids [ 1:01:50 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

…Shannon

P.S. Don’t forget to download Teisha’s free ebook Get Your Home-Based Business Up and Running in 30 Days, Even with a Baby On Your Hip. Even if you are an experienced work at home homeschooling moms like myself, you’ll find useful tips and insights. Enjoy!

P.S.S. Want a free transcript of this episode? Be sure to subscribe to our email list and I’ll let you know as soon as the transcript is available. Thanks!