All too often homeschool moms go into a homeschool year with a specific picture of how every homeschool day will be. Everyone will have a great time, smiles will be on everyone’s faces as they learn something new and all of the day’s schoolwork is completed in a timely manner and peacefully. These pictures are all well and good, full of sunshine and roses…but the problem is that they are not real.
As homeschool moms we set ourselves up to feel like failures because we refuse to accept, (or fail to realize), that every homeschool day doesn’t have to be perfect. To make things worse, we take all of the issues from our imperfect homeschool days and make them our problems.
The sooner that we accept two important facts, the sooner we’ll be able to thrive more in our homeschool days; the picture perfect days and the imperfect days.
- Every homeschool day will not be perfect.
And it is ok. Its normal. Every homeschool has more than one person in it and each person has good days and bad days. Kids struggle wanting independence, puberty and hormones start wrecking havoc, attitudes abound, etc. Mom is lacking sleep, she’s hungry because she forgot to eat again or she is stressed because the supplies for today’s experiment weren’t purchased…again.
[Tweet “Imperfect #homeschool days are just as normal as imperfect people.”]
- Everyone else’s problems from the imperfect homeschool days are not our problems.
We have enough issues of our own to handle, we don’t need to pick up ones that aren’t ours. If we influenced an issue that arose in our homeschool day then we need to address our part. If our children need help with their attitude, an ‘issue’ with a sibling or a specific subject, then we need to work with them to make it right.
The issues that arise in our imperfect homeschool days will require our attention, but that does not make them our problems.
Ensure that you take time each morning to stop and accept that this homeschool day may be imperfect. Realize that you may need to put the books away and that you’ll probably need to reclaim peace at some point throughout the day too.
By taking the time to be honest with yourself before you begin your homeschool day, you’ll be better prepared to handle any bumps that come along the way.
Below are a few of my favorite ways to handle unexpected imperfect moments in your homeschool day.
- Assign a 30 min. to 1 hour quiet reading time for everyone – including YOU!
- Play the quiet game for 10 min. – give the winner an extra 10 min. to stay up past bedtime.
- Sit down and read aloud (a chapter or two) to all your kids – no matter their age.
The sooner homeschool moms realize and accept; that imperfect homeschool days are normal, that imperfect homeschool days do not make them a failure, that they are not fully responsible for the entire homeschool day’s problems, the sooner homeschool days will have more learning, fun and peace.
An imperfect homeschool day is not a failure, it is full of opportunities for a family to grow!
How do you handle the imperfect homeschool days that come your way?
