There are some days when you just wake up knowing that it’s going to be a difficult day, but just like your mother always told you it’s how you respond to the difficulties throughout the day that count. It isn’t in how a day begins that truly matters, it’s what you do with what comes your way all day long.
As a homeschool mom there are some bad homeschool days. It doesn’t matter how organized your lessons plans are or how excited you are to begin the day, somewhere during the course of your homeschooling the day just takes a wrong turn. Often you’re left shell shocked, wondering how the day that started so well reached this point?
Having a bad homeschool day will happen to each and every homeschool mom and to be honest they will happen countless times, of this you can be sure. We must not get stuck on those bad homeschool days though, we need to be prepared for those days because we know they will indeed happen.
When a bad homeschool day comes our way, it is important to not let it continue downhill. We must regain control of the day, we can not let chaos and difficulties win over our homeschool day. There are steps that homeschool moms can take to bring peace back into their homes, but it will require strength, determination and an abundance of grace for both ourselves and our children.
The first step to reclaiming peace on a bad homeschool day is to put the books away. This is not a homeschool moms typical response, but it should be. When difficulties arise in our homeschool days our children will likely not learn anything we might attempt to teach them. That does not mean that the entire homeschool day is lost, it simply means that any learning that may happen on a bad homeschool day will not likely be in the form of book learning.
Secondly, you and your children need to take time to just be still, so set up a time period of quiet reading time for your kids. Allow you and your children the opportunity to cool off and process the difficulties that arose in the midst of your homeschooling.
Once everyone has had time to be refreshed, it’s time to bring everyone back together again and reclaim the peace that your home needs. No matter how young your children are it’s important to use this time to talk about what happened, to apologize (if you handled the situation inappropriately, didn’t listen to their concerns well, etc.) and to discuss how everyone could have handled the situation in a better, more peaceful way.
After you and your children have processed the difficulties of the day, I recommend that you do not pull the books back out. Often times when we have a bad homeschool day, it’s a sign that both we and our children need a bit of a break from the normal homeschooling schedule. Focus on spending time together and having fun learning together. Whether you take a walk together, snuggle up and read aloud to your kids, create arts and crafts with each other or spend time playing games for the day, whatever you decide to do ensure that it draws you and your children back to each other. Taking time to work on your relationships with your kids is essential to ending a bad homeschool day well.
Having a bad homeschool day doesn’t mean that you or your homeschooling journey is a failure, sometimes it is just the wake up call that we need to remind us to slow down our homeschool, to take time to experience the journey and hold our little ones closer because all too soon we’ll miss even these “bad” homeschool days.
How do you reclaim peace on your bad homeschool days?
