Are You Overschooling?
Welcome! We are thrilled you are here!
As homeschoolers it is super easy to get sucked in to the trap of worrying that you are not doing enough, that you are not teaching enough or that they are not learning enough. Have you ever felt that way?
What if I told you that you may be doing too much? Maybe you are overschooling!
When we first started our homeschooling journey I visited each and every homeschool blog I could find. Each day I absorbed their ideas on what curriculum I should or shouldn’t use. I modeled the “perfect homeschool day” from them (tip: there is no such thing!). My virtual carts were loaded with shiny new books, papers, pens, and curriculum. We were going to do it all, each and every day. We would start the day with some calendar work and end it with song and cheerful hearts. Naive I tell you!! I was so naive!!
Our first year was filled with tears – many, many, many tears. And that was just from me! I threatened to put the kids in school more times than I could count. Even though I knew deep in my heart it would not come to that. Our early school years taught me a lot about what we need to be doing each and ever day. We were overschooling! It was not working! Something had to change.
Symptoms of Overschooling:
- Lack of desire to get to school work.
- Tears shed before school, during school, or after school. (Can be from either parent or student!)
- No time to do anything that resembles fun: walk in the park, scavenger hunts, movies in the middle of the day.
- Fights with your children to get them to cooperate.
- Thoughts of sending them on the bus to the brick institution down the street.
There are many other symptoms but those are the most basic that people will will encounter. For each family it will look different but you get the basic idea. Overschooling is a real thing (even if it is a made up word) and it can have serious consequences for you and your homeschool journey. The biggest one is burn out. When burn out sets in it is very hard to find your center and get back on track.
Don’t worry! You can stop this vicious cycle of overschooling!
Click next to get some great tips on how to make schooling a lot less hard!
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HAHAH elective. here in NY its all you listed and music gym art. geo. they have to be done at 6 yrs and older. got to get out of this state!!!!! for a lot of reasons
My child has ADHD and it feels like we’re racing to finish school everyday because what should take ten minutes takes her hours of staring into space. I don’t know that we’re over-schooling, but we’re definitely taking some steps to adjust HOW we’re schooling. Working on behavior modification strategies is right now our biggest focus each day, with the rest of school being part of teaching character and coping skills.
What a great thing it is to homeschool our children and adapt our approach to their needs. Praying that you find a good groove for you and your child!
Be blessed,
Steph
I am homeshooling two of my kiddos. One is in fourth grade and our other is in kindergarten. We are so overwhelmed. My 9 year old does abeka video homeschool. My kindergartener does regular abeka, which his is fine. It’s the fourth grader that I’m having a hard time with. He spends ALL day working and i hate it, but i don’t know how else to do it. We do math, language, spelling, writing, history, science, reading, and occasionally art. How can i cut down and not have to do summer school?