{Homeschool Tips} A Message of Support for Parents Who Aren't "Loving" Their Homeschool Experience

My friend Brenda has a post up on her blog from a reader who is hurting:

I don’t know how to fall in love with homeschooling like you and everyone else. I enjoy reading your blog because you seem so relaxed about the chaos, but you seem to be in love with homeschooling.

Am I the only one who hates it? I don’t want to put my kids in public school, but I feel like I am doing them a disservice when deep down I don’t even want to get up in the morning and face the day. I am overwhelmed and not sure what to do.

Brenda offered her own advice, and then she invited her readers to weigh-in.

Here's my response, which I left in comments:

When I work with new homeschool parents–or established homeschoolers who are seeking to reinvigorate their commitment, I often find that unease comes from using techniques and approaches that aren’t well suited to the learning style of the parents, the kids, or both. It may be time to reconsider one’s approach to home learning or even take a break from it and embrace unschooling or something close to it for a few weeks. (The holidays are a great time to do that because math abounds in recipes and crafts and cultural history abounds, whatever your faith.)

I’d also be curious if you have the kind of intellectual stimulation and social support in your life to energize yourself. Sometimes I find we get so focused on our kids’ learning outcomes and “socialization” that we forget that we adults are learners and social beings, too. I’ve got a small tribe of women and men who keep me going, and they aren’t all homeschoolers, either. 

Hope this helps. Good on you for speaking up and not suffering in silence.

Do you ever struggle with "not loving" homeschooling? How do you handle it?

And if you haven't already heard, I've created a new private How to Work and Homeschool group on Facebook where parents can work through challenges like these. This is in addition to the public page. You are welcome to join both or either of them.