Homeschoolers, are you experiencing burnout?

If so, how timely! This is the very topic being discussed by the TOS Homeschool Crew in this week’s Blog Cruise.  You can read what my Crew Mates have to say by clicking on the button to the left.

As for me, I don’t know if I’d necessarily consider what I’m experiencing right now to be “burnout”.  That term, to me, suggests that I’m thinking about NOT homeschooling and the alternatives that may be available to us. That’s not the case.  Homeschooling is definitely our choice for educating our children. But, about this time every year, when the weather starts to get warm and we’re nearing the end of our year, we all start to get a little “antsy”.  Maybe we’ll call it “Spring Fever”. 

Here are some things we’ve been doing, or plan to do, to combat this Spring Fever:

• Go outside.  Sometimes we take school with us, sometimes we leave it inside and just go out and enjoy the sunshine. 
• Change up the  curriculum a  bit – add in more “fun” stuff.
• Start making our lists for next year – it helps us to see what we have to look forward to and makes the rest of this year seem to go a little faster and easier.
• Go on field trips – find fun things that are being offered in your area and go take advantage of them!  Count them as field trip days!
• Go to a homeschool convention.  It’s amazing to be in those large vendor halls and see all the people – like you – who have made a commitment to homeschooling.  It’s also encouraging to see all the products that are available to us, or to listen to the great speakers!  Conventions are definitely worth the money to register and any traveling that is required to get there. 
• Subscribe to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  It’s jam-packed with information and articles that will help you beat your burn-out (or whatever it is you call it!)  Better yet, if you’re attending one of the conventions where TOS is going to be, plan to subscribe there – we’ve got a great tote-bag of goodies for subscribers (both new and renewing)!
• Join an online forum for homeschoolers – this is especially helpful if you don’t have a good support system in your area.