How is your School year going so far? If overwhelm has started haunting you this early in the school year, there are a few things you can do to re-assess your plans and find smoother days. In this article, I will help you uncover what could be the root of your overwhelm, including feeling overwhelmed even though you are crushing your homeschool days like an ace.

I think the first step is the hardest. You need to discern if you are overwhelmed because you are trying to do too much, or if you just need a more efficient system. It can be hard to tell. One sign that you need more efficient systems is kids who are waiting on mom to tell them what to do.

Even an 8-year-old can have a few school tasks they can get started on without mom, and also a very clear idea of what it is they need to get done each day. Then there are more subtle reasons that can cause you to feel overwhelmed even when you are not having problems with efficiency and are not trying to do much in a day, I cover those at the end of the article.

Efficiency Problems? Pick a System or Rhythm, And Stick To It

If your kids don’t know what to do and when to do it, that is the first detail you should focus on fixing, it may be the only detail you need to fix. The truth is it doesn’t matter much what system you use to communicate this information, but it must be done consistently. You can have assignment notebooks, workboxes, or lists on the whiteboard.

Honestly, I think they are all great systems and have utilized them in the past, but don’t use any of them currently. My current system is that the kids who are 10+ have a schedule on the wall of what subjects they work on and when they do them. They then have a basket with everything in it they need. They know when to do history. There are history books in their basket. I don’t care which one they pick, or what order they do them in. Middle school and up is expected to take notes and quotes as they read. When they are done they can use either history or writing time to write up a report or essay about the book, in whatever style they choose.

The math book is in the basket, I expect them both to work through at least one lesson and work for the amount of time allotted in the schedule. This keeps them from rushing through the lesson and making a lot of mistakes, they have to do math for a specific amount of time, which depends on their age, and they know they might as well take the time to try to understand the lesson and get the problems right the first time. Having to get through at least one lesson means they don’t fill their math time up with distractions and daydreams, they want to know they will be done when it is time to move on. If they are not done they will have to make it up in the evening or on the weekend, just like homework for a kid who goes to school. They avoid this like it is a death sentence.

If I had to sum up why my kids know what to do when in one word it would be “rhythm”. Things in our day flow because I have purposely made sure every child has an assigned rhythm. Of course, I have a rhythm too, and it is important for me to keep my rhythm. Doing what I set out to do shows my kids how to respect their own schedules, and also keeps the younger kids on track, since they still need help with at least half of their school day. (My younger ones are 8 and 9.)

Too Much Content? Sort Out Your Priorities

If everyone is getting up and working cheerfully and efficiently through their tasks and you still feel like you just can’t get to the end of the school day, you need to take a serious look at how much you are trying to accomplish in that school day. Curriculum writers do not always understand the amount of time it will take to implement their little assignments. If we are eclectic, some of the resources we use may not even be divided out into daily lessons. Often times we are dedicating hours and hours to content when we don’t need too. It may be fun, but if it isn’t, our kids are not going to remember much of that content anyways.

Make a list of all your school day includes, in order of priority. Start with stories, a school day without stories is truly an incomplete day. What else is important to you? The things that end up on the bottom of the list are where you can decide to switch things up and get creative. Maybe they don’t need to be every day. Maybe you can come up with a more creative way to study them, that you and your kids will both enjoy, that won’t feel so much like “school-work”. This can be engaging read-alouds, (you can find good books even to cover things like science or math), video’s, games, or field trips.

Crushing It, But Feeling Overwhelmed Anyways?

Sometimes that feeling of overwhelm doesn’t come from doing to0 much or even from not getting it all done. You may be rocking your days and yet still feel overwhelmed and frazzled. If this is the case I would look to balance. We need to feed our whole persons. You can feel overwhelmed if you are not physically receiving what you need, as in a highly nutritious diet. Or if your body is not getting the oxygen it needs by being physically active.

You can be overwhelmed if your heart and emotions are not getting enough food, their food is things like stories, song, and dance.

It can also be that you need to carve out just a bit of time to do something you love beyond your homeschool.

And last, but certainly not least, it could be as simple as not enough downtime. Everyone needs downtime. Empty spaces of unstructured time. This allows the space to reflect. Sometimes, when we finally make time for that space, we realize we are not overwhelmed after all, once we are able to sit in that empty space the feeling of overwhelm just dissipates. We just needed to give ourselves a little break in order to feel refreshed and ready to do it all over again next week.

Need more in-depth strategies to avoid overwhelm in your homeschool? Check out my post, Avoiding Overwhelm from the Inside Out, recently featured on the Homeschool Solutions Podcast.