Homeschooling has hit a new benchmark. We are in unusual times where every parent has gotten a taste of homeschooling, like it or not. Those of us who are homeschooling as a life style have faced strange stressors while maintaining our fairly stable routines. Now at the end of the school year, we all look back and wonder what just happened. We have felt guilty on off for the past several months for all the cancelations and changes our kids have had to endure. Guilt has crept into our daily life while we juggle working from home, parenting, and schooling all at the same time. We don’t feel like we’ve done a good enough job keeping the kids on track. Sadness has been a cloud floating around all of us and we feel guilty for not shaking it by now. Here we are looking at a summer that might not be the adventure we want for our kids and guilt is bringing us down to the point of not being able to make plans at all.
Take a Deep Breath
Does this sound familiar? Is guilt following you around like a naughty dog begging for scraps? Take a deep breath. Take a minute to just relax and allow yourself to think. There is stress causing guilt and you can figure this out. Give yourself time to wade through the negative to find grace for yourself and more peace for your family.
Gratitude
Everybody knows that gratitude can make your life happier and healthier. But when life is hard gratitude can feel like a chore. Start making gratitude a priority every day. If you need help getting started, think of all the gas money you saved from March to June. No guilt there! It’s hard to feel guilty while you are grateful. You are alive. You are healthy. You have your kids and they have you. Yes, we have to try to be grateful. Gratitude isn’t a built- in feature.
Savor the Moments
When I think of how to make big exciting plans for the summer, I start to feel completely overwhelmed. Our normal summer vacation activities are still on hold so my goal is to enjoy the every day joys of summer: my kids splashing in a pool, family visiting from out of town, trips to the lake nearby, and of course no school. As I savor those little moments as they come, I don’t feel guilty for keeping our summer on the simple side.
Remember the Good
Even though the past several months have been bumpy, good did come out of this time. We did finish our homeschooling. I am so thankful for our homeschool lifestyle that was not interrupted by heaps of change. My kids learned something about resilience, a quality that is only developed during challenging stages of life. We have appreciated our freedom more now that we have had to adhere to rules that feel less free than ever before.
Move Forward
Probably the best way to handle guilt is to prevent it altogether. Give yourself the freedom to move forward with grace. What does that look like for you? If you are just starting out then maybe you need a solid plan for the future education of your kids so you won’t look back and wonder why you didn’t do it sooner. Find a homeschool program that works for you. Start out with an online program that’s easier to facilitate while you adjust: www.GlobalStudentNetwork.com is a comprehensive online program that you can use to suit your child’s academic goals. Evaluate where you are in your homeschooling and make changes whenever you need to. Exchange the guilt for grace as you move forward with your family.
Sarah Brutovski is a homeschool mom of three children. She grew up just down the street from where she and her husband are raising their family now in rural Upstate New York. When she is not teaching her kids, grocery shopping, or drinking coffee you might find her training for a half marathon, escaping for a morning at the beach, or chatting on the phone with one of her four siblings. Sarah loves writing on her blog sarahswritingcafe.blogspot.com and currently teaches creative writing at her kids’ weekly co-op.