Homeschool burnout isn't what you think it is

🛠️ 3 Tools to Try

• The Critical Thinking Company
  Want kids who can actually think for themselves instead of just memorizing facts? The Critical Thinking Company has workbooks and activities that teach logic and reasoning across all subjects. Their Mind Benders series turns problem solving into a game. Works for ages 4 to 18.

• Khanmigo (Khan Academy's AI Tutor)
  This isn't ChatGPT for homework cheating. Khanmigo is an AI tutor that guides kids to find answers themselves instead of just handing them over. It's like having a patient tutor available 24/7 who never loses patience with "but why?" questions. Covers everything from math to coding.

• Mystery Science
  Forget dry textbooks. Mystery Science makes science come alive with hands-on experiments kids actually want to do. Each lesson starts with a real question (like "Why do we have bones?") and guides kids through discovery. The best part? Everything is open and go. No PhD required.

📚 2 Reads Worth Your Time

What Actually Makes a Child Leader

Turns out leadership isn't something kids either have or don't have. Research shows it develops through specific skills like communication, decision making, and problem solving. These skills grow fastest through unstructured play and real responsibility, not leadership workbooks. A study from 2024 found that parental modeling was the strongest predictor of leadership development in young children.

Read here ↗

What Is the School Wound?

Ever feel guilty when you rest? Hungry for praise but ashamed to celebrate wins. Scared to step out of the norm? That's your School Wound talking. Lucy Aitkenread explores how spending our formative years in an institution designed for workers, not individuals, leaves us carrying shame, fear of rejection, and a constant sense we're not good enough.

The hardest part? We're passing it down to our kids. A 2024 survey found 65% of 12 year olds are stressed because of school. This piece will make you rethink everything.

Read here ↗

🧐 1 Idea Worth Considering

When Burnout Whispers "You're Not Cut Out for This"

You wake up and the thought of another homeschool day makes you want to pull the covers over your head.

You're exhausted.

The kids are behind.

The house is a mess.

And that voice in your head keeps saying you're failing.

Here's what nobody tells you: burnout isn't a sign you're doing it wrong.

It's a sign you're doing too much the wrong way.

I've been there twice.

Put my kids in school both times because I thought I just wasn't cut out for homeschooling.

But the problem wasn't homeschooling.

It was that I was trying to recreate school at home.

Six hours a day at the kitchen table.

Rigid schedules.

Piles of workbooks.

Testing and grading like a real teacher.

I was drowning in lesson plans and feeling like a failure every time we didn't finish everything.

Ray Moore, who wrote the book on homeschool burnout, says this is the biggest trap.

We pull our kids out of school but then build the same system in our living rooms.

The straight jacket of conventional school, just with a different address.

When I finally let go of that model, everything changed.

We switched to a more relaxed approach.

Real books instead of textbooks.

Nature walks instead of science worksheets.

Learning that followed curiosity instead of curriculum maps.

The research backs this up.

Kids don't need six hours of seat work.

They need time to explore, to think, to discover.

Your three focused hours of teaching beats their eight hours of classroom management any day.

But burnout isn't just about method.

It's about boundaries.

You need a stop time.

Not just for school but for thinking about school.

I can only handle about three hours of focused teaching spread throughout the day.

After that, I'm done.

The workbooks get put away.

The questions get answered tomorrow.

You also need to feed yourself.

Not just food, though that helps too.

You need something that's yours.

A hobby. A friend. Time that has nothing to do with being mom or teacher.

And here's the truth that might sting: some of what you're doing doesn't matter.

Not every subject needs equal time.

Not every worksheet needs to be finished.

Not every day needs to be productive.

Your house will be messy.

That's the price of an abundant harvest.

Would you rather have spotless counters or kids who are actually learning?

If you're feeling burnt out right now, something has to give.

Look at what you're doing and ask: is this essential?

Is this working for us?

Am I trying to be a classroom teacher when I could be something better?

Homeschooling isn't supposed to feel like drowning.

When it does, the answer isn't to quit.

It's to stop trying to do school and start doing something that actually fits your family.

You're not failing.

You're just playing by the wrong rules.