How to Create a Homeschool Schedule While Avoiding Burnout

With everything we have going on in our lives, it’s sometimes hard to even suggest being able to “avoid burnout.” Burnout can certainly feel inevitable — especially with busy schedules and family and pets and responsibilities — and homeschooling your preschooler can fill up a lot of that schedule. But what we know about feelings is that they are just for now. 

If you are homeschooling your little one for the first time, odds are that you aren’t going to get it perfect the first time — how can we expect ourselves to be perfect at something we have never done before? 

Adjustments to your homeschool schedule may need to be made, and that is okay! One reason we choose homeschooling is for the flexibility of schedule. There are other ways to take care of ourselves and our little ones so all of us can avoid overscheduling and burning out, as well as ways to take care of ourselves when we do encounter burnout. Take it from us, teachers at one of the best preschools in NYC, we’ve been there!

Review Your Current Schedule

Take a look at your current homeschool schedule and locate any points where there might be tension. Is there a certain part of the day your little one gets tired and overwhelmed from overscheduling? Try implementing an easy activity or quiet time during that part of the day and see if there is improvement. Every day is going to look different — you could have one day dedicated to just activities or a field trip or academics. You can decide whether to revisit activities or remove them completely if they are not working for you and your homeschooler. 

Take a Break

Breaks, breaks, breaks! After a big new lesson, take a break. Between subjects or after tests, take a break. When everything starts to feel like too much, take a break. Taking care of ourselves is one of the biggest keys to avoiding burnout. Making sure that we are fed, we move our bodies, or we have some quiet time to ourselves. Teaching your little one to implement breaks into their day and encouraging them to choose how they would like to spend their free time (and making sure they have free time to spend, rather than overscheduling their days), is a great practice in self-care. 

Students Pick Subjects

Unschooling is a style of homeschooling that lets the curiosities and interests of the students guide the curriculum. By putting your little one’s natural curiosity at the forefront, you welcome their ideas, questions, and interests in certain topics. You may open up something in them that truly makes them light up to learn about. Remember, homeschooling in one home looks different than in another, and looks different than the best preschools in NYC — this is your classroom and you get to help your little one succeed in it.

Class Outside

Having time to learn outside the homeschool classroom is incredibly important for our little ones, especially at the best preschools in NYC. It’s also incredibly important for you, the homeschool teacher, to take a little break from teaching and let other people or spaces do the teaching for you. For example, trips to museums, aquariums, or other places that have experts on topics you may not be super familiar with can help guide your homeschooling student. This way you get to learn with your little one and bond over this shared learning experience. 

Homeschooling activities outside of the classroom can also look like meeting with other families who homeschool, visiting the library, extracurricular enrichment activities at the best preschools in NYC, or visiting other special places in your own community.

If Burnout Strikes

While we can do our best to avoid overscheduling and burnout, sometimes it sneaks up on us. We are human and it happens! What is important is how you take care of you and your little one when one or both of you feel burnout. 

This is the time to turn towards activities that refuel our emotional and social energy:

• Healthy snack
• Time outside
• Quiet time with a solo activity
• Take the day off

Homeschooling is hard work, but when you find your rhythm and methods that work for you and your little one, just like at any one of the best preschools in NYC, the sky’s the limit for your little one’s success!