Finding Our Way Back Home

How do we wade through all the homeschooling information out there and finally find our way back to what is right for our family.

To read the entire Homeschool Information Overload series, START HERE.

This series on Homeschool Information Overload is an outcropping of my own homeschooling journey.  I’ve been that mom stressed by all the information, questioning every curriculum choice, changing curriculum several times a year, wondering if I’d ever get it right.  

I was so tired, so worn out, so sick of it all.  

What I really wanted was to find my way back home.

Focus Your Homeschool

The heart of homeschooling is bringing your children home to teach them the Lord’s precepts day after day (Deut. 6) and live, work, and play as a family unit.  When we lose this, we start to question ourselves and burn out.  We get bogged down and discouraged.

Sometimes an event will bring us back “home” – like staying in a remote cabin for a week with very few distractions or the death of a family member.  We have a moment of clarity and remember what truly matters.  

But for some reason, these moments do not stick.  We get caught up in the every day and lose sight of the eternal.

So, how do we find our way “back home” amidst our every day lives?  How do we learn to stay focused and not get lost in all the information bombarding our senses?

1.  Learn to step back.  When we get overloaded and overwhelmed, we have to learn to step back.  We will fail to stay focused if we just keep going.  

I tend to be the type of person who will go and go and then crash, but rather than learn from this,  get back up and go and go again.  This is NOT what the Lord wants from us.  There is a day set aside for rest for a reason, and even more importantly, Jesus IS our Sabbath rest!  Are you resting in Him or are you acting like a crazy woman chasing after the world?

If you need to step back, don’t wait until Saturday or Sunday to do it.  Sit still NOW.  Even if you have to put on a movie for the kiddos, do it and then, take a step back and ask the Lord to focus your heart and mind on Him.  Breathe, mama.

Perhaps, take the time to read this…

2.  Stop trying to do it all.

Micah 6 reminds us of what God requires of us:

“to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God”
Micah 6:8b

Titus 2 tells us what young homeschool moms should be about the business of:

“love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands”
Titus 2:4b-5a

If these things start slipping, you are doing too much!  

There will be seasons when you simply cannot do anything outside the home.  Don’t add in a bunch of homeschool classes and groups to these seasons thinking they will somehow make things easier!

I’d encourage you to take these seasons and simplify your life.  Bring your homeschool down to the basics.  Give yourself room to breathe and be with your children and husband.  When you have a better focus on your home life, you can begin to add a few things in, always being aware of your limitations and your heart attitude.

2.  Surround yourself with encouragement and the voice of reason.  When you are trying to lose weight, it doesn’t do you a lot of good to be around people who really like to overeat.  The same goes for handling information overload.  

If you spend a lot of time with other homeschool moms who are constantly pigging out on homeschool information and constantly questioning themselves, you will find yourself doing the same.  It takes a very strong mama to be around that for very long.  So, until you are better focused, please avoid people who only feed your feeling of overload.

3.  Read your Bible.  That may sound trite, but I know when my focus is off, my Bible reading is also off.  The Lord gently reminded me this past week that I wasn’t spending much time with Him.  I am currently reading through the Old Testament and also reading 1 John over and over for 30 days (a method suggested by John MacArthur).  You have to make this a habit so that when everything else in your life feels crazy, you can come to the Word of God to find your footing.

 4.  Bring the HOME back to homeschool.  What kind of mom were you before you were a “homeschool mom?”  Did she get lost somewhere?  Are you mothering your children…or just teaching them?  Are you operating as a family…or a school?

Take a look at your curriculum, your schedule, your activities from a different view…the view from inside your home!  Do those things fit the goals you have as a wife and mother?  Is a curriculum so intensive that you (and the children) are stressed out by it?  Is a class you have the children in taking up too much time and leaving you (and the children) frantic?  Are you exhausted at the end of the day, leaving nothing for your husband?

Your homeschool will not be nearly as effective if you are only “schooling” and missing the “home” part of the equation.

Now is your opportunity to start over, start fresh!  If you need to, take this week off from school and take a breather.  Play with the children.  Read to the children.  Spend time as a family.  Spend time with your spouse.  

Take note of the rhythm of your day.  Consider how homeschooling fits into your family life.  Consider where the Lord is leading your family.  Read through this series again.  

And then, plan accordingly.  

Not a crazy, extensive, year long plan, but rather, a plan for next week.  A plan that is doable, that fits your family, that speaks to your heart, that honors the Lord.

Learn how to make Flexible plans with my ebook:

To read the entire Homeschool Information Overload series, START HERE.

Originally published in March of 2015. Updated in March of 2022.