A Battle Between Grace and Giving Up
When Spring Fever Hits the Homeschool
It happens every year: one moment I’m a disciplined Pinterest-worthy homeschooling parent, handing out lesson plans and field trips with the efficiency of a cruise ship director. The next, the calendar flips to April and BAM – spring hits like a hormonal teenager discovering coffee. Suddenly, no one (myself included) can concentrate on anything that doesn’t involve sunshine, dirt, or suspiciously long “nature walks” that conveniently avoid any actual learning.
Creative (and Slightly Desperate) Learning Hacks
You know it’s bad when even I start negotiating with myself:
· “Technically gardening is science….”
· “If they chase the dog around the backyard for 45 minutes, that’s definitely P.E.”
· “Reading the back of a cereal box counts as literacy if they summarize it, right?”
Grace for the Barefoot, Muddy Chaos
Grace, I tell myself. Homeschooling with grace. It’s my mantra. I say it out loud while I ignore the math workbook peeking at me from under a couch cushion and instead cheerfully announce “Let’s make mud pies for Home Ec!”
The kids have given up pretending. They bring their workbooks outside, stack them neatly on the deck table, and proceed to ignore them entirely while investigating earthworms or inventing a game called “Who Can Shout the Loudest Until Mom Snaps”
Persistence is supposed to look noble. In reality, it’s me sitting on a lawn chair muttering, “We are finishing this history unit if it kills us”, while simultaneously Googling “Can one unit last until next September?”
The neighbors, bless them, think I’m one of those “unschoolers” because all they see is my kids in bare feet conducting “experiments” with a hose and a shovel. I don’t correct them. In spring, I’ll claim any educational philosophy that lets me finish the year with my dignity (barely) intact.
Will We Finish Homeschooling this Year? Maybe.
At the end of the day, homeschooling with grace means forgiving myself for the springtime slide. It means laughing when the dog runs off with Jesse’s spelling list, and embracing the fact that sometimes, the best curriculum is fresh air, scraped knees, and a little chaos.
We’ll be back on track. Probably. Maybe. At least by…August?
If your kids are also conducting backyard ‘experiments’ with a garden hose while their math books quietly mold indoors, you’re not alone. Share this with a fellow mama who needs permission to laugh at the spring homeschool slump!