Recovering After a Rough Morning in Your Homeschool

Some days are “those” days. Everyone just wakes up on the wrong side of the bed. From the top (ahem) down and you know how the trickle down theory works with bad moods!

Honestly, sometimes it’s better to just bag the whole day. Perhaps it’s a Monday after an unusually busy weekend, perhaps a couple of the children are coming down with a cold. Homeschooling affords plenty of flexibility for those days when it  just makes more sense to take the entire day off.

However, there are other days when the morning just got started off on the wrong foot. The morning was rough but there is hope for a more peaceful afternoon. Most often it begins with Mom. With you. ME. Making a conscious decision to turn the day around.  A better day, a more peaceful day, a more grace-filled/grace-extended day.

I also think it’s important to set the example of persevering through tough moments. Frankly, if I were to give up after every rough start, we’d almost never make it past breakfast! Well it’s not quite that bad but you know what I mean. We need to model pulling up our boot straps, getting over the rough moments and finding success in our day.

Ways to Right the Ship of Your Homeschool

My recommendation is to cut your loses for the morning. Just decide to call it quits for a bit, and wrap up your morning work. Take a break for lunch, send the kids outside for some fresh air and exercise.

Better yet, go outside with your kids and go on a bike ride, head to the park, or your favorite nature trail. After everyone has had a change of scenery and eaten, the mood will usually lift.

Other ideas for taking a mood break:

Make Cookies – here is our favorite peanut butter chocolate chip recipe right now, and take a tea break. This is on my to do list for next semester even on a good day – my kids have been asking for tea time!

Watch a movie – pick a light family movie, or a documentary that extends your homeschool learning, better yet pick a movie that will make you all laugh! Laughter truly is great medicine. Don’t under estimate the power of a good belly laugh to change the mood quickly. Sometimes you have to either laugh or cry and I would always pick laughter.

Read a book – spend some extra time piled on the couch reading your family read aloud.

Make a craft - I’m not a crafty mom so whipping up some kind of craft would most likely add stress to my day, but if it’s your thing then run with it. However, I could pull out play dough, sidewalk chalk, bubbles or markers, scissors and some large sheets of paper. That I can handle!

Science experiment – my older boys have had a lot of fun lately watching science experiments on YouTube and then trying them out at home. Mostly simple kitchen experiments with items we have on hand.

Often one or more of these are ideas are enough to get everyone back on track for an hour or two of further study in the afternoon. End the day on a good note, have a relaxing evening and prepare to do it all over again the next day.

Here’s to many recovered mornings and peaceful afternoons!