What NOT to Do This Homeschool Year (So You Can Homeschool Without Overwhelm)
Feeling overwhelmed by homeschooling? Discover what not to do this homeschool year so you can keep things simple, peaceful, and stress-free.
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If you’ve ever started a homeschool year already feeling overwhelmed, you’re not alone. Between curriculum choices, daily schedules, and juggling multiple kids, it’s easy to feel like you have to do everything—and do it perfectly. But here’s the truth: a peaceful, manageable homeschool year often comes from knowing what not to do. In this post, we’ll look at common habits and expectations that can quickly lead to homeschool overwhelm—and simple ways to let them go so you can enjoy more learning, connection, and joy in your days.
5 Tips to Avoid Homeschool Overwhelm this Year
The school supplies are stacked on the counter. The new curriculum is lined up on the shelf. Your planner is open and waiting for those perfect, color-coded plans.
And yet… if you’re anything like me, you might be staring at it all and thinking, How in the world am I going to fit it all in?
Every August, I feel this tension—excitement for a fresh start mixed with a creeping sense of overwhelm. Even after years of homeschooling, that little voice still pops up: “You need to do more. You should be doing it all.”
But here’s the truth I’ve learned (sometimes the hard way): you don’t have to do it all to give your kids a rich, beautiful homeschool experience. In fact, some of our best years happened when I crossed things off the list—before we even started.
So today, I want to give you permission to let go of a few things this homeschool year. Because when you release the pressure to do it all, you open the door to something better: a homeschool filled with peace, connection, and joy.
The pressure to fit in every subject, activity, and project can be overwhelming—especially if you’re teaching multiple ages. But real learning doesn’t require a packed checklist.
If you’re feeling like there’s too much on your plate, here are some things you can confidently take off this year.
What You Don't Need to Do this Year
1. You Don't Need a Perfect Schedule
I used to think a beautiful color-coded schedule would fix everything… until life happened. Let’s talk about why flexibility is actually one of your best tools.
Life happens—kids get sick, opportunities with friends pop up, lessons run long. When you follow a rigid schedule, you'll quickly end up feeling behind, stressed, and overwhelmed as soon as you have an unexpected doctor appointment or a phone call that runs long.
What you do need is a flexible rhythm that gives your days structure without becoming a straitjacket. Think of it as a flow rather than a fixed timetable. It leaves room for real-life moments and unexpected learning.
Just this week, we had the dentist's office call with openings for my boys' teeth cleanings, unexpected visitors on two different days, and two out-of-town soccer games that required us to leave earlier than we thought we'd need to. If I followed a tight schedule, my plans would be a mess right now. But since we leave room for flexibility, we just adjusted the lessons to days that worked better.
While having some structure is beneficial, make sure that you leave room for the unexpected that will inevitably pop up.
2. You Don't Need Separate Lessons for Each Child
If you’ve ever felt like you’re running from one child to another all day long, you’re not alone. But there’s an easier way—and it doesn’t involve cloning yourself!
When I first started homeschooling, I thought each child needed their own science, history, and literature lessons for their grade level. All that did was leave me exhausted and them disconnected.
I soon realized that it was easier to join together at the beginning of each day for a morning basket. During this time, we pray together, read great books, have time for nature study, and enjoy group lessons for science, history, and art.
Family-style learning—teaching one subject to multiple ages at once—has been a game-changer. After we read and discuss together, each child can then work at their own level on independent work. It saves time, fosters connection, and makes homeschooling multiple ages so much more peaceful.
3. You Don't Need to Do Every Subject Every Day (Or Every Page of Every Curriculum)
Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt guilty for skipping a page… or ten. I’ve been there. But skipping isn’t failing—it’s actually smart homeschooling.
If you try to start every single subject from day one, you’ll burn out by week two. Instead, focus on your core subjects—like math, reading, and maybe one content subject—and add the rest in slowly over a few weeks.
This gentle ramp-up gives everyone time to adjust and makes the transition into a new year much smoother.
Even throughout the year, we don't always do every subject every day, especially in the younger grades. I do have two in high school now, so their schedules aren't quite as flexible as my third grader's, but some days they might double up on history so they have time another day for something else. My third grader and I are doing science and history alone this year, but I planned our days so that we only have one of those subjects each day.
Curriculum is just a tool. You don’t have to follow it word-for-word or finish every single page to have a successful year.
It’s okay to skip lessons, combine units, or swap in your own activities. The goal is learning—not checking off boxes.
4. You Don't Need to Say Yes to Every Opportunity
When you first begin homeschooling, you may try to join everything you see to meet other homeschoolers. But soon you may find out that you don't have any time at home for school!
It’s so easy to feel like every co-op, class, sports league, or field trip is a “must” for your homeschool. After all, they’re often advertised as enriching experiences—and they can be. But when we try to squeeze in every opportunity, we can end up trading peace and rest for a frantic, overstuffed calendar.
Early on in our homeschool, we joined a couple of co-ops and tried to make it to every activity we saw on Facebook for our local homeschool groups. While we loved being around the other homeschoolers and enjoyed the activities, we didn't like rushing through our schoolwork so we could make it on time. I also didn't like the complaining and whining later in the afternoons from overtired kids. Now we are more selective about what we spend our time on, and we try to space out our activities so our days are more relaxed.
Saying “no” doesn’t mean you’re depriving your kids; it means you’re making space for the things that truly matter to your family. Sometimes the best learning happens in the slow, unplanned moments at home.
5. You Don't Need Pinterest-Worthy Projects or Perfect Routines
Homeschool can be beautiful without being staged for the internet.
I love a good themed activity or a beautifully organized school day, but let’s be honest: real life rarely looks like that.
When we've had a busy season of learning, our house often reflects that. You'll find leaves spread on the table from a nature walk. A variety of books open on the floor after quiet reading. A half-finished game left out on the ottoman for later.
The most meaningful homeschool moments are often the unplanned ones—reading on the couch, chasing a butterfly in the yard, or baking bread together. Perfection isn’t the goal; connection is.
What You Do Need More Of
Margin in your days
Time to connect as a family
Space to follow curiosity
Trust in your kids and yourself
When you let go of the extras that drain you, you create room for the things that really matter.
Even after more than a decade of homeschooling, I still have to remind myself to slow down and stay focused on why we’re doing this. When I catch myself feeling overwhelmed—rushing through our days just to check every box—I pause, take a breath, and ask myself what truly needs to be part of our homeschool right now.
An Invitation
If you’re longing to homeschool with more peace, purpose, and connection, I’d love to walk alongside you. My new course, Learning Gently, Living Fully, will show you how to simplify your homeschool and create a rhythm that works for your family.
You are enough. You are doing enough. And your kids will thrive—not because you did it all, but because you focused on what matters most.
Let’s make this the year we homeschool from a place of peace, not pressure.
