I highly recommend strategic napping and a few other useful policies for homeschool parents. These are the techniques you squeeze into your week to keep you at your best. You can buy or design an awesome curriculum and have a boatload of resources at your fingertips but ultimately, the success of your homeschooling hinges on… you.
Recently, I posted about self-care strategies for the homeschool parent. And here I am with a different take on the same topic. Why? Because it’s so darn important. You’re the most vital part of your homeschool and, if you’re like most homeschool parents, you want to homeschool well. Establishing a few policies will help you achieve your goals.
My Current Top Three Policies
- Strategic Napping
- Stress Relieving Activities
- Modified Meditation (for me, this involves coffee)
Strategic Napping
I’ve been doing this since day one of homeschooling. Not every day but once or twice a week for sure. Do I feel guilty about it? Yes. In spite of overwhelming evidence that napping is a good thing, it feels wrong somehow to lay down in the middle of the day. But study after study tout the benefits of a short power nap.
And, get this, the U.S. Army has rolled out a new weapon – strategic and aggressive napping. Ha! I’m not sure what aggressive napping is. Maybe it’s my attitude when Amazon rings the doorbell for a delivery 5 minutes into my nap and I snarl. Not sure.
What I do know is that a 20-minute nap is a wonderful way for me to recharge my system. And, if my day so far has been less than stellar, it’s a chance to reboot my system. For me, optimal napping is no more than 20 minutes or I’m groggy and useless for the rest of the day.
What do my kids do during this time? Well, I nap on the living room couch so I have half an ear on what’s going on. When they were young, they were napping too. (Apparently, napping is only for the very young and the not so young… okay, old.) As they moved out of the napping years, I encouraged everyone to read or engage in something sort of… quiet. It’s good for all of us.
Stress Relieving Activities
This does not refer to all the memes about day drinking for homeschool parents that cropped up when Covid quarantine started – ha! Instead, these are the healthy activities that perk you up – the activities that release endorphins and all those things that make you feel good. What works is different for everyone. The two that work best for me are:
- Exercise
- Laying on the Floor
Exercise
I’m going to have to devote another post to some ideas on how to fit exercise into your homeschooling life. Just know that it can take many forms and happen at all sorts of times during the day. It can be an hour-long session or 10-minute chunks throughout your day. Do it. It’s worth the effort. You know all the benefits. I don’t need to educate you on the ‘why’, maybe just give you some ideas on the ‘how’. I’ll share some ideas on this soon. In the meantime, try…
Laying on the Floor
Here’s what you need to do. Instruct your kids and dog not to jump on you. Lay down on the floor on your back. Breathe. Relax into better posture. This is a recent addition to my days and I can’t tell you how refreshed I feel after just 5 or 10 minutes. Try it – I devoted an entire blog post to the technique here.
Modified Meditation
I routinely think that I should take up the practice of meditation. You know, in hopes of being a better person. But I’m not good at it. My brain won’t be quiet. Which I guess is why it’s called a ‘meditation practice’. You practice and get better. I’ve never been able to stick with it. Recently though, I ran across this:
“… I often meditate while savoring my cup of coffee. I love the stuff. It may have saved my life on numerous occasions. In my estimation, it certainly deserves a meditation dedicated solely to its lovely qualities.” Shondra Moralis, in her book Breathe, Empower, Achieve
She details how to take a 5-minute mindful break with your cup of coffee in her book or here. Or tea, if you prefer. And that’s how I now happily achieve a bit of modified meditation. If you’re good at traditional meditation, go for it. Otherwise, explore some alternative ways to be mindful/meditative. That laying on the floor thing I mentioned earlier can be somewhat meditative as well.
The Bottom Line
Remember, you’re the key component to your homeschool success. Figure out your tactical strategies and then fit them into your week. Maybe you won’t be able to do them every day. And perhaps your policies won’t include strategic (or aggressive) napping, exercising, laying down on the floor, or even meditating over your cup of coffee. Just implement the policies that work for you.
Take care!
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