Do you have January-itis?

I remember the first year of our homeschooling journey. We had pulled our daughter out of the public school system at the end of her 6th grade year. We spent the summer making plans for what our homeschool life would be like. The fall was challenging, but exciting as we tried to navigate this brand new world. Christmas came quickly and was a welcome break, we happily put the books aside. Then came January.

January. Cold. Dark. Ugly.

Homeschooling became even more challenging and we found ourselves struggling. Did we make a mistake? Could I really do this every day? Only by the grace of God, we survived and spring finally arrived.

For a time, I brushed off this rough season as just one of the hurdles of our first year of homeschooling. In part, that was true. We did have some adjustments to make with our curriculum choices and we had to learn how to relax.

But when we hit a similar wall the following year I realized that it was more than that.

We had January-itis.

Many moms consider January their favorite time to homeschool, they find the winter season to be quiet and ideal for studying. We weren’t feeling it. The shorter days and lack of sunshine affected the mood of our homeschool. The lack of fresh air made for very gloomy days. We were grumpy and tired.

Over time I learned to distinguish between our ‘homeschool frustrations’ and our ‘seasonal frustrations’. The realization that January-itis was lurking in the corner made life easier as we found ways to fight back.

Here are a few easy tips that have worked for us:

• Keep a scented candle lit on your desk.

• Have classical music playing while doing schoolwork. You can also grab a CD of nature’s sounds.
• Be willing to put the books aside on those rare January days filled with sunshine.
• Schedule trips to the museum or special performances of the arts.
• Try to be objective with your homeschool frustrations and distinguish what isn’t working from what  may just be a ‘seasonal frustration’.
• When frustrations come and tensions run high, stop and pray.

Here are a few other ideas shared recently on our IAHE Facebook page:

• Debi K: This may seem silly, but I like to keep white Christmas lights up with greenery on the bannister until spring. It feels so homey and brightens up our place. Since we try to stay home as much as possible, I try to make it a place I enjoy.

• Joann B: I have always found the deep winter months to be our best learning months because there is not the pull to be busy outside and no enticement to leave the house unless necessary. And most years there is convention in March to help finish out the year. So I would say, Enjoy the warm house, grab blanket, get everyone curled up on the couch with a good biography or even an encyclopedia and let the learning begin.

• Moe B: We snuggle under blankets to do school work, read more books together and also take a week off in Feb. to just do whatever, sometimes we get a hotel room and go swimming for the weekend or just lay around. It’s a nice break. We also keep a sled in the trunk so when we are out driving by a park with nice hills I let them go sledding sort of spur of the moment.