Home School Tips:
Look After Yourself

One of the most important home school tips I can give you as one of the few 2nd generation homeschooling families is to remember you need to take care of yourself.

The trouble with fears and insecurities is that they niggle away, especially when you're at home with the kids.

We've been looking at ways to overcome your homeschooling fears and learning the techniques which will put you back in control.

So far we've looked at what you can do using the power of thought.

Now we're going to:

Look after our body to look after our mind.

Get Active!

The link between mind and body has long been proven.

And here's one of my biggest home school tips:

Here are a few facts to knock your socks off:

People who are physically active:

1. Have lower rates of illness.
2. Have fewer psychological complaints.
3. Have less difficulty maintaining a healthy body weight.
4. Have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and various kinds of cancer.
5. Are able to live independently for longer in their old age.

A Healthy Lifestyle

I don't mean to be patronizing - I know you know all this already!!!

But there's a big difference between knowing and doing.

Just see how great you feel after a quick nip out on the bike!

The energy you'll have to deal with homeschool problems is amazing; suddenly everything doesn't seem so serious any more!

With young children, you'll be more restricted – because you can't leave them on their own.

I have an exercise bike in the house which I can just jump on for ten minutes.

Even those ten minutes make all the difference.

I'd obviously love to encourage you to start doing anything active.

In fact it's one of the best home school tips I can share to make sure teaching your children is enjoyable for all of you.

And it doesn't matter what you choose, whether it's swimming or a walk in the park.

So I checked out a study to see why we're all so bad at doing something which is obviously so good.

The study jargon said this:

Three Essential Tips To Success

In homeschooling speak, that means we now know what to do to make sure exercise becomes part of your homeschool lifeline.

1

• Make exercise part of your homeschool daily routine.  

Now I know some of us don't suit a daily routine and having one can make things really stressful.

So I'm going to borrow an expression from Katie in our Courageous Homeschooling Facebook group: 

"When your homeschool works best following a natural rhythm rather than a routine, you could plan to fit in some exercise sometime today when it feels right." 

2

• Try it out and see what a difference it makes to how you feel – you'll be desperate to get out and do it again!

3

• Tell your friends whether or not you actually did something!!

So that's today's challenge.

Take Action

I've even found for you a link in the Action Plan to a 37 minute workout you can do at home – and with 7 million views we think we can trust that someone thinks it's a good one!

I have a feeling today's challenge is going to be a tough one.

So I thought I'd give you some encouragement to show it can be done:

What a fantastic idea! Getting encouragement to keep going is a brilliant idea - especially when there's always so much else to do.

Even if you don't start right now, there's one thing you CAN do.

Home School Tips For Action

Take your kids out.

Just getting outside into nature will calm all of you down.

Research proves that exposure to nature reduces children's stress levels by up to 28%.

And if that's what it's doing for the kids, think what it's doing for you!

Action Plan

Here are a few of YouTube links which might help.

1. The first is for pilates – which I have to say I've never tried but lots of friends have.
2. This is for yoga. It's a 20 minute workout and has had over a million views.
3. And this fat burning cardio workout has 7 million views.

I've also got a page on my site for a homeschool activity which gets you all out and teaches geography at the same time!

Geocaching is a wonderful opportunity to get your kids playing a free real life map game where they actually get to find hidden treasure.

And if you struggle with the same problem as us - getting the kids to go on walks - you can use geocaching to get your kids desperate to get into the outdoors!

If you haven't tried it yet, you're in for a treat!

I'm hoping that you'll take the good intentions of this page to encourage you to make time for something which will make such a difference to your homeschool.

The trouble is finding the time!

So I have made you a page with home school tips which will help you create the time and space you need.

Why not have a go this weekend?

Best wishes

Sonya

Later in the course we look at more techniques you can use to help keep things in proportion and stop the worries running away with you.

Courageous Homeschooling Journal

You can get this beautiful Journal to go with the course which gives you:

• The opportunity to work out your goals
• Reassurance and inspiration
• Exercises to help you feel more confident about homeschooling
• A special place to write all the things you value that make homeschooling so worthwhile

It is packed with tips, techniques and your own ideas for making your homeschooling successful.

I absolutely LOVE the idea of you coloring in your own version of the Journal - what a way to bring the Courageous Course to life!

P.S. Homeschool Secrets of Success draws on the work of leading educationalists like John Holt, Ken Robinson, Charlotte Mason and Maria Montessori.

You will find a wealth of practical help so that you can make homeschooling the best and most fulfilling thing you've ever done.

Love this course? Help me spread the word by sharing this page...

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Homeschooling › Courageous E-Course Lesson 10

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