please read - overwhelming feelings regarding school

[moon raver]

i am seriously considering quitting homeschool, because it's just so overwhelming to do classes every day on my own with no help and i have to be motivated and i am just so anxious about not getting all 5 classes done before my family moves to ohio and UGH AGH

[treasure]

where do you study? it might help to change the environment, to make sure you're in a quiet and comfortable space without too many distractions. if you don't already, you might go to a public library to study?

do you have plans for what needs to be done when? break down the tasks into smaller ones and make a timetable and include things like meal breaks, and breaks to walk around a bit.

*breathe* the anxiety makes it hard to sit still and hard to concentrate. you can take some time to relax so that you can study. be nice to yourself, you don't have to be motivated all the time.

if you try and don't finish it, isn't that better than quitting without giving it a go?

[moon raver]

where do you study? it might help to change the environment, to make sure you're in a quiet and comfortable space without too many distractions. if you don't already, you might go to a public library to study?

do you have plans for what needs to be done when? break down the tasks into smaller ones and make a timetable and include things like meal breaks, and breaks to walk around a bit.

*breathe* the anxiety makes it hard to sit still and hard to concentrate. you can take some time to relax so that you can study. be nice to yourself, you don't have to be motivated all the time.

if you try and don't finish it, isn't that better than quitting without giving it a go?

i usually study in my kitchen on the table while listening to either classical or acoustic music (sleep playlists on 8tracks)
my teachers give me checklists, kind of like a syllabus, of what needs to be done when, and i have a schedule, one class per day, since i take 5 classes. i also need to turn in a minimum of 4 assignments per week, so there's another thing to keep me organized. i think it's motivation. i don't think i have much of it, so it's hard to do something i don't want to do without motivation.

[treasure]

my favourite motivation tool is telling myself i'll do 5 mins, or less, on something. it often leads to a longer stretch of motivation, but even if it doesn't, you have at least done it for 5 mins, and you can use the trick on a different task.

another trick is bribing yourself - you'll get a cup of tea once you've sat for half an hr, or you'll watch tv. something that is positive and self-soothing that you might look forward to.

letting other people know your goal for the day or for the next few hours can also help make you accountable and you can get motivation by not wanting to let them down. even being accountable to yoursef helps - writing down what you plan to do.

[Just Pomegranates]

I think Treasure has some really, really great advice.


I completed the first 8 years of my schooling entirely through homeschooling back in Canada. However, the last 5 years of my schooling was done in a proper face-to-face school in Australia after we emigrated, but because we were in a really isolated town (12 hours from the nearest big city) a lot of my last 2 years of university-level-entry classes were done via long distance learning online which is very very close to homeschooling anyway. I also did 4 years of university after that with face-to-face lectures but you still very much need the same skills of being really organized and self-motivated to stay on top of things. So I have had quite a lot of experience with homeschooling and distance learning and can totally understand why you're feeling the way you do.

My biggest pieces of advice is to really stay organized (which it sounds like you are and know what you need to do each week), stay self-motivated (Treasure has great advice here like I said earlier), and if you have questions/starting to struggle you NEED to tell your teachers straight away (as well as just staying in close contact anyway) and let them know what's going on so they can help you/address it right then and get things back on track.

Once you get used to it and get in the groove, it does get a lot easier/less scary, I promise, until it's like second nature and you just know what needs doing and when. Just take it with baby steps and break it down into manageable bits so it doesn't seem so intimidating.

[swirlish]

I just thought of something regarding motivation:

If you have a smartphone, there's an app called Forest. You set a timer for 30 (or more) minutes, hit start and the app starts to plant a tree. If you cancel the app to use your phone for something else (you can set certain exceptions, like alarms etc) - your tree dies. If you stay off the phone, the app will plant a tree (or more, depending on how much time you set) in your forest. This is a really great idea, because you don't want to kill a tree, do you? Even if you don't usually get distracted by your phone, you could use the app to focus your attention on your homework. Sometimes, I've only kept studying because I really don't want to kill a tree!

Try it!