This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Help for Overwhelmed Homeschool Moms with Whitney Whitten.

Help for Overwhelmed Homeschool Moms with Whitney Whitten

We have all been there at some point: feeling overwhelmed. That’s why Vicki was so excited to talk to a read homeschool mom who really has some real advice for helping with the overwhelm!

Whitney is a homeschool mom and life coach at Sensational Moms who works with homeschool moms. Vicki met Whitney Whitten at a workshop together with a mutual friend (and a 7Sisters Cousin) Teresa Wiedrick from the Homeschool Mama Support Facebook group.

Whitney’s story

Whitney calls herself one of those “accidental homeschoolers”. She did not know that I valued homeschooling until she had four kids that were five and under. She looked at reality of their family schedule would be if we went to traditional school.

Also, Whitney served as pediatric occupational therapist, so she worked with kids. She knew just the value of having time to play and learn through life. She thought to herself, “Well, how are we going to be able to do that if we’re in two different carpool lines?”

So she started off homeschooling when her oldest was in kindergarten.

Now, six years later, those core values of wanting to have the time together as a family and be able to explore stay the same. Also, Whitney found that as her kids grow, the family has time to invest in their individual interests, as well as develop those real life skills together.

Homeschooling moms who are overwhelmed with Sensational Moms

The homeschooling families that Whitney coaches are not so much the “how do we choose curriculum?” families. Rather, these are homeschooling moms who are experiencing on real-life things like feeling “overwhelmed, overstimulated, too much stuff”.

The refrigerator story

You will love Whitney’s refrigerator story:

“We went to a couple of states, stayed in three different hotels over the course of six days. This, as you know, with a family of six can be a lot in itself…A good thing, but a lot!

So, we were glad to get home.

We get home, open the door to the refrigerator… and something smelled funny. But you know, maybe just leftovers?

So, well, it wasn’t leftovers! Our whole refrigerator had spoiled!

This created an “off week”. But, as you know, returning from a trip is always a bit of an off week. A broken refrigerator made it more so! 

So, we ordered a new refrigerator but it was broken! So they replaced it.

And you know, here we were. After five days of being back, trying to get into a routine of homeschooling. It had just been one constant inter interruption after another. Not to mention, the dentist appointments besides all the refrigerator chaos.

I knew that we could all homeschool fairly easily if we had a nice, little, tidy window of time that would never be interrupted or bombarded! But that’s just not how life is.”

Whitney realized that she, like many homeschool moms moms spend so much of our time like a ping pong ball. It can be a lot. It can be overwhelming and depending on the way that your particular nervous system is set up, we can hit overstimulated really easily.

We can find ourselves, realistically asking ourselves:

“How do we hold things together when most of our weeks aren’t going to be uninterrupted weeks?”

So, Whitney decided to help herself AND her homeschool mom community! That’s how Sensational Moms happened.

Whitney is like many homeschool moms, all her children are different and have different interests and needs. (Some are neurodivergent.) She also has  refrigerators and everything else going on in life. At the same time, she and her family love homeschooling, even when she is ping ponging back and forth.

“That’s the way us moms do is we’re doing this and then we’re doing that- whether with our kids or in our heads, trying to keep track of everything!”

So, Whitney has worked in her homeschool life and with her coachees to calm the overwhelm, settle down the overstimulation, and get a handle on the “too much stuff”.

Whitney’s advice to overwhelmed homeschool moms

When we homeschooling are feeling overstimulated and overwhelmed here are some tips.

Listening to what’s going on in our bodies and our minds before we get to a boiling point

Stress starts with a soft simmer. Then the little bubbles before the rolling boil and then the lid blows. Busy moms can be so quick to ignore their own body signals.

So intentionally take some time to really learn your body’s cues. Sometimes we have to work hard to describe what’s going on inside us. It can help to ask yourself, “What words would I describe that feeling to my children?”

Try deep pressure and muscle engagement

These are two places that are really helpful to start calming your body. Here are a couple of examples:

• Wall pushups
• Climbing up and down stairs
• Push your hands together and then pull them apart
• Squats

What will that do for our bodies? These movements tap into a sense called proprioception. That is a sense that is lets you know what is going on in your muscles, joints, and your fascia in your body. It helps you feel that you can “be in your own body” and feel safer.

Take deep breaths

Oxygen is important for calming down. Try taking a few deep breaths. While it’s not a magic pill, it helps lower the stress hormones in your body.

Change location for a few minutes

Sometimes homeschooling can cause a lot of clutter. You will feel better when it gets tidied up. However, in the middle of a busy homeschool day, there is no way to get everything done. So, sometimes you need to go to another room for a few minutes or take the kids outside. These things help calm the body.

Live in the moment

Try not to waste time worry about the future unnecessarily. Instead, try to live in the moment with your family. Try make those moments better moments.

Get support

Just like with any parent anywhere, you will sometimes need a little support. When you contact Whitney, she will listen and help you with:

• Make and practice a plan for adapting to overwhelm, overstimulation, or too-much-stuff.
  • Put reminders for how to calm and care for yourself during stressful times (maybe sticky notes on the bathroom door).
• Moments happen! Model self-regulation (calming down) for yourself and your kids.
  • This helps them learn self-regulations by watching you!
• Repair relationships when things go wrong. Life happens and sometimes things fall apart.
  • If you have a tough moment, apologize to your kid!
• Have another adult, friend, or coach to process with.
  • We all need someone to talk to, who listens, and cares.
• Remember: Homeschool life is rarely like an adorable Norman Rockwell painting. But it is a good life!

How to get in touch with Whitney Whitten

• Check out her website: Sensational Moms
• Listen to her Sensational Moms podcast

Join Vicki and Whitney Whitten for helpful tips for dealing with overwhelm while homeschooling!

Thank you to Seth Tillman for editing!

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO HSHSP VIA COMPUTER Follow this link to our Apple Podcasts page. OR take this IMPORTANT STEP: Under our Homeschool Highschool Podcast logo, click on View in “…your favorite podcast source” This will take you to Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast source and our own podcast page. Click SUBSCRIBE. Click RATINGS AND REVIEW. (Please take a minute and do this. It helps others find us. Thanks!) Thanks! PLEASE SUBSCRIBE VIA iPHONE Tap the purple Podcast icon on your phone Tap the search icon on the bottom-right of your screen In the search bar type: Homeschool Highschool Podcast Tap the Homeschool Highschool Podcast icon Tap *Subscribe* Please tap *Ratings and Review*