We're both frustrated and I want to give up

Homeschooling is sometimes tough. Once your child starts fighting and resisting learning it may seem like you're out of options. Maybe you're burnt out and get agitated quickly at this point. It started out so well, what now?

Don't give up, but do take a break! Even when your child is engaged you can still burn out. Your child can also burn out and resist learning because it's too much. Take a break that's at least a week long and up to a few months. You would be surprised how much of a difference it makes if you take time to unload the stress and get better connected on a personal level again.

Pushing to learn stops the child from loving learning, and that's what it's all really about. You want your child to be curious and follow their own rabbit hole of learning new things. When you're feeling like you're pushing it and they're not following, take a step back and reevaluate. Do you need a break? Do you need to focus on something else? Maybe the child isn't ready for this topic yet? Some kids learn to read at age 8 naturally, that's okay. Take time to figure all of this out.

You don't just have to sit around though. Take walks in the park, check out museums and listen to music. play learning games like "Blah Blah Blah" and "The Fidget Game". Gameschooling is an actual term that refers to playing board games, spelling games and online games to learn English, history, math and other subjects. Also make sure to let them help you around the house.

Once you're ready to start learning again, ease into it. Do just an hour of learning and rest of the time is for play. In time adjust the times according to what works. Figure out what their current interests are and figure out how to blend school material into that. Homeschooling is all about flexibility, so don't feel like you have to stick to your curriculum. If you've been doing online materials a lot so far, try out hands-on stuff. There are curriculums where you print out stuff to work with and more expensive curriculums where you'll get materials delivered.

But first things first - take a break! Appreciate how far you've already come and connect with your child - get out of the house!

A core skill that may hamper learning other subjects is reading. Make sure you've covered medical reasons why they may have problems, then check out tips on getting your child hooked on reading.