It’s early February.

Every day, I look out of my kitchen window, and I see gray skies, bare trees, icy slush and mud.

Is it the same for you and your family?

You’re also right in the middle of that LONG period of homeschooling during the back end of winter that has NONE of the fun holiday celebrations you got to enjoy during the fall.

This is the toughest time of the teaching year, when cabin fever and burnout can combine to make you doubt yourself and your decisions.

How do you deal with the constant fear of getting it wrong?

Keep reading to for a few practices I developed over the years that have helped me a lot with this problem.

Gather evidence that you’re getting it right. Be diligent about this.

Create a success journal or spreadsheet that you add to regularly, while all of the cool things that have happened in your homeschool are still fresh in your mind. Do this for a few minutes every day, or at the very least, every week.

In addition to the journal, or entirely on its own, keep a folder or portfolio of your kids’ work that demonstrates their accomplishments in your homeschool. Whenever they do well on an assignment, test, or project, throw it in that folder. I still have mine. It’s several inches thick, and I continue to enjoy going through it from time to time, like a scrapbook.

It’s a short time commitment, and when you go back and go through them -- with or without your kids -- you’ll feel so much better!

Try not be so hard on yourself.

As human beings, as loving parents who fret constantly about our kids that we dearly love, our tendency is to focus on what’s going wrong much more than on what’s going right.

This is particularly true for perfectionists and folks whose tendency is to be hard on themselves.

Not every curriculum or academic subject area is going to go well. It’s just not. It’s unrealistic to expect perfection at every turn. There’s going to be struggle with certain subjects, and it’s going to take hard work to sort out a solution.

This issue exists in every educational setting.

The key is to be flexible and open to new ideas and approaches. What you assume will work and what actually works are often two different things.

Pay attention to your kids. Observe how they respond to different materials and approaches Talk to them about what they like, what they don’t like, and most importantly, why. Their learning style will emerge over time.

As you get to know how your kids learn best, the academic roadblocks you hit will become less frequent and easier to overcome.

Remember these two things:

First, you’ve got a lot of room for trial and error when your kids are young. Academics are short and simple, and young kids are very forgiving. When you mess up or lose your cool, young kids will have forgotten about it by the next day.

Second, there’s no deadline for learning a new skill or new content. Obviously, you mustn’t procrastinate or ignore the work you need to do. But you do have the space and time -- years -- to get your kids where they need to be.

Be diligent about your daily mindset and attitude.

The attitude and energy you bring to your homeschool impacts your kids immensely. Never underestimate your influence!

You’ve got to start every day with the right mindset. If you’re too hard on yourself, you’ll come to the homeschooling day fearing failure, and that will rub off on your kids.

Your goal is to instill a love of learning in your kids. That means you need to have that excitement in yourself.

Experiencing the world anew through your kids is the best thing ever! That’s what you get to do as you guide them through their education.

Do what you need to do every morning to find the positive creative energy you need to bring to your homeschooling day. Is it a morning prayer or meditation? A quiet cup of coffee? Some morning exercise?

Get support from your homeschooling community.

See what other people are doing to get some perspective on your successes and failures. Get advice on cool projects or teaching strategies that work for other homeschooling parents. Don’t be shy about asking for help and advice.

Sure, a lot of what you’re told will be repetitive, and you’ll probably discard a lot of the advice you get because it doesn’t work for your family.

However, sometimes you’ll get a fantastic lead on a curriculum that’s fabulous for your kids, or someone with a lot of knowledge and experience will give you the best homeschooling ideas ever.

It’s tough when you’re completely on your own and don’t have any senior, experienced people to mentor you. The first few years that I worked in a public school, I was highly dependent on certain teachers senior to me. They mentored me and helped me find my teaching style. They were important sounding boards and offered a shoulder to cry on.

Try to find experienced people in your homeschooling community that you can trust.

Throw some fun stuff into your homeschooling week!

Get your mind off the fear of failure by having some fun! Add educational activities that you enjoy as much as your kids do.

Games that reinforce learnings (i.e. Jeopardy) or hands on projects (i.e. making a shadowbox with a writing and critical thinking component) are easy ways to throw some fun into your homeschooling week.

A Checklist for You

So take a deep breath. Look over your homeschooling plans for the day or for the week.

• Is there something in your homeschooling plans for the week that that you’re looking forward to teaching? Something fun and educational for all of you? Something that excites you?

• Do you know what evidence your kids are going to give you that they’ve reached the learning goal? An essay, a read aloud? A short math quiz successfully completed?

• Are you collecting evidence of or writing down notes on your homeschooling successes?

• Have you set aside some time for yourself every morning to mentally prepare for a positive day ahead?

You’ve got to find enjoyment with homeschooling, even during these dreary winter months. Get your mindset where it needs to be, and take the time to take care of yourself and appreciate all that you’ve achieved.

Lily Iatridis is the founder of Writing Rockstars, an online writing program that prepares teens for college level writing.