It's Never All or Nothing with Homeschooling

EP206: Juggling homeschooling lessons during busy seasons can feel overwhelming and discouraging. But what if you could shift your mindset to help you navigate? Because the truth is ~ it’s never all or nothing!

Join Jean on the podcast as she uncovers how to transform fears, anxiety, and self-doubt into self-assurance with personal anecdotes from her homeschooling journey and simple, doable ideas.

When anxiety and overwhelm surface in homeschooling, mini-blocks can offer an easy way to create structure and build connection with your kiddos. Just showing up and getting started will help you build momentum and confidence.

Because perfection is not the goal ~ connection and creativity are really the keys to a fulfilling homeschool experience.

Find the Show Notes here  https://artofhomeschooling.com/episode206/

Join the Inspired at Home Community

Chapters

• 0:40 "Fear is the cheapest room in the house" ~ Hafix
• 1:52 Homeschooling uncertainty, overwhelm, and anxiety ~ My story
• 5:11 It's never all or nothing!
• 5:49 Mini blocks ~ a simple way to move forward
• 7:26 Build a mini block around one book
• 8:36 More ideas for simple, doable lessons
• 10:14 The psychology behind negative feelings
• 11:57 Two ways to get homeschooling help

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

You're listening to the Art of Homeschooling podcast, where we help parents cultivate creativity and connection at home. I'm your host, jean Miller, and here on this podcast you'll find stories and inspiration to bring you the confidence you need to make homeschooling work for your family. Let's begin. Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions. That's a quote from the Persian poet Hafiz and a great starting point for this episode. So welcome to the Art of Homeschooling podcast. If you're in need of some strategies for how to face your homeschooling fears, stay tuned, because Because today I'm talking about the top antidote to homeschooling fears, and that's the mantra it's never all or nothing. I'm recording this episode as we're going into the holiday season, which, for a lot of us, seems to run from Halloween through New Year's. It's a lot to juggle along with homeschooling lessons and then after the holidays, it's sometimes hard to get our momentum back. I'm sharing this episode with you to help you prepare yourself, wherever you are in the homeschooling year, so that you can feel ready, prepared and enthused for lessons, no matter what else is going on. I get a lot of emails from homeschooling parents before and after the holidays saying things like they aren't sure what to do or they're overwhelmed with everything that's going on. How are they going to celebrate and do lessons at the same time? When the fears rear their ugly heads, we start to feel unsure, a lack of enthusiasm, discouraged and even sometimes a sense of panic. Perhaps you can relate. One year I remember spending the entire month of January berating myself for all that I was not doing with my kiddos. I wasn't doing the block I had planned to do back in the summer because I didn't feel prepared, so I just wasn't doing much of anything at all. By February I felt like a total failure as a homeschooler and was sure that my two boys would be ruined for life and it was all my fault. They'd be better off in school. So I scheduled an appointment to go visit our neighborhood elementary school. When I arrived I sat in a combined classroom I think it was a first and second grade and they were all watching an educational film about the harvest and food production in other countries. I don't remember much about the film and I doubt that the kids did either, because one of the teachers kept yelling at one of the boys for being disruptive, making the disruption even more prominent, being disruptive, making the disruption even more prominent. Then I took a tour of the building and peeked in on an art class using air quotes there, in which the children were given coloring sheets and crayons to color within the lines. I learned that they had this art class once a week for 30 minutes. As I was leaving, the children were heading out for a short recess of 10 minutes. Yes, they got 10 minutes of recess in the morning and 20 minutes after lunch. As I walked home, I remember thinking okay, so if we watch one film without interruption, color more than one coloring sheet a week and go outside for 30 minutes or more a day, I'll be doing better than the public school. I can do that. I thought.

Speaker 1: 4:26

Homeschooling fears. I know we all want more than just to do a little bit better than the public schools. We want this beautiful, idyllic, artistic, waldorf-inspired method to come alive in our homes. We also want to be the ideal teacher and parent, while having everything unfold with ease and calm. And when it doesn't, we feel scared. We feel burdened by this heavy sense of letting everyone down, including ourselves. And then the fear sets in. What, if I'm not cut out for this? Was choosing to homeschool a big mistake. Maybe I'll never be able to get my children to make a main lesson book or do circle time or participate willingly in anything I plan. Just stop, I say Stop going down that fear tunnel and entertain this thought instead. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

Speaker 1: 5:25

If you don't feel quite ready with your own block lesson plans, your energy is low or you haven't prepared to teach from a curriculum you're working with, then find a less intimidating way to move forward. Find a way any small way to move a few steps forward rather than staying frozen in your fear. You might try planning a mini block. Mini blocks can be just one week or maybe two. Start by choosing a topic that feels doable to you and that you think will spark interest in your kiddos. Maybe cat stories, trains, knights and castles, famous inventions, an imaginary trip to the seashore or the arctic, spiders or hibernation.

Speaker 1: 6:18

Collect a handful of books from your local public library. Here's a little hint Use your library's online catalog to search for books from home, place a request for the books and when your pile of books is ready, you head to the library. They'll let you know and you can just pop in and pick them up. It's like an early birthday present. Then you can plan to read aloud one story or chapter of a longer book each day. Follow your reading time with a page of math practice, handwriting practice, drawing a picture from the stories, modeling with clay or playing a game.

Speaker 1: 6:56

Observe your children, what they're inspired by and where their confidence lies, and also look for what's challenging them and what their learning needs might be. Right now, the goal is just to provide a little bit of structure and time to connect with your kiddos so you can gain some momentum and confidence to build your lessons. Besides mini blocks, you might also like to try structuring a week or so of lessons around one book. Perhaps choose the Tiptoes Lightly storybooks, for example. These sweet little books follow the seasons and are perfect for young children. For older children, our book hearth guides might give you just the boost you need to let go of fear and show up every day for your kiddos. Bookhearth guides offer you a flexible plan with lots of learning experience ideas and save you time as you explore beautiful stories. You can check out our shop at shopartofhomeschoolingcom to learn more.

Speaker 1: 8:13

Each BookHearth guide gives you creative teaching ideas for a two to five week block based on one wonderful book. As of this recording, we have guides for six different books, like the Heartwood Hotel, echo Mountain and the Witch of Blackbird Pond, so go have a look if that interests you. And here are just a few more ideas to show you that there are so many possibilities. The trick is to pick one that sounds fun and doable to you. Here's some ideas for you Plan a festival or celebration, like a lantern festival or winter solstice, and build in time each week to prepare for the festival. Build a week of lessons around a trip to a museum. Create a puppet show from a story you're reading. Set up a tent in your backyard or even your living room and read nature stories in the tent every day. Use themes from your stories to paint a series of paintings this week. You get the idea.

Speaker 1: 9:21

The most important thing is to show up and get your energy and creativity flowing again, because as long as we can figure out how to face our homeschooling fears, we'll keep the learning alive. Believe me, you're not the only one dragging this fall as I'm recording this episode. There is so much going on in the world, from natural disasters to contentious elections, so just know that you're not alone and your feelings are perfectly normal. Here's an important truth If you make peace with your fear, you take away its power. One of my favorite mantras is feel the fear and do it anyway. Or in the words of the late Carrie Fisher stay afraid, but do it anyway. Want to know the psychology behind negative feelings that build up? I'll add a link in the show notes to an interesting article in Psychology Today magazine why we Can't Just Get Rid of Anxiety and Distress. This article describes how our brains are wired for survival, not happiness, and the solution is to make peace with our fears.

Speaker 1: 10:44

I'll leave you with one of my favorite poems. You might want to print out a copy and put it in your planner so that you can read it often. I had this in my planner for years and I read it like every single day. This can help you face your homeschooling fears and anxiety and remind you that it's never all or nothing. This poem is where the quote at the beginning of the episode comes from.

Speaker 1: 11:12

Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions, for your mother and my mother were friends. I know the innkeeper in this part of the universe. Get some rest tonight, come to my verse again. Tomorrow We'll go speak to the friend together. I should not make any promises right now, but I know if you pray somewhere in this world, something good will happen. Hafiz, here's what I want you to know right now. Take a deep breath and ask yourself this question How's it going at your house?

Speaker 1: 11:57

If you want encouragement and guidance on your homeschooling journey to help you get back to lively lessons and face your homeschooling fears, here are a few ways I can help you. The first is to come join the Inspired at Home community, where we have group coaching calls every month with heart-centered homeschoolers just like you 90 minutes for reflection, questions, conversation, planning and connection. We have over 35 masterclasses on homeschooling, the grades, core subjects, setting up your space and taking care of yourself, learning that's bite-sized, and a warm and welcoming community where you can ask questions. And a warm and welcoming community where you can ask questions, share ideas and get the support and encouragement you need. The second way is to schedule a one-on-one mentor session with me. I can help you break free from those fears and make a plan to design a simple, inspiring and doable homeschool for your family. Check out the show notes to links to those resources at artofhomeschoolingcom.

Speaker 1: 13:02

Slash episode 206. And please remember this fear is the cheapest room in the house and I would like to see you living in better conditions. Thanks for joining me today and I'll see you next time. That's all for today, my friend, but here's what I want you to remember Rather than perfection, let's focus on connection. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you on the next episode of the Art of Homeschooling podcast.