Homeschooling Through Life's Curveballs

EP219: Life has a way of throwing unexpected curveballs our way, and homeschooling adds unique layers to these challenges. Have you ever found yourself wondering how to keep your educational journey on track amidst the chaos of life's unpredictable events? 

Join Jean Miller as she shares personal insights from her own family's experience homeschooling through challenges and finding resilience amidst the chaos.

 This episode of the Art of Homeschooling Podcast is a heartfelt guide to transforming these difficult times into opportunities for growth and connection, with encouraging tips and three specific strategies for staying grounded and resilient on your homeschooling journey.

Find the Show Notes here  https://artofhomeschooling.com/episode219/

Join the Inspired at Home Community

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. Have you ever had anything throw off your homeschooling plans, like life challenges or extended illness or added stress of some kind? Stay tuned, because today we're talking all about homeschooling through life's curveballs. In this episode, I want to offer you three strategies for how to plan for homeschooling when life throws you curveballs, when challenges and uncertainty are cast your way. Maybe you're going through something difficult right now, or have recently, or you're feeling deeply affected by all that's going on in the world. This episode is for you, my friend. I've been there and I know how hard it can be when life throws us a curve ball. I'm sending you hugs through the airwaves. Plus, I have a few homeschooling strategies that can help, even though our kiddos are all grown. My husband and I have been living through his cancer diagnosis and surgery over the past three months, and this experience has reminded me of other struggles we've had as a family through the years, many of them while homeschooling three kiddos. Here are some examples of curve balls, big and small, when life seems to suddenly veer off course with unexpected events or news. Here's a little list Extended illness in the family, chronic illness of a parent or child, difficult news, personal or global, a pandemic, difficult pregnancies, a birth or death in the family, having your period, death or illness of a pet, challenging political climate or event, plumbing issues, home repairs or house renovations, a partner who's out of town, natural disasters like an earthquake, who's out of town, natural disasters like an earthquake, wildfire, flood, hurricane or tornado, single parenting, in-laws or family visiting for an extended period of time, a house fire, even serving on jury duty. There are so many ways that life can surprise us. As they say, life keeps lifing and when it does, homeschooling can get derailed.

Speaker 1: 3:11

During our family's homeschooling years, we lived through many of these challenges. There were even times when extended family or friends suggested we give up on homeschooling and put the kids in school. While we did that one year for just a few months, what we generally found was that homeschooling was actually an anchor during these tough times, and I came to recognize that these curveballs were actually a part of the homeschooling journey rather than the exception, not that they were happening all the time, but that I wanted to recognize they might happen again. Here's what I wish I'd known beforehand.

Speaker 1: 3:55

Challenging times offer so many opportunities for growth and learning. Homeschooling is an adventure, and adventures involve conflict, trials and unexpected discoveries. One of my mantras that I often share with members of the Inspired at Home community and with my one-on-one clients is this scale back until it works and then add from there. This can apply at the beginning of a homeschooling year, the beginning of a homeschooling season, when you start back up after a holiday and when you have some kind of challenging situation or curveball thrown your way situation or curveball thrown your way. So when life throws us a curveball, we can make a simple plan to keep our homeschool rolling along and focus on family. It's also really important to take good care of ourselves, to give ourselves the space and grace to handle whatever's going on, while also being there for our children. Before we get to the three strategies I have for you today, I want to share my top tip and what I learned from facing challenging experiences Create a strategy in advance, that's it. Have a contingency plan, kind of like a lesson plan, like a loose lesson plan that a classroom teacher might leave for the substitute. Make decisions in advance, though, because we're not so good at making decisions on the spot when we're not at our best. Okay now, I just thought of a second tip. Okay, now, I just thought of a second tip. Be sure to get the support you need and deserve, because when challenges arise, we can't just keep showing up for everyone else without attending to our own emotional landscape. All right, those are my two tips, and now here are the three strategies that can help you keep homeschooling through life's curve balls, whether it's for a day or two weeks or even months.

Speaker 1: 6:06

Here we go have a backup learning activity for any time life throws you a curve ball, so you can stay loosely consistent with learning time. It could look like this, it could be as simple as this A favorite family game, a wonderful family read aloud that you can pull off the shelf. I have some book lists on the website, and the most recent one is called Cozy Winter Read Alouds, and I'll put a link to that in the show notes. A skills practice activity that's short and simple, and maybe your substitute quote unquote lesson plan includes three things music, a poem and a learning activity, and, as I said, that learning activity can be a favorite family game or a wonderful read aloud Bonus if your learning activity is related to whatever main lesson block you're in or had planned, and you add in a little skills practice afterwards. So that is so simple. Have a backup learning activity or really a backup learning rhythm, all right.

Speaker 1: 7:09

The second strategy is follow the 2020 rule, which is 20 minutes of reading loud, 20 minutes of playing outside and 20 minutes of reading loud, 20 minutes of playing outside and 20 minutes of doing some math practice. You can check out episode 208 here on the podcast to learn more. It's called your Permission Slip for Simple and includes a more in-depth description of the 20-20-20 rule. And the third strategy is create a simple list called what to do when all seems lost and post it somewhere you can see when you need it. For years, I kept a list like this on the inside of my kitchen cabinet where we keep our teas and our tea cups, and had really simple things on it like phone a friend or make a cup of tea. Want to see what's on my list? Check out this post when All Seems Lost in Homeschooling, and I'll be sure to put a link to that in the show notes as well.

Speaker 1: 8:05

So here's the thing Curveballs shouldn't take us by surprise. They will happen Instead of being something unexpected that throws us off. What if we expect them and plan for them instead? We can never know exactly what form a curveball is going to arrive in, but we can plan in advance for what we'll do when things get a little off track or a lot off track. Do when things get a little off track or a lot off track, when you can't do what you'd planned, what you thought you'd be able to do.

Speaker 1: 8:50

I want you to ask yourself this question what's the next best thing I could do today? If you think this through in advance and choose one or even all three of the strategies I suggest here in this podcast episode, you'll be ready with a plan. That's all it takes. Whether you have a few backup activities at the ready, use the 20-20-20 rule or check your list of what to do when all seems lost, you'll be able to stay strong as a homeschooling family and embrace this time of life schooling. What to do when all seems lost. You'll be able to stay strong as a homeschooling family and embrace this time of life schooling.

Speaker 1: 9:22

I know from experience that homeschooling can provide both flexibility and stability during tough times. So I encourage you to think this through and embrace your challenges with creativity and imagination. This is the beauty of homeschooling through life's curveballs. What's throwing you off the most right now, and which of these three strategies will you try? Thanks so much for tuning in today. You'll find the show notes for this episode at artofhomeschoolingcom, slash episode 219. Catch you next week. 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.