taking the overwhelm out of home education
A LITTLE NOTE OF ENCOURAGEMENT FROM A HOMESCHOOL MOM OF 21 YEARS , DINAH THOMAS .
Welcome to my new homeschooling friends ! I know there are many of you that could never have imagined you would end up here . For many of you it had never crossed your mind . For others , you thought it could be a worthy endeavor , but thought you did not have the skills , desire , or capacity . Some of you had a secret desire but circumstances never seemed to be right . But then it all changed .
In May of 2020 we graduated our last of four homeschool students after 21 years and living in 12 places . And we ' re all still alive and thriving !. So whether you may be on the first or last mile of this marathon , I want to encourage you that the run is more than worth it .
I have been thinking about you brave new homeschooling mama ' s this week . For years I have equated the beginning of homeschooling to how families grow .
Some grow by birth , other ' s by adoption . Most start with one , yet others start with multiples . I have always been grateful that I started homeschooling with one darling five-year-old . She was also a child not super happy about it once she realized it was going to be hard work and not all making puppy dogs out of toilet paper rolls .
I added my students over time but I also have seen women successfully bring an entire crew home from local public schools , or what we referred to as " school in the building ". We had to give public school a name when our people first called it " real school ". We are , I convincingly explained , real school .
But it ’ s undoubtedly harder to start with several students often covering multiple grades ,, just like it ' s hard to adopt three elementary kids at the same time . My hat ' s off to you and many of you jumped into the deep end . I wanted to share a few thoughts with you and will hopefully encourage your hearts as you continue this new endeavor .
1 ) YOU ' VE GOT THIS ! Truly , no matter how you feel , you can do this . I can ' t tell you over the years how many times I ' ve heard people say to me , " I could never do what you do ." Depending on how well I know the person , depends on my answer . OF COURSE YOU CAN DO THIS !! You and possibly your spouse if you are married , love your children more than anyone in the world . You are teaching them they can do anything they put their minds to , and you can too !!
2 ) Do not feel that you have to recreate their classroom . I have seen so many new mama ’ s start there , but few of them stay there . Let them enjoy and thrive in a different time of learning . Be flexible . As long as they are productive , let them sprawl out on their beds if it is age appropriate , find a corner they make for themselves , spread a