This blog post was originally guest written for Jacqueline’s blog Deeper Roots at Home. You can find it here! Jacqueline also added an abundance of resources and links from homeschooling guidance to natural ways to keep a strong immune system at the end of the post!
Homeschooling?
Does this mean we all have to wear jumpers now? ;)
I remember when we began homeschooling many years ago and I had so many fears, many unnamed, but some very obvious concerns.
Would our children be socially awkward and societal rejects?
Ha! My motto through the years has become, “Don’t be weird and it won’t be weird.” 😂
Could I possibly teach them all that they would need to know?
Ummmm, no. No one can teach their children everything they need to know. I don’t even think that’s really in the job description. Some things our children need to chase down for themselves.
Teach them to think.
Teach them to problem-solve.
Teach them to not always need a taskmaster but instead to become their own.
Will these people be able to write their own names and read books? 😂
I laugh about it now, but I kid you not, at one time early on these were valid concerns to me.
Oh, friends, I have learned so many things about my children and myself on this path coined “homeschooling”.
Hear me in this…
Your children are designed to learn.
They are prewired, inquisitive sponges.
They WILL learn.
You can’t stop them from learning.
Our job is to expose them to the right things to learn.
I remember two young people sitting at my kitchen table many years ago, both with tears in their eyes. One was me and the other my oldest child who was five years old at the time. “I will never learn to read,” he cried. “He’s right,” I thought. “If he’s counting on me he is never going to learn to read.”
You see, that’s what fear of the unknown does.
Fear makes you doubt your own judgment and everything around you.
Fear is a liar.
That is a fact.
Fear does not equip you to tackle the task at hand.
Fear whispers all the worst cases, probably never going to happen scenarios right into your ears until it consumes your thought life.
Evict it.
Immediately.
Do not rent out space in your mind and heart to it, not for the Coronavirus, the economy, the homeschooling factor, or anything else.
You were not designed to live in fear.
My humble advice:
Be careful about how much media and mayhem you consume.
You see every person, entity, or media platform in existence that shares information with you has their own views and presents that information through a particular lens.
This includes me as well.
I view the world through the lens of a Bible-believing Christian.
I am unapologetically Christian.
I believe it to my core and I attempt to live that belief system.
We all have a lens through which we evaluate and make judgment calls.
We all believe in something already.
At the end of the day, when it’s just you and you, when you are still with your own thoughts, when you boil it down to the bones….
You have a belief system.
Figure out what it is and live it.
That is step one in dealing with all situations including the one we find ourselves in now.
This newest virus, and the unprecedented publicity surrounding it, has us all in a pioneering kind of place.
People who have never had any inclination to homeschool are now without option as schools are closing nationwide and we are faced with the fact that our children will be at home for the foreseeable future.
As a seasoned homeschooler who has been there and done that (that crying child graduated last year!) this seems like a beautiful opportunity to spread some calm and reassurance in these very uncertain times.
Friends, there is a new-to-us virus out there, and it is contagious, and we don’t know as much about it as we’d like to.
Those facts are undisputed.
However, what I challenge myself (and you) to dispute is the mass hysteria, panicking and fear that is being consumed faster than the toilet paper.
Yes, we are living in uncertain times.
We already were long before Covid-19.
Yes, there is an opportunity, and in my opinion, a very real possibility, that we have been, are being or will be exposed to this virus at some point.
It’s out there and we don’t even know how long it has been for sure.
My aim is not to influence your opinion on what this virus is, how quickly it will spread or how it should be handled at a government and/or social level.
So many of those things are not within our power to control.
However, there is a silver lining here!
There are so many other things that we do have a say-so in.
Do not forfeit your say-so.
We don’t get to choose what comes at us but we do get to choose our response to it.
If you find your children's’ schools on hiatus until who knows when and your inner freak out alarm is ringing….just go ahead and hit the kill switch on that. ;)
I’m about to share some earth-shattering news with you.
You were already homeschooling.
If you are a parent, if you have children living in your home, YOU are a homeschooler!
Welcome to the weird-side ;).
Stay with me here…
Who taught your children to eat, sleep, talk, pray, tie their shoes?
You did.
You are the parent, the example.
You are, have always been, and for a good part of the future, you will be their primary teacher.
Academics are important...obviously.
This is why we paid for 4 years of Latin for our oldest child, but academics are not the begin all and end all of raising children.
There is an opportunity here amongst the unknown.
You have the beautiful opportunity to create calm in this storm.
You are teaching your children how to handle what life throws at them.
You are teaching your children how to process, think and react when uncertainty comes their way, and it will again and again.
You are teaching them so much more than ABC’s, multiplication facts and even the periodic table.
All of those things, while they have their place, are secondary to the human being you are developing within your own 4 walls.
Opportunity, Friends.
Your children will be home whether it is convenient or not.
The circumstance is out of our control, the response is well within it.
Use this time wisely.
Imagine you just received a bonus check and you want to allocate each dollar where it will do the most and lasting good.
You have received a bonus.
You have been gifted some unexpected time with your children and you get to decide what to do with it.
Let's all use this time to reconnect, to communicate, to get to know each other better and at a new level.
Ask your children questions and listen to them. I have learned so many things about what is going on in the minds of my children just by asking and listening. You will find out who they are if you take the time to look in their eyes and have an open heart to hear and see the world through their young eyes.
Eat more meals together…around the table…everyone at the same time.
Learn something new together.
Watch what they watch.
Listen to what they listen to (when you can of course). This gives you common ground, something to chat about and it ties another string that bonds.
Take this time to not just live together but to really LIVE together in a new way.
Play some board games. Seriously. It’s character building for everyone. 😂
Be resilient, kids are.
Do not leave the bonus check of time with your children, the ones you love best and the reason you work for it all, lying on the table uncashed.
I do not underestimate the difficulties that this situation poses to many families.
The difficulties are here, they beg attention and must be dealt with.
I could give you a million ideas about academic things and how to create a "school" at home.
That is not where my heart lies.
Do what works for your family.
Google some ideas on how to create structure to stay on task.
Many companies are graciously offering free subscriptions to a plethora of educational websites right now without cost to you.
If you find you have some extra time that you would like to supplement some educational resources this is a list I have found helpful.
Most importantly:
Don't forget to keep the main things as the main things.
Perspective is a beautiful thing, friends.
Cheers to a new opportunity and happy homeschooling!
<3 Susan