- What will the homeschool mom need
in the school days ahead?
Here are some thoughts.
(gentle music)
Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason Podcast.
I'm Sonya Shafer.
This time of year, it seems like no matter which store
you go into,
there are lists and lists of back to school supplies.
These are the things the students will need
to get into the school days ahead.
But what about the homeschool mama?
What will she need for the school days ahead?
We're going to talk about that today
and here to join me is my friend and coworker, Laura Pitney.
Laura, I'm so glad you could be with us again.
- I'm glad to be here.
- It seems like a long time since we were able to do this.
Let's talk about what are the essentials
for a homeschool mom,
whether she's going back to school...
Some people school year round,
some people start a new school year every fall,
or whenever it is.
But as you look at the school year ahead,
what are some essentials
that a homeschool mama needs to be ready
and take with her?
- Coffee, lots of coffee. (both laughing)
I'm just kidding. Maybe a little bit.
That's the first thing that came to my mind was coffee.
Well, when we were talking about this topic,
I just feel like it's such a good topic
because so many times when we think about homeschooling,
it is all about our preparation
to how to best teach our children,
which is what it should be.
But as I started reflecting
on maybe some of my strengths and weaknesses,
an essential that came to my mind was
what is my heart's condition.
And so to answer part of that question
would be to take some time and analyze that.
What is the direction of my heart?
What motivates me to give my children the best of me.
And so that's going to be different
for every situation and every mom,
but to take that time and truly reflect
on what my motivation is,
what gives me that excitement
to love all my kids
and educate them and to create this atmosphere in our home.
And I think that's a different point
that you were mentioning about how when we go to a store,
there's these lists of supplies,
but when it overflows into a homeschool situation,
the supplies are there and the materials are there,
but it's also the atmosphere and the planning.
There's a whole different layer of dynamic there.
- It's easy for us to focus on the supplies
and the lesson plans,
the tangible things you can see
and do I have my ducks in a row.
- [Laura] Yeah.
- But I think the more important work as you mentioned
is within.
The atmosphere is going to set the tone.
- [Laura] Yeah.
- So important.
- [Laura] Yeah.
- What kinds of things should a mama look at?
You said about why she's doing it.
- [Laura] Yeah.
- I suppose it depends on personality.
- Right, you're going to have some moms
that if they treat it like a job, they are on their A-game.
It is a task that they need to accomplish,
they're goal-oriented.
They're going to start at eight o'clock
and they're going to finish at three.
And that's their happy place.
And that works well for their home.
So figuring out your personality type,
I think is a big part of figuring out
the direction of your heart
towards the homeschooling situation.
You have those moms that are goal-oriented,
it's a job, let's get it done.
And then you have moms that just are excited about it.
They have this opportunity to homeschool their children,
and we should all feel that way,
but sometimes that comes and goes,
but you do have certain situations
where that's there all the time,
that it is just overflowing joy
to be with their children and to educate them.
And so therefore that's their motivation.
That's the goal that they're focused on,
loving their kids, which we should all be that way.
- But like you said, it can come and go.
And sometimes if we've had...
Especially if we've had a busy summer
or an unusual spring and summer,
where you've been out of your comfort zone,
you've been kind of feeling off your game,
it can help to revisit that
as you prepare to move into Fall,
it's like, "Okay, let's just stop and take a minute
and think about why we're doing this again
and get back to being centered,"
- Right. - Right where you need to be.
- I think another important part of reflecting for yourself
is to troubleshoot your strengths and your weaknesses.
It's easy to come up with our weaknesses usually,
because we're more than aware of our shortcomings,
- [Sonya] Yes.
- But that could be as simple as,
"Okay, I need to keep my phone plugged in,
in the bedroom during school hours."
That could be a weakness,
your phone or whatever device it is.
So to troubleshoot that, to be aware of it,
put your phone in another room. Or meal prep,
if your weakness is "I don't want to do school
because I have to make sure my family's fed."
if there's a struggle there, make sure that gets done.
Acknowledge that weakness.
We're all going to have those where it's...
Like my weakness, which I'm sure many people
could probably relate to this.
If it's a sunny day, if it's beautiful outside,
I do not want to do school.
I want to be outside.
We are going to be doing something
and there's a time and place for that.
But I've also got to recognize that in some ways
that's a weakness in relation to our school time.
When it takes the place of what I know I should be doing.
- [Sonya] Yeah.
- If that makes sense.
- Yeah. The things you've mentioned
either come out as a distraction.
- [Laura] Yeah, that's true.
- We have to recognize what distracts us
and then take steps to minimize those things.
And then also anything that trips us up maybe,
or prevents us from putting forth the discipline
to get things done.
One thing that came to mind for me
and it kind of relates to what you were saying is faithful.
Being faithful.
- [Laura] Yeah.
- It's easy for us to get in a mindset of,
I have to be perfect.
- [Laura] Yeah.
- But I've never reached that goal. I don't know about you.
- Oh, for sure no.
(both laughing)
- When it comes to homeschooling, it's so easy for us
to expect ourselves to be perfect at this.
And we can't be, and it's so easy to beat ourselves up.
As you said, we know our weaknesses.
- [Laura] Right.
- But if we can focus instead on just being faithful,
we're going to show up.
- [Laura] Right.
- And we're going to get that lesson plan done.
And for today we're going to stay inside and do our lesson,
even though we want to... - We have to.
- Yeah. The pool's calling us,
but we're going to stay inside
until we get our lessons done, then we can go out.
- [Laura] Right.
- But if we can be faithful,
I think that's a huge difference from being perfect.
And it's even harder I think,
when we compare ourselves with other people who homeschool,
- Yeah
- It's easy to just see the good there
and they look perfect.
So we feel like we have to be perfect too,
but nobody is doing the perfect thing.
- No, not at all.
- We should all do the faithful thing though.
- Agreed. Yeah. I think that along those lines,
setting high expectations for ourselves
and for our homeschooling world
is definitely a weakness that we need to be cautious of
because it doesn't necessarily set us up for success.
- If they're too high.
- [Laura] Right.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- But along those same lines,
understanding our strengths is important too.
You may have a mom who thrives with planning,
who loves to schedule, who loves to have all the check boxes
and that's her happy, she loves a spreadsheet.
- Raising my hand.
- That's your strength,
- Yeah
- You can pour into that and it's beautifully laid out
and it is there.
And that is a strength of yours.
And to play into that, to where it feeds your homeschool
versus it becomes a distraction. So--
- Yeah, it actually helps prevent distraction for me
because it's like, "Okay, I know what I'm going to do."
So my mind doesn't have to try and wrestle with all that.
Just run the plan now, be faithful to run the plan.
- [Laura] Right.
- But that's not always the strength for everybody.
- Right, you may have a mom who loves
to fly by the seat of her pants.
Whereas like, "Oh, this was a great story.
Let's go build this or let's create this skit."
It may not have been planned,
but that's her strength is seeing the vision
of the story and being able to make it real
for her children.
I think acknowledging our strengths,
I have a friend who's a great cook. She loves to cook.
And that is one of the strengths
that I would say is part of the atmosphere of her home.
You go to her house and you're
going to be fed some good food.
- [Sonya] Yes.
- And it's such a blessing
to participate in that strength of hers.
- You can feel the love that
comes with it. - Correct.
Correct, for her meal planning
and the food is an easy part of her school day.
So she's playing to the strength
to where that's the atmosphere that her family comes around.
And so it's neat to see all the different strengths
and friends and different homeschool situations.
But I think sometimes it might even be hard
for us to see it.
So I encourage moms out there to maybe ask their husbands
or their friends, "Say, can you help me figure out...
What's something you see in me
that you would consider a part of the atmosphere in my home
that I could say is a strength of mine.
Or what do you think is a weakness that you see?"
and that's hard, you might not want to know
(both laughing) the answer.
- It's like, tell me one that's not already on my list.
- But you may not see it yourself.
- That's true,
we've got blind spots. - The weakness or
the strength.
- Yeah, and along with the strengths,
I think it's helpful to focus on the strengths
of those around us.
And in other words, to see through...
I read a blog post that used this term
and it just really struck me.
They said, see those around you with gracious eyes,
eyes that are full of grace.
And grace is believing the best about that person.
So maybe you have a child
who could not write a complete sentence to save her life.
(both laughing)
- I got one.
- You're raising your hand on that, okay.
Well, we can either focus on that
or we can focus on...
When that child enters the room.
And one of her siblings has had a hard day.
She's the first one to realize that
and go say an encouraging word to that person.
So she does know how to use words.
She knows how to use language well,
it's just the writing that is the obstacle right now
or the challenge.
Are we seeing that child
only through the lens of that weakness
or are we looking at it through gracious eyes.
And it's not just the children too.
It can be our circumstances,
like our budget that we have to work with
or the size of our house, we're all crammed in here.
Well, we can look at that as a weakness
or we can try and focus on the benefits
that can come from it.
And it seems like if we focus on the weaknesses
of ourselves and of those around us and our circumstances,
all that does is drain the energy out of us.
But if we can see those things with gracious eyes,
I think that infuses us
with energy and motivation
to be faithful and keep going.
- Right.
The word that comes to mind is Mother Culture.
- Yes.
- Taking the time to understand that and to be purposeful.
but then also to take the time to refuel ourselves
- [Sonya] Yes.
- So that we can stay on... We can keep our grace...
graceful
- [Sonya] Yes. grace-filled eyes.
What did you say?
- Yeah, gracious eyes or grace-filled, either one. Yeah.
Yeah. So we can make the atmosphere the way we want it to be
the culture the way we want it to be.
- Yeah. I think that's really important.
- All of these things are so important
for the homeschool mom.
How about you? Do you have another idea
of what a homeschool mom needs to get ready
for back to school?
Something that will equip her for the days ahead.
Leave a comment and let us know.
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