Not "Just" a Homeschool Mom

You’re not “JUST” a homeschool mom. You’re more than qualified to teach your kids. You’re developing yourself as an educator. You’re becoming a homeschool pro!

I’ve never met anyone who starts out homeschooling with the goal of short changing their child’s potential. Nobody hopes your grown kids will end up playing video games in their underwear, eating Doritos on your couch. No. We have big dreams for their future success and happiness.

So why do we minimize ourselves and our homeschooling accomplishments?

I’m just a homeschool mom
We just picked apples today for our school
They aren’t in school, because we just homeschool

Homeschool critics may view homeschooling as a less than option. But I think we also project that image sometimes. Let’s JUST do better about the word JUST.

It’s Just Self Doubt

Parenting would be easy if we knew the right thing do at the right time so we get the right outcome. But, there aren’t any guaranteed outcomes for doing everything right as a parent. The hardest part is doing your best and hoping it’s good enough.

Homeschooling has a way of taking all our parenting woes and magnifying them. The weight of responsibility gets heavy from time to time.

What if I screw up?
What if they fall behind?
What if I don’t know what I don’t know? You know?
Surely there must be an adultier adult who could do this instead of me…or better than me. Am I right?!

That’s just self-doubt. It’s whispering that you’re not doing enough and that you’re not really qualified to teach anyway.

There are safe places for you to admit your own doubts. Maybe you do need some advice or help. You have to be able to verbalize these worries in order to work through it. Let’s help get you connected to a support group or mentor who can encourage and empower you to do your best.

It’s Just Humility

A majority of home educators are women. Pride is a bad thing to us women. Talking about our accomplishments in powerful way can be seen as arrogance. So, we go the other way and try to be humble.

A friend of mine told me about an unschooler she knew who had “just” picked apples for school one day. My friend inferred this as an expression of laziness or educational neglect. But, I’m more inclined to think she just wasn’t accurately describing the learning activity. Perhaps she hadn’t recognized the intrinsic value of the opportunity either. Or maybe she was downplaying herself on purpose.

Some of us are still programmed to think that learning happens in a planned out, guided lesson with worksheets. Seasoned homeschoolers are notorious for finding teachable moments. We try to squeeze every drop of learning out of an opportunity.

Just changing a lightbulb, becomes a teachable moment about Thomas Edison and the history of lighting. It stretches into a math problem and economics lesson on comparing prices of lightbulbs. You could even expand it to an art project for dipping your own candles or upcycling/repurposing the old burned out lightbulbs.

Now, what else could be learned and expanded about apple picking? Let’s be careful how we evaluate and represent the learning opportunities of homeschool. Keeping good homeschool records can help you identify your accomplishments.

Not Just a Homeschool Mom

You’re at a homeschool co-op and you hear this other mom say, “Alissa read so many books this summer, that she had to read War and Peace again!” You think to yourself, “Mine forgot what vowels are.”

But, this isn’t a competition. It’s not a race.

Comparison is the thief of joy. Let’s celebrate our children’s accomplishments together. We have to be able to appreciate and applaud another homeschool style, without questioning our own.

Image by Todd Wilson, The Official Book of Homeschooling Cartoons

Brené Brown says, “I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness – it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.” If we look at our lives with gratitude, we can be confident that what we’re doing matters.

What you’re doing matters. Even on the average days. With average kids. An ordinary life is not the same as a meaningless life.

You’re not “JUST” a homeschool mom. You’re uniquely you. And your homeschool is one of a kind. That’s really extraordinary!

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