You have weighed all your options, you’ve pumped yourself up and now you are ready to declare yourself a “homeschooler”!
Feeling excited and at peace with your decision, you start to gather resources, plan field trips and set up your home to be a haven where children fall in love with learning.
Even your children are excited! They start to dig into their History lessons, craft projects, and even fill their spare moments with exploring, self-directed learning, and fun, imaginative play.
Then “that day” comes!
That day where hour upon hour nothing seems to go right…nothing! Not only that, you can see it snowballing to the point where you know it is going to take you off track.
Those challenging days, whether they be a few in a row, or scattered throughout a semester, are heavy.
If we don’t have a great support system in place, that heavy feeling can open the door for doubt, fear and worry to take a firm grip of our hearts and minds.
Homeschool Fear, Worry and Doubt
The Truth You Need to Know
Truth is, you are brave and resilient enough to deal with these days!
You proved that the day you decided to go against the grain and homeschool. You also proved that during those seemingly normal and regular days of parenting! Parenting is hard work, but also abundantly rewarding!
The other truth is that if you are feeling a little short on resilience, you can decide to take the steps to find it. Homeschooling does afford you some flexibility to change things up, so take advantage of that when you are feeling weary. Dedicate some time for you to find your groove again!
“…decide…whether or not the goal is worth the risks involved. If it is, stop worrying…” ~Amelia Earhart
Prayer and Meditation
Never dismiss the power of grace!
God is so good that He gives us grace in the simplest of things if we are willing to see and accept it. We just need to be still long enough to recognize it. So, make quiet time, even if it is just a few minutes scattered through your day, a priority.
It has been proven, through MRI, that prayer and meditation actually has an affect on the grey matter of our brains. (Check out this article “Eight Weeks to a Better Brain”.)
Being still and quiet can be a challenge, and something we should work on in this age of busyness. If we tend to ‘pray on the run’, while that is fine, we also run the risk of missing all the extra little gifts of grace God is bestowing upon us and our families as we rush about the day.
We need to invest in ourselves and set aside some time everyday to meditate or pray.
When we are feeling stifled by the fear, worry and doubt it is a cue to slow down and recall why we are on this homeschool journey and to also know we are not alone. It might be time to reach out to those who can help build you back up again. HSLDA has a link for support groups in your area, so reach out and make a connection.
No matter how brave or strong any of us are, we all have a time when we need encouragement.
Even those who lead your support group, or the ones who are your cheerleaders…we all have days where we need a boost from time to time. To know others have walked this path, to share stories of success, trials and even stories of our seemingly bland – boring days; it all goes a long way to encourage other homeschooling parents.
Especially on those days where our legs are shaky!
Be Gracious – Be Courteous – Be Genuine – Be Humble – Be Kind – Be Brave
Let’s build each other up and kick fear, worry and doubt to the curb!
