How To Write Your Own Homeschooling Story

There will be times, as a homeschooling parent, when you feel you’re not enough.

Not smart enough, prepared enough, structured enough.

Not relaxed enough, social enough, positive enough, selfless enough.

Not qualified enough, successful enough, ambitious enough, supportive enough, energetic enough.

Just...not enough.

If this has been you - or is you right now - I want to remind you of something:

When we ask every child to learn the same things, at the same times, in the same ways, in the same age groups, in the same spaces, and to prove they’re on track through the same methods, what we’re really asking them to do is conform. To think less about their true selves, and more about what the most accepted version of that might be. To see their uniqueness as a bad thing, and fitting in as good. To become, in so many ways, like everyone else.

You know this.

And you know all that is fundamentally opposed to the essence of human nature. Of being an individual. Because that’s why you’re here. You’ve decided that you will not let your child grow up under the unreasonable expectations of others. To have their strengths only celebrated if they’re on a short list of acceptable ones. Their weaknesses, if they’re the wrong kind, exposed and relentlessly monitored for improvement.

So as you work hard to build a life for your child that throws out those expectations and respects who they uniquely are, don’t forget to do the same for yourself.

There is no one right way to homeschool. There is no one best type of homeschooling parent or approach. And there is no one measure to show that it’s ‘working’.

If you believe there is, you are applying the very same pressure to yourself that you’re trying to free your child from.

You have your strengths. You do! And you know your child better than anyone else in the world.

Every child has their own story to tell, and every child should be given the freedom to tell it. But so does every homeschooling parent. And your true, authentic story will never be told by believing you need to be someone you’re not.

You are - truly are - more than enough.

Now, go write your story.