Building Connection with Tamara Strijack of the Neufeld Institute

Tamara Strijack is the co-author of Reclaiming Our Students: Why Children Are More Anxious, Aggressive, and Shut-Down than Ever and What We Can Do About It. 

She is also the Academic Dean of the Neufeld Institute, where she develops and delivers courses and workshops to help parents, teachers, and helps professionals make sense of children through developmental science.

Tamara works as a registered clinical counselor, parent consultant, and education consultant for both school-based and home-based learning. She is also a sessional instructor for several universities, where she lectures for both the faculties of education and counseling.

Tamara Strijack, of the Neufeld Institute, educated her two daughters at home for the majority of their schooling years. Connection, relationships, nature, and play are all central themes in her life, both personally and professionally.



Tamara Strijack on Homeschool Mama Self-Care Podcast

You have to have some flexibility in yourself. What is working? What isn’t working? Instead of getting stuck in what isn’t working and deciding what has to be that way, I still believe in that idea of reevaluating: “Is it working?”

Tamara Strijack, co-author of Reclaiming Our Students

Advice for New Homeschoolers:

  • Let go of the expectations and pressure to homeschool in a particular way.
  • Give yourself grace and room to tell yourself, “You can do this, you have something to offer,” and make room for your children to feel at ease in your home environment.
  • Find those places for exploration and free play in a way that isn’t about educational outcomes.

Encouragement to connect with your homeschool kids with Tamara Strijack of the Neufeld Institute

Tamara Strijack & I discuss…

  • Play with your children. Go for walks. Go to explore nature. Read books together.
  • If it’s good for them, it’s good for you.
  • It’s time for connection.
  • Make space for homeschool and do it with them.
  • What is best for the child?
  • What is in the best interest of the child and family circumstances?
  • Education doesn’t have to be a one size fits all.

You can find Tamara Strijack at…



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Teresa Wiedrick

I help overwhelmed homeschool mamas shed what’s not working in their homeschool & life, so they can show up authentically, purposefully, and confidently in their homeschool & life.

Call to Adventure by Kevin MacLeod
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License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/