homeschool out of my depth: Julie Bogart’s advice

Could you say that I’m a homeschool out of my depth?

Homeschooling looks a whole lot different this year than it did when we first began but Julie Bogart’s got your back.

When we feel like we’ve got a homeschool out of my depth, we want to consult Julie.

And every year reminds me that I am, once again, out of my depth.

• I have an independent sixteen-year-old working, dancing, singing, attacking her academics, and killing it.
• My fourteen-year-old is beginning a focussed, independent academic approach this year: online biology class and writing essays will get her a whole lot more focused.
• My ten-year-old has a more self-directed education no matter how he approaches his education because he reads A LOT. He has a naturally logical, engineering-focused, strategic mind.
• And my oldest, eighteen, is across the country in her first-year university.

As I start our new academic year, I want to squeeze in a little wisdom from anyone that will offer some words. My go-to encouragement can be found in Julie Bogart.

From her book The Brave Learner: Finding Everyday Magic in Homeschool, Learning, and Life, I am reminded of these truths (big warm seasoned homeschool mama truths…)

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Julie Bogart says, “You can’t read the label when you’re inside the jar.”

(The directions to our children’s hearts and futures aren’t found in an instruction manual. That manual doesn’t exist. No matter how many books, courses, or therapy you utilize, there’s always something to learn. Though therapy is highly underutilized IMO.)

“We need to acknowledge that we’re out of our depth when we create new families.”

Every one of us has some dysfunction — how willing are we to name it and work with it? To disembed requires stepping outside our familiar family experience to reflect on its meaning and impact on our current lives. We do it again and again–there is no “once for all time” cleansing. It’s an ongoing project, lived in a family.

The goal can’t be to create a perfect homeschool.

A healthy family and homeschool foster a space where routines, habits, aspirations, and lifestyles adapt to the changing needs and wants of each member, despite occasional lapses of anger, hurting one another, or misunderstandings and miscommunication. Paying attention to the ordinary magic in our day-to-day lives can lighten up learning for everyone: parent and child. When we tap into that slipstream of connection and joy, we discover that life and education are the same. All we need can be found in that cocoon of love and learning. It’s a process–bumpy, unpredictable, yet wonderful one.

“You only have to get it mostly right!”

“A good enough homeschool and family life mean that you are consciously making choices, acting with goodwill, and open to change and growth. Your children will forgive your mistakes if they know that they can name them and be heard if they know you’re trying and if they feel your earnestness.”

Thank you Julie Bogart for such encouraging advice.

Bring on the new homeschool year! I’m rip-roaring ready to go.

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You can hear Julie in an interview on my podcast, Homeschool Mama Self-Care:

• Raising Critical Thinkers: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Wise Kids
• Principles for homeschool sanity: introducing Julie Bogart of The Brave Learner
• homeschool girlfriends: advice from Julie Bogart
• How to Homeschool & Find Your Thing with Julie Bogart

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“Homeschooling — hell, parenting — is a journey of courage into the unknown with an audacious belief that you will be enough for your children: the ultimate brave learning adventure. You’re doing it right if you stay connected and every now and then pause in awe. Look! Those are my amazing human beings.”

Julie Bogart, author of the Brave Learner

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You can purchase Julie’s books here:

• A Gracious Space
• Brave Learner
• Raising Critical Thinkers: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Wise Kids

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