Those days…the ones where you wake up a little heavy–the world seems bright outside your bedroom window.
But by the time you reached the kitchen, the littles are speaking thirty decibels louder than your head can manage. And you can’t shush long enough or loud enough to get anyone to stop talking long enough to find the bottle of Advil.
And you react to things in ways you know are counterproductive.
So how to deal with homeschool failure in your homeschool?
Those days…when it doesn’t matter what you do to quell that child…
…she wants to challenge everything you say, report everything her sibling is doing, or declare she can no longer read, compute basic calculations, or spell three-letter words.
Those days…when you think, now why would I write a blog about capturing the charmed life…
…when I know darn well that the idealism that wants to encourage the world can’t encourage herself to get to loving even THESE days?
A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.
an Old English Proverb
How does one learn life’s lessons without a few challenges?
This kind of freedom doesn’t come for free.
This kind of freedom is earned through hard work, mostly work in the interior.
There’s no manual for parenting, no manual for homeschooling…okay, actually there are, but there are no individualized manuals for this life.
So I’ll continue to determine what I need, what my kids need, what I don’t need, what they don’t need, what we were meant to be and do, and keep on keeping on so that there will be larger gaps between those days.
“I get up. I walk. I fall down. Meanwhile, I keep dancing”.
Hillel
Failure. What an ugly word. One that I must engage in more often than I’d like.
How do I not let failure define me?
We are given the night to sleep away our sorrows. To wake in the morning with renewed purpose and be reminded that God’s mercies are new every morning.
Failure is hella hard to let go of. But it can be done. If and when we practice on repeat. And remember to practice these five easy (okay, who’s kidding who, there ain’t no easy steps associated with failure, but practice makes perfect (until you fail, ha))…
Know these five things though:
1. There ain’t no life without failure. You are not alone. Everyone has regret stories. Everyone! It’s how we learn.
2. Explore reasons for the failure. Don’t pretend it didn’t happen. If you ignore it, you will see it arise in you again. Try to learn what you can from it. (& expect to keep doing this on repeat until you do it better).
3. Let it go. Continued time spent sifting through your imperfect approach/parenting/words. And fussing won’t make it go away either. So practice with Elsa and let it go.
4. Don’t define your person by the mistakes you’ve made in the past, even if the past is this morning. You aren’t your mistake.
5. Just aim for what you’re looking to pursue and get up and go. This is the first day of the rest of your life.
“She was unstoppable, not because she did not have failures or doubts, but because she continued on despite them”.
Beau Taplin, Unstoppable
Grappling with Overwhelm Journaling Workbook
Journal questions & workbook that aid in your self-exploration to help address your needs, gain satisfying relationships and shift your homeschool perspective.
This can be a self-coaching workbook can be a self-coaching tool to help you discover the barriers getting in the way of your satisfying homeschool life, create a plan to address your relationships, needs & homeschools, and thereby, shift your homeschool experience.
Find more homeschool encouragement here:
- 7 Ways to Find Quiet, Build Boundaries & Handle Overwhelm
- You Know You’re a Homeschool Mom When…
- How to Live the Homeschool Balanced Life
- How to Address Doubt in your Homeschool Choice with Confidence & Intention
- Do you offer one-on-one and group coaching?
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.
Teresa Wiedrick
I help homeschool mamas shed what’s not working in their homeschool & life, so they can show up authentically, purposefully, and confidently in their homeschool & life.
A lovely post and just what I needed to start off my week. To Monday, I am grabbing the bull by the horns and not letting anything stop me or slow me down.
Thank you. Sometimes I write for myself too;)