4 Questions to Go from Stuck to Unstuck

EP196: Feeling stuck in your homeschooling? Discover how to break free from overwhelm and confidently make decisions in your homeschool with four transformative questions to help you overcome the overwhelm. In this episode, Jean shares actionable insights tailored to help you navigate the myriad of choices, from curriculum selection to planning lessons. Learn how to focus on micro-tasks and eliminate unnecessary options, ensuring a more streamlined and effective homeschooling experience.

Find the Show Notes Here (www.artofhomeschooling.com/episode196)

Inspired at Home Membership (www.artofhomeschooling.com/inspiredathome)

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

You're listening to the Art of Homeschooling podcast, where we help parents cultivate creativity and connection at home. I'm your host, jean Miller, and here on this podcast you'll find stories and inspiration to bring you the confidence you need to make homeschooling work for your family. Let's begin. If you feel stuck in your homeschooling right now, I'm so glad you're here because in this episode I'm gonna give you four specific questions to ask yourself so that you can move forward with confidence. These are the four questions to go from stuck to unstuck in your homeschool.

Speaker 1: 1:02

As I'm recording this episode, a new homeschool year is on the horizon for many of you, and here's one version of a conversation I've been having lately with so many homeschoolers. It goes something like this I have three kiddos and some curriculum already for the older two. I know some of the blocks that are brought, but what about reading or writing skills? What about math? I also have a great book for this other topic, and then I thought of doing this other really fun thing. Oh, and I have a project idea I want all of us to do together. And on and on it goes, until it starts to feel like they're spinning in circles. Do you know that feeling? I know, I sure do. I remember getting stuck in that overwhelm so many times and then giving up and thinking I guess I'll just figure this out tomorrow.

Speaker 1: 1:58

The truth is that the more possibilities we consider, the more opinions we gather and the more curriculum we buy, the more confused we become when what we really need to do is to make some decisions so we can move forward. As you've probably heard me say before, confidence comes from taking action, and in order to take action, we have to make some decisions Decisions about what topics to study, skills to teach and resources to use. Now, I know that decision making can be really hard, especially because we've taken on this big responsibility of educating our children. We don't wanna make mistakes. We care so much and want to give them everything we possibly can. But we cannot take action without making some hard choices, without deciding what we want to do and when and what we'll let go of. So let's get to it.

Speaker 1: 3:10

To give you a little encouragement, before I ask you the four questions, I want you to keep a few things in mind. Did you know that the literal meaning of the word decide is to cut away? That's right. We have to cut away some things in order to choose others. Sometimes half the battle is accepting that we cannot do it all and that we need to let go of some things. That's part of the process. Every time we decide to do something, we're also choosing not to do other things. If you need more help with decision making, I suggest you check out episode 31 here on the podcast how to be more decisive in your homeschool. In that episode, I give you three tips for how to be more decisive and five action steps for moving forward with a sense of resolve. You'll find a link to that episode in the show notes and I'll share where to find the show notes at the end of this episode.

Speaker 1: 4:21

One other thing I want to mention is that the inspiration for this episode came not only from conversations I've been having with homeschooling parents lately, but also from all the comments I got in response to an email I sent a few weeks ago. The subject line was my mantra think in threes, pick one. And in the email I talked about micro tasks, about breaking things down so that they're more doable. This is a great strategy. When you feel overwhelmed or even feel like you're struggling getting anything done, you can just pick one little thing to do go do it and then celebrate. Sometimes we need to break the tasks or the decisions into smaller chunks so that we can take the necessary action. So now, as we get to the four questions to go from stuck to unstuck, I want you to think about just answering one of these questions at a time, especially if you're feeling overwhelmed. You don't have to go through all of these at once in one sitting. These four questions are great as you're trying to move forward with lesson plans, so, as you think about the fall, for example, you can narrow your time frame by considering these questions month by month. Here's an example If you are listening to this episode as it comes out in August, think about these questions as they relate to what's to come in September.

Speaker 1: 6:08

Here they are. Here they are four questions to go from stuck to unstuck. Number one what topic of study will you focus on for the month? Number two what skills will you bring? Number three what resources will you use? And number four how do you plan to record the learning? Here are just a few things to think about with each of these questions.

Speaker 1: 6:44

When choosing your topic of study, think about your children and what they need. Right now, the topic of study is really the content knowledge that you're building. You can look at the typical block topics suggested for each age with the Waldorf curriculum in mind and I'll link to a resource for that in the show notes. Which topic sounds good for September? You get to decide as you think about skills. Just choose one set of skills for each child per month or block. In the area of language arts, are there specific writing skills you want to develop? Are there certain reading skills you want to teach? Is it math facts that you want your child to work on? Choose the skills. Choose the skills.

Speaker 1: 7:41

When thinking about resources to use, I encourage you to find one main source for your stories. That's right, just one. This book or curriculum will serve as your go-to for the content that you're bringing. You will likely have other resources and books to supplement, but finding one main reader is the place to start. And finally, how do you want to record the learning?

Speaker 1: 8:05

Do you want to make a main lesson book for this block or not? Do you want to do the traditional approach of drawing in the book one day and writing a summary the next, or do you want to mix things? Traditional approach of drawing in the book one day and writing a summary the next? Or do you want to mix things up a little bit and make more of a scrapbook type main lesson book this time around? Think about what best suits the topic you've chosen. And there you have it four questions to go from, stuck to unstuck. You can use these same questions every month as you plan for what's coming next. It really can be that simple. I know it's not always easy, but it can be simple. And if you want help filling out your plan, be sure to check out my wonderful resource, homeschool Simplicity 101. Inside you'll find the Homeschool Simplicity Handbook, holistic planning templates, beautiful planning templates that you can use to create a planning binder for yourself, and a video training on how to bring it all together. Plus, there's a training in there on creating your minimum viable homeschooling day so that you can continue to feel successful in your homeschool no matter what life brings your way. I'll put a link to this helpful resource in the show notes, which you can find at artofhomeschoolingcom, slash episode 196.

Speaker 1: 9:28

As we wrap up, I just want to invite you to give yourself lots of love for all the important work you're doing in the world Parenting and homeschooling. Take a lot of fortitude on our part and we all feel overwhelmed and stuck sometimes. The Buddhist Pema Chodron says, and this is a quote the process of becoming unstuck requires tremendous bravery because, basically, we are completely changing our way of perceiving reality. So be gentle with yourself, my friend, and address these four questions, one at a time, as you plan for the month ahead. Here's to going from stuck to unstuck in your homeschool and your life. That's all for today, my friend, but here's what I want you to remember Rather than perfection, let's focus on connection. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you on the next episode of the Art of Homeschooling podcast.