Hope For Homeschoolers

I have been reading the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, as well as The Science of Getting Rich by Wattles.  Even though financial health is what first comes to mind when I read these works again and again, there is something far more meaningful that comes to light.  We can’t accomplish anything at all without the right attitude.

Those of us that home school, began our journey with thoughts.  We thought that our children could get a better education at home.  It wasn’t enough to think about home schooling.  From those thoughts, we began to visualize what life would be like if we home schooled.  Those of us that had positive images of the home school lifestyle, got started shortly thereafter.  It wasn’t enough to visualize, and so it was time to take action.  We took action by withdrawing the children from school, selecting curriculum, and deciding how, when, and where we would have school.

According to many philosophers, again, everything starts with a thought.  If your thoughts are filled with fear or uncertainty, then change those thoughts to more positive ones that will help you to form the home school that you really want.  If something isn’t working out for your family, then recreate it so that you have and do what you really want.

The reason that I address this today is that there are so many families around me right now, that either home school for the wrong reasons, or home school for a very short while, decide that it doesn’t work, and send their children back to school.  It is my belief that anything worth doing is going to be hard, and that we harm our children when we start something as complicated as home schooling can be, and then give up before even giving it a fair chance.  If you don’t have a positive thought, then don’t remove the children from school, but if you do, then find others that can help you, and get as far away from negative people with negative feedback as possible.  Naysayers don’t know your situation as well as they think they do, so let their words blow away with the rest of the dust in your life.  Think happy thoughts, decide what you really want to have happen from this experience, pray, visualize, create a journal, collage, vision board, anything that helps you to stay focused on the big picture.  Most of all, practice daily gratitude.  The simple act of being grateful makes even the worst days seem to work out in the end.

Have a Great Day!

Laurel Santiago