Comparison Will Make You Work Without the Passion to Drive You | In Due Season 1.6

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Comparison can keep you running in the wrong direction for your school. Have you tries a curriculum because your friend loved it only to find your kids hated it? We can feel pressure to keep at it because we should feel just as enthusiastic. We are subject to SO much pressure as homeschoolers. Your future is in your school. It doesn’t help when ever well meaning soul has input for you, and some of it is far from supportive. We have to know our goals and what direction we want to take our school. Otherwise we will be tempted to change direction every time something is not working.

Don’t fall for it! Comparison is a trap.

I remember being envious of a homeschool family who taught their children all about herbs and medicines. Their passion was intoxicating and I wanted to emulate their little adventure. Problem was, I know nothing about the herbs or medicine, nor was I terribly passionate about either at the time. I was disappointed because I could not muster the same enthusiasm they had. Eventually the project fell flat.

What have you tried because everyone loved it, but for you it just fell flat? How did you respond? Did you feel like YOU failed, or were you able to switch gears and move forward.

Comparison is a thief; it will steal the joy right out from under you.

It was not until years later, I learned that this family had been planning on doing long term missionary work in a third world country. They were passionate, not because it was fun to learn these things, but because they had a deeply connected purpose to the work. I didn’t have a swamp, or snakes or anyone that was very interested to learn about them. My daughter was not old enough for self directed research like she is now. It was a miss, because I was looking at someone else interests.

In contrast, when I have looked to my children’s strengths and interests for ways to make our school better I found an abundance of ideas that sparked a new joy in our school day.

The interest gave us the passion to pursue the work.

I get joy from watching my kids explore things that they are talented in. My little girl is in love with drawing so in the morning while I meet with the older kids, she uses an IPad to draw using kid friendly tutorials. I could do a formal class but I wanted to capture her interest right now.

My son is obsessed with making “skins” on his computer game. He is beginning an online class to learn to write code that he can use in the same game. Capturing your child’s interests and incorporating them into some part of your school day should be part of your yearly planning. When we are personally connected to our work we all are much more motivated to show up, the same is true for our kids.

Every time we take on classes or responsibilities because we want to measure up to someone else’s experience, we do our family a disservice. And worse, we make homeschooling more difficult than it needs to be.

The best thing I ever learned was to continue to make small changes in our schooling until our day fit our family the very best. If something is not working don’t be afraid to make a change and try something new.

I find that having a good set of goals for my kids helps me stay on track. When I know what I want them to learn this year and have clear reasons attached to it, I am less likely to get distracted. Do you set goals? What is one of your goals for this year?