Kara S. Anderson

Homeschool connection, not perfection.

The most important thing when you are homeschooling

by Kara S. Anderson 1 Comment

Have you ever thought about the most important part of your homeschool?

Is it quality read-alouds?

A strong understanding of math?

A rigorous and challenging curriculum and automatic recalls of all state and country capitals?

Nope.

I don’t think it’s any of those.

I think that the very most important part of homeschooling is relationships.

Because here’s the thing: You can fix a lot of shortcomings in your child’s education. It’s not even that hard. There are tutors and books and classes.

There is always a way to help your child learn a new concept in a different way.

But if your child feels frustrated or angry, or if their self-esteem is suffering, or if they feel disconnected from you or misunderstood, that is a REALLY big deal.

We have to remember in our days with our kids our end goal – my BIG goal is happy, confident, strong people who love learning and feel like they can do the things they need to do to get where they want to go.

Sure – we all want our kids to be successful people, but if all we’re thinking about is ACT scores and college admissions and future careers that we can brag about the other retirees on the bus trip – we’re not doing it right.

So in this video, I share some ideas about the last chapter of my ebook, 7 Secrets the Happiest Homeschool Moms Know.

This book is no longer free, but is available for purchase here.

And be sure to follow me on Instagram for more videos!

Posts I mention in this video:

I’m just so glad he didn’t sit on the line

The thing we forget about sending our kids to school

 

How to get a real break when you’re homeschooling

by Kara S. Anderson Leave a Comment

Here’s some Self Care 101 for you:

Breaks are important.

But you knew that already, of course.

Pick up any women’s magazine, listen to any self-improvement podcast, talk to your gal-pals, and everyone is telling you to take breaks.

But here’s the thing: most of the time, no one is telling you how.

And when you homeschool your kids? There’s an extra layer of responsibility there.

If I need to leave my kids during a homeschool day, no one takes over as substitute teacher.

So this week on Instagram, we brainstormed some ways to get a break when you’re homeschooling.

And we talked about REAL breaks. (#nofakebreaks)

Because sometimes, as Uber-responsible super-women, instead of taking real breaks, we take fake breaks – breaks where we’re still reading a parenting book instead of watching Community, for instance. Or maybe we’re making phone calls instead of listening to a podcast about The Office.

The point is, we don’t want to take fake breaks, because fake breaks don’t really restore us.

Of course then the next problem is that often, we’ve been going for so long that we have forgotten what actually fills up our empty cups again.

Don’t worry, we brainstormed a community list of ideas over on Instagram (look for the pinned story called “Recharge.”)

Because Self-Care 101 or not, breaks are SO important.

Watch last week’s Instagram Live here:

This post contains affiliate links.

Invisible balls (we’re all making trade-offs)

by Kara S. Anderson 3 Comments

The world is littered with invisible balls.

We don’t see them; we’re too busy trying to keep our own balls in the air anyway – you know all the balls:

  • parenting
  • homeschooling
  • marriage
  • food
  • home
  • pets
  • work
  • extended family
  • exercise
  • special occasion planning
  • appointments
  • bills
  • vehicles
  • and on and on …

Not all of us are juggling the same balls, but all of us are trying to keep multiple things going at any given moment.

Until, we drop one.

An invisible ball rolls away, like the meatball from “On Top of Spaghetti” – it careens off toward an adventure, while we stay where we are, trying to keep the other balls up, unable to give chase to the one that ran away.

Can you imagine if we could see all the balls?

Maybe it would help.

Because what we so often forget is that ALL of us – every one of us – is forced to make trade-offs all the time.

We either drop the balls or we put them down:

Maybe we work, so we trade-off growing a garden.

Maybe we need to exercise, so we trade-off laundry.

Maybe we’re caring for an aging parent, so we trade off home-cooked meals.

Sometimes, the trade-offs change by the month or week or day.

They have to.

I repeat: They HAVE TO.

But what I warn mamas about is that there are a few things that we don’t want to trade-off. Those things are sleep, sanity and relationships.

That’s what this week’s Instagram Live was all about, plus wonderful advice from a friend, plus why we need to stop comparing.

To hear about some of the things that Cait and I trade off on the regular, tune in to this week’s episode of The Homeschool Sisters Podcast.

This book is no longer free, but is available for purchase here.

And be sure to follow me on Instagram for more videos!

 

Please don’t homeschool for the dentist

by Kara S. Anderson 1 Comment

My mom, a registered nurse, has a pretty laid-back approach to health care.

She once saw a man who drank a bottle of Drano come into the ER, and was the first responder when our neighbor ran his foot over with a lawn mower, so suffice it to say, most ailments and injuries don’t really phase her.

But a few times, I have called her with concerns, and she has told me to get my kid to a doctor STAT.

One of those times, was when our ancient cat scratched my daughter. She didn’t tell us to go right away, but the next day, when my daughter started having red streaks going up her little arm, my mom (my calm, rational mom, who used send us to school when we had sniffles because “you have two lungs,”) told me to get my kid seen immediately.

We did, it was fine, and then a few days later we followed up with our regular doctor’s office.

Of course our regular doctor wasn’t there, and of course the new doctor asked my daughter about school.

And then, of course, when my daughter mentioned homeschooling, she stopped treating her and turned to me:

“Do they have a group?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Oh good,” she said. “I just need to be sure they are being socialized.”

You know. Like a puppy.

You guys, my eyes rolled back so far in my head, I could see what color my hair tie was.

“Being socialized?”

Yuck.

(Please let me know if you know the creator of this fabulous image!)

And do you want to know the worst part?

The worst part was that yes, we had a group, but it was a group we would soon leave because of drama and chaos and because sometimes grown-ups are The Worst.

But there’s something so EASY about being able to tell people – your mother-in-law, the dentist, the random grocery clerk – that you have a group, right?

Even if it isn’t the right group.

It’s like we can check a box, and know they’ll leave us alone.

Today, I want to remind you, that you don’t have to homeschool in a way that makes your dentist happy.

And I know it sounds controversial, but I truly believe that it’s better to not have a group at all, than to be in the wrong group.

That’s what last week’s Instagram Live was all about.

View it here:

This book is no longer free, but is available for purchase here.

And be sure to follow me on Instagram for more videos!