Lazy Genius Your Homeschool–Principle #11: Trust Yourself

Ok, you’re right. This is not what Principle 11 is called! But I do think that trusting yourself is at the heart of the principle, and it’s at the heart of a thriving homeschool. Not the right curriculum or best co-op. The heart of a flourishing homeschool is a mama who trusts herself. Let’s start with why that might be hard.

If you’ve chosen to homeschool, you are already bucking the system. Already choosing to educate your kids in a way that most people don’t choose. That’s a big step! One way that we get ourselves to take that initial step is to rely on a certain curriculum or philosophy. It’s a smart way of deciding once. Instead of the whole world and the entire library as your school, you’ve got a manageable booklist of already vetted books.

But sooner or later there’s going to be a conflict between what the curriculum asks for and what you or your kids can deliver on any given Tuesday in a rainy November. Maybe according to the history cycle, you should be studying the Ancients, but your son is knee deep in knights. This is the crossroads where you are being asked to trust yourself.

You can keep on the planned path and add in knights with your read aloud choices. Or you can stop the Ancients and join your son in his excitement. Either choice could be the right one. And you are the person who best knows what to do.

This can feel so overwhelming, so fraught! But the best part about homeschooling is that you can start small, ask the magic question, and live in your season. You can trust yourself to make a small choice and to revisit that choice to make a tiny course corrections. That’s how trust builds–you make a choice, give it some time to do its work, and then evaluate where you are. If you need to make a correction, you can do that. You can trust yourself because you are growing in wisdom.

If you are new to The Lazy Genius, here’s the Starter Kit! 20 episodes that will get you energized and moving in the right direction!

And you can find all the posts in this series right here.