How to Be More Decisive In Your Homeschool

Episode 31

Hi, I’m Jean and I’m an overcomplicator. Are you an overcomplicator, too? Welcome to the club!

What are some of the ways we overcomplicate?

We keep gathering more and more opinions rather than forming our own
We think “but, I don’t know how”
We learn more and more and then discover that there are contradictions!
We even sometimes choose confusion over clarity

This was me! Seriously, as a young parent and then as a new homeschooler, I so often felt unsure of myself, like I didn’t really know what I was doing and why didn’t anyone tell me it would be this hard, or confusing, or painful???

But here’s the biggest lesson I learned both in parenting and homeschooling…

Clarity comes from taking action. Say that again!

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So, wherever you are in your homeschooling year, whatever is on the horizon for you, the ideas here can help you move forward with more confidence and ease. With 3 tips for how to be more decisive in your homeschool and 5 simple steps for how to take decisive action.

We can’t think our way through challenges. Or out of our problems. We can’t think our way to perfection. Or even into things working out how we want!

At some point, we have to roll up our sleeves and just do it. Try that lesson. Be willing for it to flop. Because when things don’t go well, or don’t go as planned…that’s just as much of a learning experience as when everything goes swimmingly well. And, the homeschool lessons are just as much of a learning experience for us, the teacher, as they are for our kids. We can only find what works by trying some things.

And guess what? You’re also modeling for your kids that it’s ok to try things without knowing how it will turn out. That we learn from just seeing what happens. From observing the outcome and making adjustments from there.

Remember to celebrate your successes as well as your efforts! Celebrate your willingness to try!

Some things will work well for a while and then fall away. And that’s ok too. That’s just how it is. But in order to keep that forward momentum going, we need to stop overcomplicating and choose the next step.

Here are three tips for how to be more decisive…

3 Tips for How to Be More Decisive in Your Homeschool

Stop deceiving yourself into thinking that there’s one best or right way. A best… story, verse, block topic, drawing…There are SO many ways to do this. We’re looking for someone to tell us what’s best and exactly how to do it. But that is just keeping us stuck.
Don’t second-guess yourself.
Look forward, not back – We want to look back briefly, observe the present, and plan for the next block or day or lesson.

That’s how you gradually but incrementally improve. And gain that forward momentum that we all need in order to feel inspired to continue. To keep homeschooling sustainable.

This is in part a personality thing, of course. Some of us feel a sense of heaviness about decision-making…like we don’t know enough or it feels like too big of a responsibility. Others of us want to continually change our minds, thinking there must be something better we just don’t know about yet. Some of us just decide and then regret our choice, thus going back to making a new decision. And others of us just drag our feet and keep saying “I don’t know what to do next.” OR “I don’t know how.”

My own personal experience early on…I kept constantly changing my mind. Every time there was a challenge or even push back from my kids, I’d start questioning my decisions. I’d think I was doing this homeschooling thing wrong. So I’d do more research, buy another curriculum, stall, even do nothing some days because I didn’t know what to do.

There are hundreds of ways to do homeschool…all these options are great… Until they get in your way of moving forward. I just want you to remember that you can and will find your OWN way.

Here’s what that looks like…

We want to commit, implement, observe, tweak, and move forward.

5 Action Steps to be More Decisive in Your Homeschool

And that very first step, to commit, requires us to make a decision. To make a choice.

How do you do that when you’re new to homeschooling? Or when your child reaches a new stage developmentally?

My suggestion is you find someone further down the homeschooling path than you are, find out why and how they did things, get in touch with your intuition about your child, children, family…and then simply decide.

It’s ok to rely on people you see as “experts” – it’s ok to learn more. But don’t let that slow you down. Give yourself a time frame. And then simply go all in.

Often many of us in the homeschooling world piece together our own plans by seeing what this curriculum recommends, then that one, then another. And then we make a plan. But when things don’t go perfectly, we question everything and start all over. Just like I did early on.

I want to let you know first of all, you are not alone. And secondly, you can get past this. By gaining confidence in yourself. By recognizing this tendency and stepping out of that pattern. So you don’t stay spinning in that place of considering all the options all the time. Sometimes we just have to choose.

Wherever you are on this journey or whichever type of decision maker you are, you can practice making decisions with more confidence and ease.

Speed, commitment, and forward momentum will get you to your goals so much faster. Will help you accomplish more. AND gain that confidence we all crave so much.

Just decide. Remember, you can always change your decision! But beware that you don’t do this too often. Because then you dilute the impact of your decision.

Indecision can keep you stuck. This can negatively impact your homeschool in big ways. And truly overcomplicate things.

As a reminder, here are the 5 steps to being more decisive in your homeschool and life:

commit, implement, observe, tweak, and move forward

Embracing & Living Out Our Homeschool Choices

So today, I invite you to practice being more decisive in your homeschool! This can make a huge impact on your homeschool…making it more fun, more interesting, and yes, more successful.

Here are some simple truths to remember:

We all have good days and bad days, clean sinks and dirty sinks, cooperative children and saucy children.
We all wonder sometimes why we chose this over that, and think that would be so much easier and what’s wrong with me!
We all want it ALL, right now.

For me, indecision was often a sign that I had forgotten that I felt called to spend my days with my children and homeschool. I had forgotten that an arts-infused, holistic hands-on curriculum speaks to me because it is healing for us all.

Even after years of homeschooling, I could still get stuck in comparison mode. With all of our access to seeing snippets of others’ lives on the internet, it is very easy to make up stories about everyone else doing so well out there while we’re over here in our little corner of the world making a mess of things.

Let me remind you that so much of the comparison, unrest, judgement and lack of confidence is really just taking place inside of our own heads!

We all tend to overcomplicate our lives sometimes. And we all feel overwhelmed sometimes. Above all, don’t let the overwhelm get the better of you and keep you from taking action. Clarity is not a destination, it’s a way of life. So remember, clarity comes from taking action. Over and over again.

And, if we want the chatter to stop, we need to be bold and decisive and commit to the choices we have made. We need to choose again this homeschool life we’re living and embrace it. And then we need to just get on with it!

I’ll leave you with this wonderful quote from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe…

“Whatever you can do or dream, you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!”

If you like this idea of considering your options and then empowering yourself to make a decision and move forward, this is the way I teach and coach homeschooling parents. I want you to feel like you can do this, and feel more joy and ease along the way. I don’t sell one particular curriculum. Instead, I help you discover YOUR gifts as a homeschooling mom and create a homeschool that you love.

Check out all that I offer!

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