With February being the longest month of the homeschool year, there’s plenty of time to dive deep into two key themes for home educators: Bravery and Belonging. Join Gina and Christyn as they discuss their big and small moments of brave action in homeschooling, and how the idea of belonging can sometimes be a stumbling block…until you find your people.
1:55 Recap of Episode 1 and the new insights into autonomy Christyn and Gina uncovered
3:42 Paying attention to to what fulfills us as parents makes us more interesting educational partners for our kids
5:16 Gina thinks bravery in homeschool is sometimes just saying out loud “We’re homeschooling” because you can never predict the response
6:40 When you opt for a different path, you have to have bravery to go along and stay on it
7:05 Christyn’s idea of bravery comes partly from Sara Bareilles’s song “Brave“
7:35 The song talks about how disappearing and not showing our brave because we doubt our choices and we don’t want to make waves
8:30 Committing the act of homeschooling shows our big our brave is!
9:00 Gina talks brave moments in her life, including starting this podcast, and putting herself out there on radio interviews and in writing to talk about the positives of homeschooling
10:13 Christyn discusses being brave enough to start the homeschooling lifestyle at a time when her life was overshadowed by her husband’s death. She took on Joan of Arc’s quote as a mantra: “I am not afraid, I was born to do this.”
12:40 Smaller brave moment for Christyn: waking up and going to the zoo instead of opening the books. The success of that made an impact on how she decided to homeschool going forward
14:04 Gina’s smaller brave moment was talking up the first day of school, then announcing the only thing on the schedule was to play all day! It’s a brave step to announce that the education of your kids belongs to you
14:35 Moving to Belonging as a theme, especially in a community sense
14:55 Gina finds meeting and greeting the world in general to be a perennial challenge
15:30 Christyn doesn’t always feel like she belongs in homeschool groups. It’s been a stumbling block, but one-on-one dynamics work best
16:15 Gina agrees that her best belonging moments are with small groups
16:40 Homeschoolers often get caught up in group identities that may create barriers for belonging if you don’t fit
17:25 Home educating can bring stress so feeling like you have support is key.
19:18 Gina and Christyn both hope that the OnlySchoolers podcast community gives a sense of belonging
20:23 Homeschooling is lonely sometimes, and homeschooling an only can be especially lonely. Gina and Christyn talk about how their kids’ experience of finding a place to belong
24:10 Show us your brave!