A Genius Paradigm 
Have you heard of Ken Robinson? His TED talk, “Do Schools Kill Creativity,” has been viewed 72 MILLION times. If you haven’t watched it yet, I highly recommend it.
Right now I’m rereading his book “Finding Your Element.” I’ve listened to it several times and even read the actual book once. This time I’m taking the time to annotate, do the suggested activities, and take notes.
It is that good of a book.
It seems like just yesterday they were such cute babies…
And then they grow up.
Teens really get a bad rap. The teen years are so confusing. Especially right now! This is when they are supposed to be planning for the future but they are hearing all around them that the world is going to end!
It can be hard to envision a positive future, even for adults.
Have you ever taken a survey and tried to figure out what your “career” was? Years ago I was stopped in a mall for a survey (that used to be a thing before the internet) and the closest thing they could categorize me as on their list was a “housewife”. WOW! Did they regret that! They sure got an earful. My husband called me that word one time and sincerely regretted it. I did not marry an inanimate object. And a house has never been the focus of my career.
I have the ULTIMATE career.
Full confession. I have some bad habits.
One of them is not taking care of myself. For example, during the last few months not only was I doing everything for the Realizing Genius Homeschool Conference, but I was also moving my mom into my home – on top of all the classes I’m teaching this semester. I didn’t take time to take care of myself and I crashed HARD. Big wake-up call.
Another bad habit I have is getting sucked in by television series. I have a really hard time not doing something so when I crashed I started watching TV. It helped keep my mind busy enough that I didn’t go stir crazy. But I get so involved in the storyline that I have a hard time turning the TV off. And then I would fall asleep and miss half of it anyway!
It’s not just TV. My family and I are big Harry Potter fans. We would go to the parties at the book stores when the books came out and I would buy the book and then go home, send the boys to bed, and stay up all night reading. The boys would be on their own until I finished.
I don’t read a lot of fiction due to this problem. Somehow nonfiction is easier (most of the time) to put down.
When I first started homeschooling most homeschoolers I met were planning on sending their kids to high school when the time came. They couldn’t see themselves teaching at that level.
Today many people feel the same way.
Today when I go to the grocery store in the middle of the week with my son he usually isn’t the only kid in there but twenty years ago I really stood out when I’d take my four sons to the store. I’d regularly get the question, “Aren’t they supposed to be in school?”
You Need to Think Outside the Box for Homeschooling
“School-at-home” is not really homeschool. At least not what homeschool could be. The pandemic forced the whole world into distance learning, and many thought that that was what homeschooling is all about.
They couldn’t be more wrong.
I was bullied in school. I know that influenced my decision to homeschool.
The first time was when I was in first grade.
Our home backed up to the school so I walked through the fields to an opening between two houses that allowed me to easily get to my house. It was a really short walk and I had three younger siblings at home so it made sense that I walk home. Until they came after me.
Why Happiness Isn’t Enough
My oldest son has always been an “old soul.” He thinks deeply about things and yet wants to see the logic. He looked at me with questioning eyes that day. I had just told him I didn’t want him to have an easy, happy life. I wanted him to have a fulfilling one. A fulfilled life would mean hard work and painful decisions. Even at his age, he understood that. Why would I wish that on my child?
I just started listening to Emily Esfahani Smith’s book The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life that Matters, and it reminded me of that discussion with my son. It happened over a decade ago, but we still talk about it sometimes. And I’m going to have to tell him about this book. It validates everything I told him.
I was having a discussion yesterday with my 14-year-old son. He felt that whenever you do something good you do it for selfish reasons. His premise was that our brain is wired to give us a dopamine hit when we do things like that so we do more good things because we get this feel-good chemical. While I don’t quite agree with him on this it was a really good discussion and made me think. I love it when that happens!
He is right. On a biological level, we do get these feel-good chemicals and positive brain stimulation when we do something nice for others. But if that is true, why don’t we do more of it? There is so much more to the story.