3 lessons learned from moving and homeschooling

3 lessons learned from moving and homeschooling ~
Written by Purva Brown of The Classical Unschooler

I always thought of myself as the settling down kind, so this third move in three years comes as a bit of a surprise. But when life throws you a juicy mango alongside the proverbial lemons, you have to drop everything and take a bite.

And, as it turns out, moving from California to Washington state is a ripe, plump mango that has fallen into our collective laps.

“We’re moving? Again?” my daughter asks when we reveal to her that, yes, we will be celebrating Christmas with extended family this year and every year from now on. She is happy, but sounds a little overwhelmed, which is exactly how I feel.

But as with everything, there are some incredible lessons to learn.

And I’ve found that what works when it comes to moving also works when it comes to homeschooling:

3 lessons learned from moving and homeschooling

1. Have a Vision / Dream Before You Start.

Before we even decided to pursue moving to another state, we dreamed a lot. Okay, okay, it was me. I did the dreaming and the projecting.

My husband tends to be more of a “get it done” guy. But I had a vision board with pictures and stickers. We spent a lot of time talking about how we would want it to be.

In homeschooling, this ability to dream is especially important. Whether or not you make a vision board, have a good idea of what you want your homeschool day to look like.

Envision what you would consider a success and then go from there. Beginning with the end in mind works because it helps you know where you are in reference to your goal.

2. Keep it Simple.

During a move, it’s essential to keep life simple.

You don’t decide to paint that bedroom blue when the colors you already have work just fine, even if they are a tad boring. You don’t have to be Chip and Joanna Gaines. Just spruce up your home.

Get it done as simply as possible, get the house sold and move on.

When it comes to transferring this point to homeschooling, I have a harder time. See, I like discovering new ways to introduce subjects and information to my children. I enjoy learning new things myself. So novelty is incredibly attractive.

But I’m learning that the simpler I keep our sit down work, the more my kids have time to explore and the more self-directed learning takes place.

The other day I saw my son watching science YouTube videos during his screen/video game time. Learning can be fun if it’s not always coerced and forced.

3. Throw Away More Than You Keep.

With three moves in three years, I have pared down our belongings. I found this quote by William Morris especially handy: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

As a result, we have thrown away more than we have retained. People call us minimalists, but I consider it the only way to stop our belongings from owning us.

Often homeschoolers will say that they have way too much – books, especially. But I find that the digital age makes it a little easier to let things go. We don’t belong to a time when we have to hoard information. It literally is all around us.

Digital copies of something take up vastly less room than physical ones. As a result, we get rid of a lot and own less, making both moving and homeschooling easier.

While this might be our last move for a while (once we find a neighborhood to plant our feet and our lives in!), these lessons will stay with me always. They are timeless.

Tell us in the comments- when was your last move? And what were its lessons and blessings?

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