It’s time to redefine success as homeschoolers

It’s time to redefine success as homeschoolers ~
Written by Jamie C. Martin of Simple Homeschool and Introverted Moms

It’s time we redefine success as homeschoolers. Time we move away from thinking there’s one correct definition of this word.

That belief often comes from our conditioning in an educational system that judged us not on our ideas and insights, but on our true/false, multiple-choice responses.

Many of us as homeschooling parents feel that success for our kids equals getting them into college. If we do that, we believe, we can feel as though we have not failed them.

We can show the nay-sayers that we have not ruined our kids’ chances or limited their options in life.

Yet that’s also a narrow, conditioned, pressured response from an old, worn-out paradigm. It’s time to think bigger. There’s more than one path to a successful life.

For some of our children, college will make sense and be the best decision. For others, the biggest waste of time, money, and energy.

That’s why my working definition of homeschool success is “helping each child reach their fullest potential.”

Yet how do we know what each child’s potential is?

Here’s an answer the system would tell us is not a valid choice: We don’t.

As the mom of two beloved, special-needs young adults, I know this in an acute way. I feel it in my bones.

So I continue to do now what I did for 15 years as a homeschool mom, for both my neurotypical and neurodivergent children, as well as for myself:

I try to help all of us become a little healthier, a little stronger: mind, body, soul, spirit.

This gradual unfolding, one page at a time, of my children’s life story will continue to be written, long after I’m gone.

I’m not the author or the protagonist, merely a supporting character for a little while.

In the chapters I’m privileged to be a part of we have many undeveloped plotlines. Victories and devastations. What good story doesn’t?

Sometimes I’m desperate to flip ahead to a new chapter; sometimes I wish I could go back and reread one of my favorite parts.

As parents we often pray for a miracle, but perhaps the miracle in motion is that we all continue to slowly grow, change, evolve.

Each of us reaching toward fullness of potential as we go.

Each of us success stories in the making.

* Read more of Jamie’s inspirational writing here.

What’s your working definition of homeschool success? I’d love to hear it!

What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your personality type needs most!