2020’s Extended Back to School Season

As I write this, I am celebrating the launch of 2 of 3 out of our nest, temporarily, because the colleges are closing down from Thanksgiving through the New Year. I am just grateful that they at least get a couple of months on campus this year… with social distancing, masks, and lots of hand cleaning.

For our one who is still home doing virtual school, we are being innovative to find ways to safely get her out of the house this semester… before it gets cold. I have considered just taking a long road trip and making sure we have a back-up battery and plenty of charging cords with us so she can get her schoolwork done from the road. I have also thought about getting her involved in horseback riding or tennis, which are easy to do with social distancing. I have no idea which, if any, of these options will actually stick, but I know I cannot make her just stay in the house all of the time, so, we’ll get it figured out.

2020 has caused a lot of anxiety for all of us. We have to face the challenges of uncertainty and of unexpected changes, and it is quite an adjustment for us.

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How about you and yours? Where are your young scholars learning this year… at home, on campus, on the road, or something else? What extracurriculars are you doing safely?

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Previous articles provided resource suggestions to help parents in this super tough year. Make sure you check out the parent resources articles and let me know which one of them has been helpful.

Anxiety can be dangerous for you and for your kids, especially being together more due to COVID-19.

Also, I want to encourage you to learn to identify and deal with anxiety, for yourself and for your children. I wrote articles previously about how it can cause a lot of problems if it’s not dealt with in a healthy way as quickly as possible. Especially due to the altered nature of the 2020 school year due to COVID, dealing with anxiety now is critical.

I recently had a conversation with a wise Mom & Grandmom. She stated that having regular family meetings is important. And she said it’s even more important to give everyone an opportunity to share their feelings, without judgement and with empathetic responses. This is something we were already doing regularly, to discuss chores mostly, but now we also incorporate the feelings sharing. It has been very helpful.

I pray that you and yours are adjusting well and staying safe as you live through this pandemic era.

ARCHIVE FROM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL YEARS – Family Pose Before Nature Walk / Hike @ Sweetwater Creek #ButterflyHomeschool Field Trip

[RESOURCE 1] Back to School 2020 Support for Parents

Thank you so much to everyone who has been contributing questions and suggesting resources. My goal is to help parents by sharing information about resources for parents as they navigate back to school 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic era.

“If you are reading this and know of other helpful resources, or if you just have a specific resource need, go to my last blog post and use the form to send me a message with your question or suggestion.

…I am not endorsing these resources. I am not an affiliate of these resources. I am simply connecting parents with resources that may be helpful, but they need to still vet each resource prior to use…”

~ Donna Marie Johnson, Mom of Butterfly Homeschool

RESOURCE No. 1

Dr. Tiffany Russell of the “Thoughts of a Homeschool Mom” Blog

FREE INFORMATION

Homeschool Information Session Link: bit.ly/homeschool101info

PAID CLASS

How to Create a Homeschool Schedule Class Link: bit.ly/schedulehomeschool

I know Dr. Tiffany from an online group we are both members of which supports Moms with self-care, entrepreneurship, parenting, and more. Generally speaking, the other moms I have met in that group are stellar people. They are women of integrity who are also wise and talented.

ARCHIVED RESOURCES

Because I have been homeschooling in the state of Georgia for many years (just graduated our older two scholars), I have a wealth of information available on this blog’s archives to support you with getting started.

One of the first things to note is that homeschooling is actually a legal term in many states, including in Georgia, and is governed by specific laws. I notated some of this information on my resource list page to help guide you as you seek to register as a legal/licensed homeschool.

Second, note that if you are educating your children at home via a program where someone else is teaching them remotely, that is still valid home-based education, but it is not the legal homeschool that is mentioned above. All of my children were in legal homeschool during their younger years. As they got older, we chose to register them for virtual education via a public charter school that did 99% of the teaching in an online portal. During the virtual school, I am legally called a “learning coach” instead of teacher or educator and do not have to register with the state or local authorities. Once registered, the virtual school is actually responsible for your young scholars just the same as a brick-and-mortar school is responsible.

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The Perfect Enemy of Healthy Parenting

Dear Parents, You are never going to be a perfect parent (of little humans or of pets). For those of you who like me, believe that Father God is our perfect Heavenly Father both for us and for our children (and pets), then you’ll find comfort in knowing that HE always finds a way to step in and perfect everything that concerns us, in spite of our imperfections as parents.

“The Lord will accomplish that which concerns me; Your [unwavering] lovingkindness, O Lord, endures forever — Do not abandon the works of Your own hands.”

Psalm 138:8 Amplified Bible (AMP)

WHO IS THE PERFECT ENEMY OF HEALTHY PARENTING?

Know that PERFECTIONISM is an evil spirit who is the perfect enemy of you as a parent and of your healthy parenting. Perfectionism is the spirit of fear with a different face that masks its true identity. The Word of God tells us that He has not given that to us. Fear/perfectionism is inflicted as a soul disease by the enemy of our souls. He wants to tear us down and make us feel inadequate so that we are disabled from any hope of healthy parenting. He wants us to parent from a place of anger and anxiety and pride so that our children get this evil spirit transferred from us to them and passed down for generations.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline [abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control].

2 Timothy 1:7 AMP

I know that is not what any parents want for their children or grandchildren, yet it happens over and over again because our enemy has us deceived about fear/perfectionism.

Here is another way to think of it from the perspective of caregiving:

“You don’t have to be great at most things. Or anything, really. You just have to be good enough. And I bet you’re good enough at just about everything you need to do.”

Cori of TheCaregiverSpace.org

Perfectionism Illustrated By @VeronicaDearly Shared by Cori

From the perspective of a pet parent, I can share that my daughter said, “We broke her already, Mom, in less than a day,” as we watched our new foster dog begin to dry heave for the nth time. I could have just freaked out and gave up and taken her back to the shelter. However, I remembered what the shelter taught me in preparation for my role, and I also reached out for support. I am not expecting my experience as a pet parent to be perfect from day one, but I do expect for it to get better over time… and for us to get better for our dog over time.

My main goal in this blog article is to encourage you to ease up on your expectations of yourself during this unprecedented time in human history. Focus your attention on what you can control. Learn more as you go. Do better as you learn. That’s all anyone can realistically expect of you right now, so that’s all you can expect of yourself, too.

AND, most importantly, recognize who your enemy is and keep him from bringing his mess into your mind and your home. Choose to get rid of fear/perfectionism today. Take this seriously.

For more perspective on this, check out previous articles I’ve written about anxiety as a silent but deadly enemy in homeschool. It’s also another face of the chameleon called fear.

I care about you. Please reach out to me any time via my Instagram DM inbox.

@DonnaMarie234grad

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