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Without question, we as people have hard days, and many times we call those days, “bad days.”

Yet as I inch further along in my journey of homeschooling my three bears, (aka: sons), I find that I must let go more and more of my perfectionistic leanings and call into question my labeling of a bad day.

Checkmarks:

You see, though the words may not come out of my mouth, if all of the empty slots for the checkmarks are not filled by the day’s end on each of my bears’ checklists, I have a tendency to feel like we did not have a successful homeschooling day.

Don’t be mistaken, I do not hold to an “unschooling” educational philosophy and I am not about to say to throw curriculum out the window and yell “carpe diem.”

I believe in the goodness of discipline and structure. I believe in setting goals, routines, and progress! (My “Type A’ness” actually gets stupidly and embarrassingly excited as I reread my last two sentences.)

BUT, what I feel like I am actually learning, and, in opposition to my natural tendency, is the need to redefine and reframe my understanding of a successful homeschool day.

People not Robots:

On my social media sites, I see many public school teacher-friends post quotes, memes, and articles conveying the idea of their students needing to first feel loved and cared for before they are ready to learn.

I think there’s a lot of truth in that idea. For me, this idea applies to my own kiddos in various practical ways throughout a day.

A few examples?

• My husband works irregular shifts at his job. I value my kiddos’ time with him. I absolutely prefer getting school work done as early as we can in a day. Yet when my husband’s off-time falls in the morning that day, our schedule shifts and I make sure in some way, shape, or form that our kiddos get some good quality time with him.

• Maybe I have a sick kiddo, or one that I can just tell is more tired than usual. Right now my middle bear is still working on really mastering reading. If we don’t get to reading until the end of a school day, I can tell that his brain is more tired than usual and I choose to settle for less pages than what was originally on the docket.

These are two common examples from our home. So what makes my type-A self have the ability to not freak out on letting an empty slot on a checklist remain unchecked!?

Flexibility:

It’s this: Packed into the makeup of homeschooling is an abundance of flexibility!

Yay for flexibility! For me, this usually means we do some variant of a year-long school schedule. (It never follows specific dates from year to year).We vacation at random times, take days off when they’re called for, and usually keep to a 4 day school week.

This allows me to move at a slower pace when I sense the need for it, but also the confidence that my kiddos WILL get their work done. Education is insanely important to me, but so are many other things that I want to intentionally carve out time for.

If I’m being frank, I want my kiddos to graduate with an above average education. I’m competitive like that. However, what I have come to really trust and settle into is the understanding that I can give my kids this AND not feel guilty about incomplete checklists some days.

A twist on an old adage that I’ve come to really resonate with states, “Don’t sacrifice the good for the perfect.” Sometimes it’s really just a need for a reframing of your mindset.

Are my kids learning? Will they get it eventually? Are we, albeit imperfectly, continuing to keep on keeping on. If all the answers are ‘yes’, you’re probably having a good homeschool day!

What about you? Are you a check-list lover like me or do you have a different homeschool struggle? Have you found an answer to your struggle? Let me know in the comments!