“All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.” – Walter Scott

We have been homeschooling for over 6 years now.

I started teaching them in Kindergarten, and the oldest is finishing up 5th grade this year!  That is  180 days of school for six years, which would be  (hold on, let me get my calculator because I still can’t do math in my head…) 1,800 days of school.

1,800 days of school.

I don’t know if I’ve done 1,800 days of laundry in my lifetime….well, maybe.  But that’s hard to say for sure.

But I can tell you that during these 1,800 days of schooling I have relied on inspirational quotes to encourage me.  I need to persevere through the day, through the distractions, through the work.  I need to believe that sometimes pushing myself and sometimes pushing my kids is worth it; and I need to believe that even if we take a whole week off for Spring Break that the world isn’t going to fall apart, and we are going to actually feel rejuvenated and better if we relax and unwind for a while.

 

“There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent.” – Mahatma Gandhi

 

These quotes are so encouraging to hear.  Words from teachers who have been there before and walked this path ahead of us.   I also love seeing who else has been homeschooled:

Wikipedia: List of Homeschooled People

• Ansel Adams
• Louisa May Alcott
• Alexander Graham Bell
• Felicia Day
• Thomas Edison
• The Jonas Brothers
• C.S. Lewis
• Michelle Kwan
• Florence Nightingale
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Taylor Swift
• Tim Tebow
• Woodrow Wilson

All of the resources, which I use to help myself learn how to teach better, more deliberate and with a greater patience, are very helpful for me.

But there are days when you know the kids are just dragging, and the fact is that they need to learn how to endure boring work. 

If you need ideas on how to make science and history fun, you are in a good place to find something!  The world is full of amazing ideas on how to spruce up the homeschooling classroom to make it interesting and fun.

But they need to learn how to endure through boring lessons in order to learn not only their studies, but also how to build character within themselves.  I can build interesting lessons for them every day, but if they don’t understand how to make it interesting for themselves, then adulthood is going to be very challenging.  

Case in point: the kids have those rubber bands to make bracelets for that loom kit that is popular these days

But they don’t have the loom, and I wasn’t going to get it.  So my son built a loom out of Legos instead, and they are happily making bracelets together!  

That is the ingenuity I am teaching them, above the grammar, reading, math and everything else.  You can create, and you can imagine.  The power to make life interesting is within you.

This morning was tough, because the kids had a lot of binder work to finish.  The past few days they were working until dinner time finishing their work, and it was wearing all of us out.  So this morning I sat them down in their desks and had them get to work…start early, finish early.

While they were starting math, I wrote inspirational quotes for them on our whiteboard:

“Fall seven times, get up eight.”  -Japanese Proverb

“Not only must we be good, but we must be good for something.” -Henry David Thoreau

“You have got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.” -Irish Proverb

“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing.  The worst thing you can do is nothing.”  -President Theodore Roosevelt

I told them that I knew their greatness, and I knew they could do this work.  It was hard work, and I understood how hard it feels.  But I wouldn’t give it to them unless I knew, knew in my heart, that they could do it.  I wasn’t just teaching them math and writing, but I was teaching them endurance because that will help them when they are adults.

I told them I loved them more than life, and I was always proud of what they did.  We are Makers and we all create, and we will always do amazing things.  And that is why we have to do our school.  So we can understand how to create, and how to imagine, and how to inspire.

This is what happened: they finished 8 books worth of work by lunch.

1801 days: Completed!

 

As a homeschooling mom, don’t just teach your kids.  Inspire them to be greater.