Dr. Thomas Maples

Inspiration

Practical Parenting – The Home-Schooling Perspective

Homeschooling? Wow… It’s been twenty plus years and I swear, it was easier to be a kindergarten teacher than it is to homeschool two of your own. Comedians have written material abound on the subject of parenting, but intermix the role of schoolmaster and parent, and you get a convoluted concoction of interdisciplinary insanity meant only for the eyes of the most hardened of souls.

Friends, build in breaks during this time. Your children see you as a natural force to be reckoned with. This is part of their developmental plight. They must separate / individuate from you in order to navigate towards their own individualized adult being. Teachers are one part removed from this equation, they are sources of rules that mirror what your children will realize when they enter that adult world of work and rules associated with the work that we do. If you have a child that listens at school, be grateful, your journey is 1/2 complete. If you have a child that listens at home, use this time to instill the values you find dear, because an educational system will not do that for you.

For families that have two parents, build in breaks. Have one parent school while the other works. Interchange the work accordingly in a tag team effort. Personally, my wife has taken on the educational priorities during this time of COVID Quarantine while I work to support the family. I then take the kids from her in early afternoon and the roles switch. For families that have one parent households, attempt to enlist the village of your loved one’s to help build in breaks for you.

It takes a village to raise a child!

The times are changing, and we have to adapt to the times we face. We find ourselves in a period of change where adaptation is crucial at both a biological and sociological level. This is not about roles within the family, for these roles are defined by each and every family that is now forced to adapt to circumstances not realized for at least a century. As we are forced to adapt to home schooling and the possibility of one income households, we do have a long history to draw from to understand that this can be done.

Let us pull together to show loving kindness during this great transition. We are becoming home school teachers, yet we can use this time to do something not afforded to even my parents generation. We now have the option to instill the foundational values of intelligence mixed with character to raise the next generation free to unlock the world of their choice.

Prayers and blessings for all of you practical parents out there who are undertaking this arduous journey.

Believe… Achieve… Advance Confidently in the Direction of Your Dreams.