A final letter.

As homeschool moms...it is easy to get bogged down in the temporal side of our daily lives. We are buried in the homemaking chores of meals, laundry, and soccer games, in addition to language arts lessons, math problems, and sentence diagramming. But, the life of our souls, our home, and our school is made of more than just the temporal. It is composed of spiritual substance, too. How do we not only see, but embrace the spiritual side of ordinary life? How can we find purpose and deep, spiritual meaning in the seemingly menial tasks of our day to day? Author, and homeschool mama, Jessica Poe shares her insights, her thoughts, and her book, Everyday MOMents: Discovering Christ in the Details of Motherhood in a conversation that attempts to answer some of these pivotal questions. This episode will leave you looking for the moments in your Mom Life where the Savior resides, with the beautiful invitation to join Jessica in her MOMent mindset, “In the trivial trial...I look for treasure.”   @jessica_poepoe @ahomeoflearning @nativitiesathome   https://www.amazon.com/Everyday-MOMents-Discovering-Details-Motherhood-ebook/dp/B01BO8K8K8   https://deseretbook.com/p/everyday-moments-discovering-christ-in-the-details-of-motherhood-ppr?variant_id=132323-paperback   http://jessica-poe.com/

How can mothers of faith with special needs children nurture growth in their homeschools? How can they apply the message of the restored gospel and invite the savior into their personal story? How can the atonement help and heal both them and their children along our way? Today, Erin McWilliams and I will discuss the heartache paired with the balm of Gilead our Savior offers as we walk our children home to Him.

It takes trust in Christ, and His direction, to follow this homeschool path composed predominantly of your faith in God and His plan for you. You know intellectually that an education centered on Christ and His Gospel is a valuable gift to give a child of God; still you wonder, will my child turn out alright, will they launch into life as the person they are meant to be, will they be happy and look back fondly at their formative years?    It is impossible to know the end from the beginning, but it is possible to know our Savior and trust in His plan for us and our family. To help you see a little bit ahead I have invited Adelynn Eisenach, the daughter of a friend of mine, Ali Cannon Eisenach, Editor of The Juvenile Instructor, who you can hear in episode #24. She is the woman behind The Millennial Instructor and author of A Meeting with the Principal. Her daughter Addy has recently graduated from their homeschool and is here to answer a few questions and share her story from the perspective of having “crossed over,” and begun a life of her own with the foundation of her Gospel centered home education. Addy has experienced the fruit of a homeschool education centered on Christ and she has graciously agreed to share that with us today.

As we are all getting back to school I have been thinking a lot about structure, and the processes we establish in our homes as we begin a new year. I have learned that homeschooling is the art of implementing and perfecting processes. This is what I find myself doing most often; putting a routine or a habit in place and then tweaking it each time we return to it. The task I perform most frequently while teaching in my home is refining. I am also constantly guiding my children in this process of progress. So, today’s letter is about learning to trust God in our processes. To be still and know. It’s about showing up today, experiencing failure, and having the courage to show up tomorrow and try again. It’s about refinement in the process and giving our minds permission to grow. It’s about believing that because of Christ we can define success as moving forward and doing it better next time.   If you are looking for good resources to know more about growth mindset and grit, I recommend the books: Grit - by Angela Duckworth & Mindset - by Carol Dweck

But, Meg, how did you know that homeschool was right for your family? I have been hearing this question a lot lately, and I want to take the time to really articulate my thoughts and present them to you formally here. This is a really hot topic right now and a question on the heart of a lot of Latter-day Saint mothers. I think the answer to this question is really not as complex as we tend to make it, and I hope my general response doesn’t sound cliche. I think when sisters ask me this they are hoping that I will provide them a list of pros and cons, allowing them to just check boxes and see if they somehow fit the mold or not. The reality is, that there is no homeschool mold. In fact, homeschool is typically for those who want absolutely nothing to do with a mold.   In today's episode I share the process I went through, the things I have learned since crossing over, and the wonderful things I believe about mothers of Zion in these Latter Days.

Fall is here, school is starting, and if you are a mother in Zion there is a good chance you are wondering what homeschooling is all about, are curious if this path could be right for you, or are trying it out for the first time. Whether you are a homeschool newbie or a seasoned home educator, hearing the stories of how others arrived at this massive lifestyle decision can remind you of your own story, and motivate you to get going, or keep going, full speed ahead.    This is why we have spent the last few episodes, meeting some Latter-day Saint mamas and hearing their stories. “Why.” Why did they, and do they, take the leap of faith every day, year after year. What brought them, and more importantly, what keeps them on this journey with Christ, in the trenches with their children, doing the homeschool dance. Today, we are continuing the discussion of the homeschool decision from a Latter-day Saint perspective with one of my favorite people, Whitney Teuscher.

Fall is almost here, School is about to begin, and if you are a mother of Zion there is a good chance you are at least wondering what homeschooling is all about, and are curious if this path could be right for you. Whether you are a homeschool newbie or a seasoned mama, hearing the stories of how others arrived at this massive lifestyle decision can remind you of your own story, and motivate you to get going, or keep going, full speed ahead.    Join me, as Cassie Shepherd from Home Centered Learning shares her conversion to homeschooling.   www.homecenteredlearning.com https://homecenteredlearning.com/entrywaysofchrist https://www.instagram.com/homecenteredlearning/  

Fall is almost here, School is about to begin, and if you are a mother of Zion there is a good chance you are at least wondering what homeschooling is all about, and are curious if this path could be right for you. Whether you are a homeschool newbie or a seasoned mama, hearing the stories of how others arrived at this massive lifestyle decision can remind you of your own story, and motivate you to get going, or keep going, full speed ahead.    Join me, and my guest, Shannon Reid as we discuss her homeschool conversion. 

Today we are speaking to the mothers of Zion who are standing on the precipice of school this fall wondering what to do. Many public school mom’s are evaluating the landscape of their children spending their school day in a public institution inundated by health protocols. They are pondering the potential of an education stripped of its extracurriculars and entertaining the possibility that even when school does return, another surge in COVID cases could find them emergency homeschooling once more.   I have heard from friends expressing concerns that they don’t want to be caught off guard, or be left unprepared in the event that emergency homeschooling should happen again. I have had friends express that online Zoom classes, or other screen learning solutions have either not worked or are just not desirable due to the absence of the in person teaching and learning experience. I have had an increasing interest in my sisters asking me what I do, and how I do it.   In response to that, I have invited my friend, Jessica Smith from Simple Wonders back to the podcast to discuss a recent article that she wrote entitled; HOME-CENTERED EDUCATION. While I have personally posted past episodes, YouTube videos, and content on both my website and Instagram that outline much of what I do and how I do it. The values, methods, and ideas presented here in many ways define my WHY. And to my sisters struggling right now, to you who are researching, praying, counselling, and considering; after more than a decade of homeschooling; I can with confidence assure you that you will easily discover your own what and how if you are inspired to move forward on the homeschool path, but it is the WHY that is most important. It is the WHY you might not see when you are coming at this homeschool option backwards. Any faith based, pre-COVID, homeschooling mother was rarely coerced by an outside situation to consider homeschooling as an option as a last resort. Most of us began with a powerful and motivating WHY that brought us to this lifestyle. Every families’s WHY is personal and powerful. It is the WHY that will motivate you and help you persist on hard days. It is the WHY that has been lost in our culture, and it is the WHY I want to be sure you see clearly now. . . . As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-Day Saints, we believe that God has ordained the educational decisions in a family as the right and duty of the parents. Parents are accountable to Him for this mandate. Children are spirit sons and daughters of God and are an heritage to the Lord. It is to God that we will answer to for the training and teaching of our children. As Americans we acknowledge that it is not the government's job to educate children. It is their responsibility to protect parents ability to do so. And while we all need to be cognizant of homeschooling laws in our area and obey them, the job to determine the process and provide the education of each child is ours. Education decisions should be taken seriously, approached prayerfully, and every option should be scrutinized. In the event that any educational program offered to the public does not settle with our hearts we can and should strongly pursue something different.   Only parents can determine what that something different should be, but if you think your different might be homeschool, Jessica’s words will provide you with a lot of faith based evidence, history, and reasoning for considering this course of action. Homeschooling will not be easy, but it will be worth it. We know that through Christ all things are possible. The homeschool path is the one less taken, but it is one where beautiful flowers grow and thrive. In this difficult day of uncertainty and evaluation, as you take inventory of your household and the way forward in educating your children, I hope you will choose to make Christ the center of your education equation. I have learned that He is the sum of all things in life.   I hope this episode empowers you to know that what you ultimately decide will be what is needed for you, your children, and your unique situation. It will be your choice, your great responsibility, and your power. It will be the beautiful fruit of the liberties and freedoms many of us enjoy in the United States. The freedom to choose and obey the voice of your own conscience is the way God intended for ALL of His children to live. If something you hear today in my conversation with Jessica resonates, or rings true, and you want to learn more I invite you to please read her full article below, and you can reach both of us on Instagram or through email if you have additional questions.   To any pre-COVID homeschoolers I encourage you to use this episode as a tool for addressing the questions of other public school mothers who might likewise be approaching you.   If you do choose to homeschool, as always, it is my hope that you will homeschool with Christ.   https://simplewonders.org/introduction-to-education/