Dream Big and Go Home
Creating a Homeschool Dreamboard
By Judith Jolma
Do you have a homeschool dreamboard? We need to be women of vision. Our children depend on us to imagine what is possible for THEM.
Einstein said that imagination is more powerful than education because "education has limits; imagination does not."
So use your imagination to create a custom education for your children and the best homeschool life possible.
Dreams bring clarity. The opposite of that is anxiety. If you don’t know what you are trying to accomplish in your homeschool then you don’t have a map. You are just out there wandering around, prone to buy every new beautiful curriculum and chore chart that crosses your path. But if you know what you want in your heart of hearts for your children, you will have clarity, focus, direction and ultimately peace.
Don’t settle for homeschooling out of necessity or trying to conform to the way the outside world says you need to educate your children. Instead, find some time to be quiet and live inside your imagination. Visualize the desires you have for your children.
“I want them to be intelligent.”
“I want them to know how to pray.”
“I want them to be able to think critically and problem solve.”
“I want them to be equipped to follow their own dreams.”
It is common for families to create a vision board to achieve their dream of buying a home, or taking a dream vacation. But have you ever taken the time to imagine the world you wish to create for your children?
Here is what the fourth century Church father John Chrysostom said about this:
“In children we have a great charge committed to us. Let us bestow great care upon them, and do everything that the Evil One may not rob us of them. But now our practice is the reverse of this. We take all care indeed to have our farm in good order, and to commit it to a faithful manager, we look out for it as an ass-driver, and muleteer, and bailiff, and a clever accountant. But we do not look out for what is much more important, for a person to whom we may commit our son as the guardian of his morals, though this is a possession much more valuable than all others. It is for him indeed that we take such care of our estate. We take care of our possessions for our children, but of the children themselves we take no care at all. Form the soul of thy son aright, and all the rest will be added hereafter.”
– [ST John Chrysostom Homilies on 1 Timothy, Homily 9.]
When you set out to homeschool (or maybe you are just considering homeschooling) you are doing
so because you want the very best for your child. So take the time to imagine what is possible for them. If you live in the imagination, you can create a path from the dream to the reality.
So here is an exercise: Let's use the home environment as an example. Imagine what your home looks like (the way you dream it could look).
Is it well ordered?
Peaceful?
Cheerful?
Productive?
Is it the sort of environment that is well suited for a child to learn and to learn to love learning?
Don’t get discouraged about the fact that it is not like that today. Don’t give up because you don’t know how to create that environment. Just live in that dream for a bit and put it on your vision board.
Creating a path from the dream to reality is a skill. But in order to keep you invested in the work, you have to have the dream.
Imagine what the children will say about their education when they are grown. Imagine what they will be skilled to do and accomplish with their lives. Imagine the internal character and virtue that you know will make them happy.
Van Gogh said, “I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream.”
Here is a little secret. When you set a dream and you convert that to a goal and goals into actions, you will achieve the dream because the universe operates by law and not by luck. That is why we can land a shuttle on the moon. There is a dream, and a method, and calculated efforts produce impossible results. AND, as my friend and mentor, January Donavan often says, “The reality of the dream is always greater than we imagined.”
So, think of your homeschool and ask, "What does the end of this year look like?" Imagine it. And then create a path to get there.
To explore more about the skill of creating a path from dream to reality, ask me about the Woman School: A practical guide to wholeness
.
Sophia Homeschool teaches parents how to homeschool. Learn more about our training at Sophiahomeschool.com
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