Sometimes we like to share the case studies of moms who are rocking this homeschool thing. Below is one such story.
Nadine Dyer is here today to share with us her experience with the our homeschool consistency course. A homeschool mom with two kids, Nadine has always struggled to find her groove and have the homeschool she has always wanted. Can you find yourself in her story?
What were your homeschool days like before you found our homeschool consistency course?
Previous to doing the course, my days were all over the place. We had a lot of good days, true, but I often had no idea what I had done to create a “good day”. They felt like a lucky strike, or a fluke.
We also had some very difficult days, and I also had no idea how to fix those or how they had happened. I mostly felt like I was always just keeping my head above water and trying to stay one step ahead of our homeschool day, hoping for the best. Frazzled and frustrated is probably the best way to describe our days.
When things went off the rails, I had no idea how to pull them back in – or set us up so that they wouldn’t go AS FAR off the rails! I’d lose the day, then the next day, and then before I knew it *I* was blowing off school for weeks.
How did you feel about yourself as a homeschool mom prior to the course?
Mostly, I felt good about myself as a homeschool mom. I knew what I wanted for my kids, we were all committed to this path, and I felt good.
However, in the back of my mind was always this sense of not knowing what I was really doing, feeling frazzled, always trying to just hold our days together. The good days made me feel like a rock star, the bad days made me feel like a failure.
What did you think when you saw the course for the first time?
Generally speaking, if I need some planning ideas or ways to bring things together, I go to Pam’s blogs and podcasts. She is the planning QUEEN.
So when I saw that she was putting together this consistency course, I knew I had to get in on it. Consistency was THE one factor that was missing in my homeschool and I felt that it would be the key to having a more fluid and productive school year.
Describe your experience taking the consistency course?
When it first started, I was a mixture of both nervous as HECK and also really excited to see how this would go. I knew in my heart that I had to make some changes, but at the same time it’s really hard to be told that you need to make changes.
Once I got rolling though, I knew within the first few days that this was going to be a total game changer for my homeschool. It wasn’t just a set of videos to watch and worksheets that I’d never fill out, like other courses. There was IMMEDIATELY a really great sense of community, support, and encouragement from the other course members.
The course was really well organized, and dug DEEP into what was really underlying our struggles – and gave us small, bite sized, tangible things to do to set up some systems to get into good habits.
In my personal experience, the idea of setting a Minimum Viable Day for the days that inevitably come up where the “full plan” wasn’t going to happen, was a huge turning point for me. I went from throwing my hands up in the air (or hiding with tears and chocolate) when the day went down the drain, and moved to a place where I could see the day tanking and still reel it in and get in our MVD, ending the day as a win.
The other big eye opener for me was the idea of protecting our schooling time. We don’t have to stick to a clock, slavishly. But learning how to honor and protect our school hours so that my children get the BEST of me during that time, was key to me making some big progress in consistency.
How has your homeschool changed since you finished the course?
I took the consistency course just as our school year was about to start and we had, hands down, the very best start to a school year that we’d ever had. The kids knew about my consistency goals and they were SO excited to help me stick it out. If there was a school day on the calendar, we all hustled and got it done – they loved seeing all of my calendar filled with “DONE” as much as I did.
It set me up with good habits, but it also set my kids up with some good habits. I look to my notes and worksheets often. I still use the idea of an MVD, and I protect my schooling hours like a fierce mama bear. The days are not all perfect, but this course helped me set my priorities straight so that I can handle the bad days and keep us on track.
How do you feel about yourself as a homeschool mom now that you have completed it?
I feel like I’m crafting the days now. I feel like I am no longer chasing the whim of the fates as we go willy-nilly through our days. I know that when a less-than-perfect day happens, I’m not a failure. We won’t sink and drown. I have systems and plans in place to accept the rough days, and keep working anyway.
Have you been able to maintain your consistency?
I’ve been pretty consistent, yes. I do drop the ball once in a while, but the skills I’ve learned, and the encouragement I’ve received, from the course have given me the ability to pull it back on track.
I feel like I’ve had a paradigm shift, in how I view my role as an educator and a parent. I am genuinely and deeply grateful that this course showed up just when I needed it the most.
For more tools like this and help with consistency in your homeschool, check out the Homeschool Consistency Boot Camp.
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