A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

Love is the key ingredient in your homeschool. Knowing you are loved, though, and feeling loved are not identical.

Here are some examples of that distinction:

Knowing you’re loved:
My mom makes meals for me every day.

Feeling loved:
My mom makes sure my favorite snacks are in the pantry.

Knowing you’re loved:
My parents come to all my soccer games.

Feeling loved:
My parents comforted me with hugs and kindness when we lost the game.

Knowing you’re loved:
My dad sits next to me to watch his football games and shares his snack.

Feeling loved:
My dad watches my favorite shows and shares my snack.

Be on the lookout for ways you can help your kids feel THEY are loved versus simply knowing they are loved.

This post is originally from Instagram and @juliebogartwriter is my account there so come follow along for more conversations like this one!

Give your kids something to brag about!

Let’s break a rule. You get to go first.

Put what YOU want to do first tomorrow. Just for a day. Just do your One Thing that makes you a little bit excited.

What Is That Thing?

Can you do it right in front of your kids, smack dab in the middle of the day?

Can you say something like:

“I’m making a candle from scratch today. I was reading about it online and I got so interested, I decided to do it. You can play or do whatever you want, but I’ll be over here candle-making.”

Could you say:

“Hey, excuse me while I grab a cup of tea and read this chapter in my book. I have to know what happens next.”

Or maybe say nothing.

What if you turned on the TV, hooked up YouTube, and did yoga right in the middle of the children’s play space, with toys on every side?

Perhaps you make sure you get your run in as you train for that half marathon.

Maybe you start the day with your own copywork—recording your favorite passages from a book or copying French into a notebook as you study it.

Showing Up

For our kids, we talk so much about:

• catalyzing curiosity,
• creating a hunger to learn,
• and encouraging dedication to follow through.

But how are WE living those very values? Not just as a model but as the very life force of our days? How are we showing up and living the beliefs and values we say we have?

Dream, act on a tiny portion of that dream, do it in front of your children (not off stage after they’re in bed).

See what happens!

There’s no tactic that ensures a child will match a parent’s fantasy. There’s only love and trying, over and over—until the child knows they are loved, and the parent knows the child is a unique, wholly separate person.

If you missed Part One, here it is.

The Trying: every tip, trick, and attempt to grow your child into a kind, mature, responsible adult.

The Love: your pleasure and pride in your children.

Children Grow Away from You

Children grow away in fury, in peace, in their own way, at their own pace.

We send them into their futures with our favorite souvenirs:

• confidence,
• an education,
• kindness,
• diligence,
• a sense of humor,
• our beliefs,
• our hopes and dreams.

They sort through the gifts and purge the ones they don’t want. They keep the ones they value. They grab some you didn’t want for them.

They become their own people. You get to be their witnesses. You will try again and love them again in this new way.

And that’s how it is for everyone.

There’s only love and trying.

Those two are enough to get you (and your kids) all the way there.

This post is originally from Instagram and @juliebogartwriter is my account
so come follow along for more conversations like this one!