Episode 101 | Why Motherhood Matters and How to Handle Homeschool

Veteran homeschool mother September McCarthy give her best advice about homeschooling with purpose and why motherhood matters so much in these early years.

Bio

September is a wife and Mother of 10 children, and 8 grandchildren. Cohost of the Mom2Mom podcast, founder and host of the Moms Conference and the non-profit Raising Generations Today. She is the author of Why Motherhood Matters: An Invitation to Purposeful Parenting.

Motherhood Matters at Home

We recorded this episode in the middle of the pandemic stay-at-home order in May of 2020. Most families I spoke to during this time were just trying to make the most of the remaining school year.

Many were worried about whether the schools would stay in session come the fall. As we now know, many school remained closed which left families scampering for new schedules and so many questions about homeschooling.

September McCarthy brings a refreshing perspective about a mother’s larger purpose in the home. We talk about the misconceptions of a standard classroom setting (which we were both raised under), and the many fallacies  about what homeschooling should look like.

She says, “Homeschool families feel the expectation to produce an outcome that the watching world is expecting.” I even believed the misconception that I needed to produce well-rounded children and infuse every subject into their brain.

Motherhood Matters When You Have Goals

September encourages us to take the pressure off by asking ourselves: What is my goal? What is our purpose? There is no book or program out there to tell us what to do. There are lots of materials, but we have the freedom to choose what we will do every day.

“Learning is a lifestyle. You take your life and you infuse learning into every area.”

How not to be overwhelmed by all the homeschooling options: ask these questions every day:

• How much time is realistic for my children to sit down and work through actual bookwork?
• What are my kids’ learning styles?
• What is it I want my kids to learn today?

September lists surprising things that count as homeschooling 🙂

You’re probably already doing enough, Mama! Whose expectation is this? Ultimately, we are deciding what’s best for our kids.

“If every day you wake up, the best gift you can give your kids is to love them, then that was enough.”

We talk about the more important subjects to focus on:

Math, Reading, Phonics, Spelling

Individual + Group studies (science, history)

Other subjects are flexible or integrated into the big subjects

Plus things that are priorities like music, entrepreneurship… whatever is important to your family.

Motherhood Matters Inside and Outside

Create ways to bring the outside indoors when you can’t make time outside or the weather doesn’t permit. Physical exercise and outdoors at least one day a week. Physical movement, energy, fresh air are good for both kids and us!

September gives advice to the mom who doesn’t feel like she can sustain this homeschool lifestyle and how to weave in character lessons to every day life.