Embracing the Positivity

I have this friend who works in public education and has for…I think he said this was year 22. Last week he made the decision to use this academic year to focus on the positive things happening in the classroom, school, and district around him. He has begun with a Facebook live video on Monday morning with a little bit of encouragement for the coming week and he will follow up with how

the week went on Friday. I think it’s a fantastic idea and I’m glad he has taken the initiative to do something l Iike that.

When he first came up with the idea and I watched his first video I initially thought, “Good for him but I’m not involved with the public school system in any way so I’ll just stay out of that one. I hope it goes well for him.”

But then, one afternoon last week as we were wrapping up a particularly trying school day I began to think more about my friend and his positivity campaign. I mean here we were right in the middle of week 6 of our school year and already I was letting things start to get to me. I had hit the point where routine set in and I was more focused on making sure we checked off all the boxes in my well organized planner instead of the real reason I made the choice to homeschool in the first place.

I was already so wrapped up in the things that were wrong with each day that I had begin to miss all the things that were completely right. So on Thursday (circumstances lead to an early weekly review video), as I watched my friends weekly review I made a decision to use this time, when everyone else I know is for jazzed up for back to school, to reset my self. To reset my attitude, reset my perspective, and reset the trajectory of our year.

Each week I plan take a little bit of time here on my little corner of the internet to share a few things that are going right, a few things we are loving, and maybe even answer a question or two if anybody has them. While I’m not entering into my 22nd year as an educator I am in my 5th year of “official” homeschooling and my 7th year of” unofficial” homeschooling (we did some pretty loose homeschool preschool there at the beginning). And while I know I don’t have all the answers when it comes to education, curriculum, or anything for that matter, what I do have is what I have learned works for us.

So here’s to a great 2019-2020 academic year. I can’t wait to see how this year goes for everyone!