I’ve talked about nannying before, but not on a personal level.

Continue reading Elise ft. My Selfies

Birthday parties are fun in our family.

First, every party includes guns somehow. My friends always laughed at me because I invited them to my house to blow things up.

At my sweet 16, we scared everybody by shooting several pounds of tannerite. It’s harmless, but it makes a Big Bang. Continue reading Musings: Birthdays

Enjoy the journey.

You hear it so much, it’s easy to become desensitized to the statement.

But there is so much truth in that one sentence. Many times I find myself striving hard for a goal ahead of me. That’s not wrong, but it can quickly keep me from living in the moment.

So here’s my quick word of advice: don’t let the big things steal your joy in this moment. If you need to remember one thing, remember to live to the hilt every day you pass on earth.

With that, good night. I’m at a rodeo and enjoying the moment.

Homeschoolers, out of any group of people, seem to be the most focused on getting in to college.

Why?

Incidentally, the logic that leads people to opt out of the traditional education experience is the same reason they should avoid college.

If the goal is to create an individual experience, then why would a young person go off to learn in the same institution everyone else pursues?

The value of a college degree is determined by the people who hold it.

This is the reason homeschoolers should take a step back and think about the college experience. What does the degree really signal? If it puts you on the level of every other college student that holds the degree, does it really set you apart?

When you have already been set apart by your homeschool experience, there is no reason to try to give yourself an edge. You already have one.

Homeschooled young people are supposed to be ahead of the game. Otherwise, there’d be no reason to learn at home instead of in a school environment.

They’re ahead because they’re different. They’re different because they haven’t gone through the exact same schooling process that everyone else has finished.

But…

College also trains young adults to think inside a box.

At the very least, it gives each person the same blueprint.

This is the antithesis of homeschooling.

To be fair, there was an advantage to college several decades ago. But technology has advanced to the point where information can be accessed much more cheaply than before.

Technology has also made it possible for individuals to signal value without a degree. They can learn while creating content, using their skills to reach others.

Besides, college textbooks can hardly keep up with the advances in technology. It makes much more sense to involve yourself in the advancing world than to hide away for several years while you “learn how to think.”

Homeschoolers, don’t break the mold just to put yourself into it again.

Rethink college.

One advantage to a big family is the constant opportunity for learning.

The best way for anyone to learn a skill is to practice it. The more people surrounding you, the more this concept multiplies its benefits.

For example, if you want to learn public speaking, the best thing to do is to practice it. If you practice in front of even a small group regularly,

That’s why our family regularly has “presentation night.” Each child presents something they learned in the previous week. It might be a dance choreography, a science project, a historical fact, or an essay. (One time I did an impromptu opera and duped my whole family into believing I had an entire Italian piece memorized.)

This reaps immense benefits for the children and the whole family.

1. We learn early on present an idea succinctly.
2. We learn to let go of ourselves and have fun in the performance.
3. We learn the importance of teaching other people the concepts that make us come alive.

We all look forward to presentation night. It’s sure to be a time of love and laughter, and it’s fun to watch each child flourish individually.

We often judge confidence by how apparent it is. A confident person, we presume, is out front leading the crowd.

While confident people do attract followers, true confidence is not always in the foreground. Many times, the signs of a truly confident person are much more subtle.

Confidence does not have to prove herself. While others seek to compare and lift themselves up, confidence keeps her mouth shut. She knows that no words make her successful. Her actions prove themselves.

If I speak out of insecurity, then I do not know true confidence. Though I have all knowledge and understanding, yet I still seek to cut others down, I am nothing. Though I perform flawlessly, and outperform everyone else, I do not have confidence unless I can be quiet in the face of other insecure people.

Confidence allows another person to complete a project even if she is 5 times as qualified for the task. Confidence does not boast in her own accomplishments.

Confidence can accept a compliment with grace. But she laughs without reproach when others make a joke at her expense.

The true test of confidence comes when she is attacked personally. If she can dissolve the situation without lashing out at the attacker, you can know she is true.

Confidence is not a gift. She is an art that needs to be cultivated, and a skill that can be grown by all who seek her.