I feel like my first 2 years homeschool went much like your first year. The fear of needing to prove myself as capable, to myself and to others, really made me latch on to the idea that I needed to mirror public school. Year 3 I knew there needed to be a change. I was burnt out and my kids had no joy in our school. I finally got brand enough to cut out all the extra fluff I thought I had to do. I went strictly based on what my stare required and the only add ons we fun and life giving. I still struggle with days where I fear I may be "too relaxed" but I remind myself my kids are learning and thriving. We aren't responsible for teaching our kids EVERYTHING they'll ever learn in life and that is comforting.

I just started homeschooling ages 5 and 7 . I really needed to hear this today !

JAMIE!!!! I stumble across your channel as I was searching for videos on the Beautiful Feet History/ Geography curriculum. I’m sitting at work on a Sunday @ midnight, I’m medical and work 12hr shifts. This has touched me tremendously. 2023-24 began my journey as a homeschooling mom. I didn’t do because I felt pulled towards it, I did it because it was the only option for me & my boys( a Jr in HS, a 3rd & 1st grader )in a moment of time. I to was public school taught, and all 4 of my boys have been in public and mostly a private school setting. This was me! Homeschooling in FEAR, fear of failing my boys,fear of not meeting standards, fear of not completing curriculum…. All the things…. I found myself skipping the recipe that I had planned, or the science project I had planned to ensure that the work was getting done. We are embarking on year 2 & I can 100% say that my WHY is completely different this year. I have fallen in love with homeschooling my boys & even though my rising Senior has decided to spend his Senior year back in a public school setting I know that is the right choice for him. I am super excited to see what this coming year will bring for my 4th &2nd graders. You have truly encouraged me to move in peace & freedom❤.

I long to get to that place of concrete confidence. I am 12 years in and my oldest is finishing his junior year. No matter how much goodness and beauty surrounds me I tend towards doubt. Watching our homeschool friends enroll one after another in local schools has done a number on me these past few years. There are still plenty of homeschoolers around me but rebuilding community feels too hard and isn’t as simple now with older kids

Thank you, sweet sister! You had me pulling out little house on the Prairie books, going to the park, and grabbing a little one to join me at the Dentist. Thank you for the reminder! Mine are aged 3-9, Three sons and a sweet little daughter on the end. This is exactly what I needed to be here today, it’s such a great reminder! Love in Christ!

I have absolutely been homeschooling out of fear. I was public schooled and then was a teacher for a short time before having my kiddos. There’s always that fear of “Am I doing enough?” Will they be behind other kids?” It’s something that constantly nags me because it does feel like I have to do things a certain because if they go to college I don’t want them to have a huge learning curve bc I didn’t prepare them enough. It makes me mad that I feel like I have to teach to the standards of what our country says. HOWEVER, hearing you speak with such boldness about God I will definitely be spending this summer reflecting and praying more and hopefully find the rest and confidence you have found. Thank you for this video! It was exactly what I needed to hear!❤

This is EVERYTHING I tell new mamas that come to me wanting to know more about homeschooling. I will start giving out your channel for them to listen to because I have been at this for awhile and everything you just mentioned is exactly what I would have said as well. Love what you are doing. I pray your homeschooling says are blessed!

Hi Jamie. I have one girl, 8 years old. I had her in prep for two terms and then Civid hit and I pulled her out of school because parents were no longer allowed on school grounds, even with masks, but even worse was that teachers had to wear masks whole teaching my 5 year old all day. Unacceptable. Facial expressions are SO important at such a young age. So I organised myself, looked tir support and other homeschoolers in my community and we were on the path and we haven't ever wanted to go back. We love it, but your video did remind me of how fast the time has gone - it's been 3 years now and you're right, it is so important to hold her a little tighter, a little longer, to savour each day and all the moments I have, from playing with my child, to seeing light bulbs go off when she understands something fir the first time. So many parents whose kids are in school miss so much of this. I don't want to ever take this for granted, so thank you for this beautiful video that reminded me of how fast the time goes and how fast it has already gone. I promise to savour this more, each and every day. Ange in Australia xxx

Jamie, the fact you have three BOYS not addicted to video games/technology and who know how to be creative and are skilled in the great outdoors, means you are WINNING on so many levels and far ahead of so many also raising boy in this day and age. We can only do the best we know to do and Abeka at K by the teacher book was the best you knew at that time - you wanted the BEST for your son, so that’s what you did. But you didn’t stay there! You saw the signs that something wasn’t right and made the necessary changes. You’ve grown and gained so much wisdom and you are doing a PHENOMENAL job with those boys. Your boys are the type of boys I want my girls to be around. And the bonds and skills your boys have learned through these years of homeschooling are going to carry them FAR in this life. ❤❤

This hit me hard. So beautiful! So true! This is me! Listening to this touched my heart 🤍 thank you. I am so so great full for the ability to homeschool my girls. The best gift

You are wonderful! Thank you for sharing for all of us! God is using you!!

Thank you Jamie! This has touched my heart! Great advice! I started watching you before I even started homeschooling my grandson and I’ve learned a lot from you! Hope you’ve gotten settled in the new house! Can’t wait to see the finished product!

I’m still in fear, I love your video, it’s really helpful.❤ I will ask God his advice 🙏🏻

Homeschooling out of fear instead of freedom.... you need to make that a t-shirt!!

I love how you can so clearly see that the hand of the Lord was leading you and pursuing even before you knew Him ❤️

Thank u ❤ I’ve tried too much, finishing our 4h year. I’m hoping I can learn to slow it down when I look into starting next year.

Thank you and I love you !i pray that you and your family are blessed.😘

Thank you, i needed to hear All of it! Blessings!

Love love love this! Totally resonate with this. You are NOT alone my friend.

This definitely encourages me Jamie. Thank you for this heartfelt message ❤

I love your channel…I’ve been following you since the beginning. Going on my 9th year homeschooling and I’m still learning. Just like parenting we never stop learning. Thank you for your channel.

I love your videos. I am 4 years into my faith journey and 2 years into my homeschool journey with a 7 yr old and a 4.5 year old. There are some really good reminders in here for elementary. I think the first two years of homeschooling for me was really more learning and growing for me then for them haha, I have a lot of similarities with your story.

Thank you for sharing. I have three kiddos 13 boy, 11&7 girls. And I pray that keep home for as long as I can I love homeschooling. My son tests me and some time want to back and I am like get so sad. Praying that he understands one day.

Thank you for sharing!! We all need to hear it. I’m homeschooling my grandson but I don’t want to make the same mistakes that I made with my children!

Thank you for saying it. I'm in my 7th year of home schooling (12th, 8th, 2nd grades) and I relate so much to your words of wisdom. I'd tell my earlier self the same things. I know now....

Jamie I am new to your channel, but I so needed to hear this. I was so close to sending my kids to school in the fall. I have 4 boys: 11, 8, 4, and 1... I am so glad I watched this. The Lord knew I needed this.

“Homeschool styles? I think we are electic” 😂😂😂😂 Me too, Jamie, me too! You are definitely not the only one!!!! Your video years ago (I forgot the title) changed things for me and put me on a different path for homeschooling!!! My boys are currently outside playing in the dirt because there is just as much if not more value in that than doing a math worksheet (they will do that today too- but first, they will play in dirt!)

Thank you for sharing your heart and reflections with us, Jamie! I teared up with you. 💙 I'll be starting kindergarten with my oldest this fall, and I'm already feeling like I'm failing him and that's he's falling behind. We've been trying to do preschool with him this year, but it's been hard with also having a toddler, being pregnant, and eventually welcoming our baby girl into our family. I've felt like I can't do it all, and I can't! Not without God. I've been homeschooling in fear too. Thank you for your encouraging words! I'll be praying to Him and seeking Him in all aspects of our homeschool. He's paid it all for us to live in freedom! I don't want to homeschool in fear any longer. I'll definitely be keeping my son's kindergarten year simple and fun and living life with him and our toddler and baby. Thank you!

10:31 I will have a 6th Grader, 5th and twins that will be 2nd grade. I have graduated 2 already. Year 21 but I always feel like it is never right or enough and I live in a very unrestricted state

I love it! I didn't know how much I would even though we do have hard days! And we started when all this lovely covid stuff happened. and I am not sad that they are not in public school! There are so many different things that I think about now being in the public school system which I absolutely loved I was part of the PTA I did all kinds of things. But now looking at it there's nothing that I miss! I take that back... Lol I love doing bulletin boards. Haha well it's all right I don't need to do it now. But I will tell you you're the one and I've said this so many times but I like to say this so people know and understand that you said don't stress out about it! And that helped me to not stress! And also Angela Braniff, said the other day that with the curriculum you don't have to finish the whole thing! In schools schools never finish a whole entire school book? I never in a million years even thought of that until she said that. I'm all for homeschooling!!!

This video was so encouraging! Thank you for sharing it! We have 4 children 14,12, 7 & soon to be 3 year old. I have been led to homeschooling and just out of fear i have not done so. My 2nd grader will not be going back this coming year. He will be out first homeschooler. The goal is to homeschool all. What I keep telling myself is God does not call the qualified He qualifies the called. I’m grateful I came across this video.

You nailed it and so much more❤!! Before I start I am a member of M2H and have learned so much from ALL you mama's over the last year and trying to figure out how to make improvements in my homeschooling journey and to feel like I can homeschool in freedom and NOT fear 😊. I have been homeschooling three years but even before the pandemic my husband and I knew we were going to homeschool as our hearts were already there. However, three years later here I am still hitting the books hard and hating what we have been doing because of everything you are saying... They don't need all these books and need to be kids and your video hit me just as my heart has been. I want to play more with the kids, make more family memories, slow life down for them( or maybe for me) etc. and for them to remember the happy memories we made together. To your point we are only "checking the boxes" and I HATE it! But I feel like 1) that's all I know and 2) I have no idea how to because I live in NYS and have to meet all subjects and requirements. I know I am making changes to school for next year as one mama at M2H recommended me to use Gather Round and a math curriculum for our core subjects only and see what the school year brings us before adding anything else into the equation. I hope this will help and change things for us in a good way. I'm scared to implement them because we live in NYS which means we have to cover EVERYTHING which is why I hit the books hard the last three years because I have no idea how to do this any other way... I have all boys as well and they are 8, almost 6 and 1. Busy crazy times as I'm sure you recall those days❤. I'm just trying to figure out how to meet all my school requirements and yet still enjoy and let the kids be kids. We currently school about 2-3 hours but most days aren't usually enjoyable as I would like for them to be or maybe I should be happy with even 50/50😂❤. Maybe I'm asking too much 🤔. I have been called to homeschool as I knew this before I started and am very confident in this decision, however, I'm not confident in how to homeschool because of our requirements and how to report materials/curriculum on the IHIP form... My boys will be going into 3rd and 1st grade next year and I feel like I'm doing too much bookwork. Looking back where you are today in life, where do you feel is a good grade level ( I know all kids learn differently) where you would implement more structure and bookwork? I do know my youngest will NOT be doing all the books like my first kiddo did in grades K-2 because of me homeschooling out of fear and not for the freedom sake. I would love any advice/tips that you may have and as always I enjoy your videos as they always come from the heart❤.

I needed this so badly, thank you so much

That hard thing with high school I feel like is if you are functioning under different educational philosophies through out elementary and middle school, it feels like in high school we have to do what the world says for credits. There are skills gained in doing hard things, but my high schoolers have lost their love for learning and have gotten sucked into the traditional model of comparing themselves against peers and arbitrary academic boxes and standards. I know a lot of this is what I have done because of my fear.

❤

Oh man, that's exactly what we did for Kindergarten & 1st Grade, and 6th grade- because my eldest was in 6th grade when we started homeschooling. All Abeka & so many tears. So by the book. My now 1st grader still got Abeka for Kindergarten, but so much less stress & tears on both sides because I knew better then. My now almost 4 yo will also do Abeka for Kindergarten, because the Phonics are fantastic- but we will not stress at all. And we will do whatever works for my infant when she gets there.

We homeschooled for 3 years due to the pandemic. We are now going to a Christian School where I got a job. I kind of feel like a failure honestly. However my kids are excited to go back and Im excited to start my new job. God led us to homeschool from the three years but I felt a shift on our third year and had a job dropped into my lap. Your channel has helped so much. thank you

Hi! Did you ever join a charter or homeschool independent the whole time? Thanks for this great encouragement :)

Can you share more with the high schoolers?

I do you deal with reluctant learners