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0:02
Hello, welcome to called the homeschool episode number 279 utilizing your strengths in your homeschool with me, your host Meg Thomas friends, how are you?
How are you doing?
I just want to thank you so much for tuning in.
0:19
I love how much this podcast helps people.
That brings me so much great joy.
And I just want to say thank you for being here and thank you for allowing me into your homes and into your families.
I get to talk to so many amazing people.
And it is such an honor to me that I have your trust that you that I actually feel like I do get to help you.
0:42
And I just want to thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of your journey.
So thank you once again for being here today.
I want to talk about utilizing your gifts in your home school.
I understand how easy it is to compare your weaknesses to somebody else's strength.
1:05
Oh, look at so and so.
She has everything all together.
Why can't I be like her?
When we do that, we completely look past the things that make us unique and we miss our strength.
So one of the things I love about my husband, there are many things that I love about him, but one thing I really love about him is that he is fun.
1:27
He is so stinking fun.
He is very spontaneous and he finds the craziest, funnest things to do.
We call these adventures the Johnny T Adventures, and if we know like it's a holiday weekend or like we have nothing to do, we'll ask him.
1:46
We want a Johnny T adventure and he will find the most random things to go and do on one of the holidays this summer.
I can't remember which one it was.
He took us on a hike to a bunch of rocks in the middle of nowhere that was called Paul Bunyan's log Pile.
2:02
And these rocks really do look like giant logs.
And we had so much fun.
It was so weird.
The kids got to climb all over it.
It was so fun.
Then after that, he's like, well, we're out in the middle of nowhere, why don't we go to these hot pots?
And we had a blast there.
2:18
One of our kids stepped into one of them.
That was a kind of a really bad experience for him, but just like these random hot pots in the middle of nowhere, we were having so much fun and the end of the day by taking us to a burger joint in a really small town and it was so awesome.
2:36
The kids and I love these adventures.
Often when we're driving we will take what he affectionately calls a Daddy Shortcut, which are never a shortcut.
They to drive home from our house from St.
George, UT to Utah County is about a three and 1/2 hour to four hour drive and one of Daddy's shortcuts made it a nine hour drive.
2:59
So he's so fun that it's like yes, let's do it.
We have driven through small towns that nobody was hurt of.
One time we were driving our RV home and he's like can we do a daddy shortcut?
And we're like yeah sure, why not.
We ended up in this on a dirt Rd. in our RV that is full of washboards and we are all laughing so hard.
3:18
So, so fun.
We have seen really wild things in Utah on the adventures he does on a vacation.
I actually, if we have flights or or driving, I plan all that and I'll book hotel or Airbnb, whatever we're staying and then all of us are like and then you plan the rest.
3:34
He's like, I got this and he always makes it so sneaking fun.
If I compare myself to my husband in this aspect, it would be so easy to think that I'm not enough.
The thing I'm not doing a very good job or to beat myself up.
3:52
But guess what?
That is just not my strength.
That is his.
One of my strengths is that I'm really great at making plans and then doing them.
I am so good at this.
I have done it for all my races.
Every time I train for a race, I get a plan and I then do that plan.
4:10
Like being able to do that follow through.
That's awesome.
That's a really fantastic strength.
I've been able to do my Iron Man's marathons, half marathons, I did do a bike race once, mini triathlons, a lot of different running things that I'm just so good at following a plan.
4:26
It has obviously served me very well in homeschooling because I create a plan and then guess what?
I do that plan.
So it serves me so well in my home school and in my life.
What about you?
Are you comparing your weaknesses to somebody else's strengths?
4:47
Do you look at my homeschool, which by the way is 17 years in.
I'm not showing you our first year.
I don't really have a lot of pictures of that time.
Or I would.
I mean, I'm happy to tell you anything, but I don't have a lot of pictures from that time, right?
So are you comparing your first year of homeschooling to my 17th year?
5:04
How's that going for you?
What about comparing yourself to other homeschool moms, Your friends, They're like, oh, they're so good in these different areas and I'm just not.
What about the people on social media that are really great at showing this one part the where they're excelling?
5:20
Like I'm so good in art or science or these really fun crafts and you're like, I'm terrible and all of those things.
It's probably not going well because you're probably beating yourself up, feeling inadequate that you are just not doing enough.
5:37
What would happen if you could look at somebody's strength and just be excited for them and stopped there.
It serves me so much more to just appreciate that my husband is fun.
When we do individual trips with our kids, I will say like, you can go Dad or you can go with me and they get to pick.
5:59
And I already know, like my boys are always going to pick Dad.
He's going to pick wild and fun things.
And I think, yeah, I get that.
I totally would do.
He's super fun.
But when I can stop there and just appreciate that talent and not think that I have to be like that person, it helps me to focus on where I am awesome instead of comparing you.
6:25
So one of the things I want to really challenge you with today, especially as we're still in the very beginning part of our school year, is to think about what are some of your strengths and how do you see them helping in your family, your home school, and even your life.
6:43
I am going to list some of my strengths.
And this is not to pat myself on the back or boast or or make you feel inadequate, but to merely give you ideas.
So I already said that I feel like scheduling is a really good strength of mine.
6:59
But this one's interesting because this one has become a strength because I had to try and work on this for a long time because it was not a strength in the beginning.
But I have become great at being flexible in our home school.
So part of my strength of being great with scheduling is that I could be rigid and that doesn't work when you're working with humans.
7:19
And so I have learned to be really great at being flexible.
So if they are loving a subject, I'm like, yes, let's dive in.
If they are so done with the subject, like that's fine, we don't need to do it.
Some amazing opportunity pops up that somebody messages us and like, hey, I got tickets to this amazing play.
7:38
Can you guys go?
Yes, I've been able to develop flexibility in our home school and it is so much more fun.
I also then got stuck with thinking of different strengths.
So I just went straight to the source of my husband and children.
7:54
And so they were, they were much quicker to think of things.
So these are some of the ones that they said.
My husband said I'm very consistent and I thought I am super consistent.
So that is part of me of creating a schedule and then saying I'm going to do it.
8:10
And so I'm very consistent with what I'm doing.
So I've always done school four days a week, Monday through Thursday.
I'm very consistent with that.
I've been consistently teaching my kids for 17 years.
So even on days where we don't do as much school as maybe I had hoped, because I'm willing to be more flexible now I'm consistently doing school and that I've seen some really great fruits from just that consistency.
8:37
My daughter said she thinks I'm very fun.
So it was great.
I'm like, oh, my husband's so fun, but my daughter's like, but your fun too.
My fun is just different than his.
But I have a lot of fun in our home school and I'm willing to be silly and weird and and have a lot of fun with that.
8:53
Whether it's dancing on the tables, if we are singing a song, like with my younger kid, if we're singing the days of the week, the months of the year, we're singing some song, I am dancing to it.
We are having a good time and it is a lot of fun.
I also am fun and and maybe slightly inappropriate when it comes to writing stories with them that we are laughing so hard and we are having so much fun with some of these subjects that we I do with them.
9:22
Another strength I feel like I have, and I thought of this one on my own, is letting my kids run around as needed instead of thinking that they just need to sit still.
And I wondered about this one with my this strength is because I have a really hard time sitting still.
9:39
And I think that's why I love so much exercise because like my brain cannot stop.
And so understanding that my kids cannot just sit still and with some of my really active kids of taking them for a run before we even started school and even in our school today with I had done school with my youngest and he's like, can we go for a walk?
10:01
And I was like, I would love to go for a walk.
So I was like, great time connection, but like, he just doesn't want to sit still.
He had just sat there for a while, right?
And so like, let's get up and move our body.
So really understanding the need for movement.
I think that's a great strength of mine.
The last one I'll share on this one also comes from my family is that they say that's the strength of mine, that I love learning, that I think it is so fun to be studying things and figuring things out.
10:26
And one thing that they pointed out that I thought was kind of cool is that I was OK learning right along with my kids.
So I didn't think whenever I'm teaching something that I have to know everything because that's exhausting.
But like, as we are studying a topic, especially, you know, what's funny is I actually even like math, but when I was doing fractions, I forgot how to do fractions.
10:46
When my oldest kids were doing fractions, I was like, you know what, I'm going to, I'm going to read this with you or we're going to get your video together because I have to relearn how in the world to do some of these concepts.
But when we're studying things in history of like, oh, I can just learn right there with them.
11:02
And I think, and I'm just going to add this one.
I think another strength of mine is that I'm OK if I'm wrong, right?
And so instead of thinking I have to know everything or we perfect worth everything of like, oh, I messed up with that one.
I don't have to be right or know all the answers.
And so that serves me very well.
11:19
Guess what, friends, If these aren't your strengths, that is OK.
Some of my clients have strengths that I definitely do not have.
My husband has some awesome strength that I don't have.
My beautiful children have strengths I do not have.
11:34
My son that creates music.
It blows my mind with how easy I think it looks when he does it, that he can write the song or listen to a melody and he could just figure it out and play it.
And he is guitar is his first instrument and then he's knows the ukulele.
11:53
And then he asked, he had people who asked him to be in a band.
But it's the base.
And I thought this blows my mind.
He has so many strengths with music.
And so my kids all have different strengths than me, right.
Utilize those strengths.
It's beautiful that we are have awesome different strengths.
12:14
I think of some of the ones that I heard my clients talk about that they have a Mamas who are handy and can help their kids build things like you know we're going to do for school.
We're going to remodel a bathroom.
There is a friend of mine that they were redoing their basement or finishing their basement.
12:29
Maybe it wasn't even ever finished.
And they their daughter, she's my daughter's friend.
So she would have been high school years.
You tubed how to wire the house, wire the basement.
And like that was part of her school, right?
And so how awesome that it's this mom that's like that.
12:46
Let's be handy.
Let's figure these things out.
And then her kid was totally inspired by it.
That is not me.
I'm actually going to figure out how to hire somebody for those types of things.
And so that's so awesome that that is a strength that I've seen in some of my clients.
Another strength that I think is so cool is artistic moms who inspire their kids to create beautiful art.
13:08
And I think of this sometimes with I'll see.
Have you ever seen people post the cool chalkboards that they add in their school And then the mom would draw on it like this is the life cycle of the bug or this is what was studying this week or this month.
And it's just so beautiful and they utilize art and it's just it is infused in their home school and I think that is so cool.
13:30
That is so amazing.
What a beautiful strength.
Another strength is moms who are great at writing.
I don't mind writing with my kids.
With my Kim.
Writing is always silly.
It is rare that my writing is very serious.
My writing usually turns dark, which is something to explore, but like it's always silly and we're always laughing.
13:52
It's not this really deep poetic.
And when I I see moms with this amazing ability to write and really to convey what they're thinking about in words, I think what an amazing strength and what an amazing gift to inspire your kids with.
So I absolutely love that.
I want one.
14:08
I wanted to end with that.
I've seen clients that I see so many clients think that this is a weakness that I want to tell you right now that this is a beautiful strength is spontaneity.
Spontaneous moms are so fun and they are so great at going with the flow and they are so great with adventures and and this is going to be so amazing.
14:33
And so just because other moms are really great at scheduling, they're like, wow, they're so good with this.
Yeah, that's awesome.
That is their strength.
But spontaneous spontaneity is so fun and such a beautiful gift.
So if that is your gift, I want to challenge you to think of like, like, how is this awesome in our school, right?
14:51
Because I see too many moms beat themselves up who are more spontaneous.
I promise you that you do have strengths.
And if you are feeling stuck, like I can't think of anything, ask those closest to you.
Ask your husband, ask your kids if they're old enough.
15:08
Ask your friends, your parents, somebody close to you of like, hey, not to fish for compliments, but what are some of my strengths?
What are some of the things that you see that are awesome about me, right?
Just to get some help, to get the ball rolling.
Because when I was even thinking of mine, I got stuck and I had to ask my family.
15:26
And when they were saying this, I thought, yes, those are awesome about me.
I'm really good with those things.
And it's not they're awesome about me.
So I'm better than somebody.
It's just what's awesome.
And then still looking at somebody else's strength and not taking that and saying, well, that's what's wrong with me because I don't have that.
15:43
But no, but like seeing the beauty of our different strengths and how that complements everybody by all of us utilizing these different strengths.
So I want you to really take some time and reflect, think about it on your own, Ask for people that you love, what are some of your strengths?
16:02
And think, how am I going to utilize this in my home school?
How do I utilize this in my family?
How do I utilize this in my life?
Take some time to think about your strengths and thinking of those positive things is going to help you keep that momentum going of like, I am doing a good job, I am doing something with my school, right?
16:24
And I bet you're doing a much better job than you give yourself credit for.
All right friend, love you so much.
Talk to you next week.
Have a good one.
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