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Of course you are capable! But if you're feeling the doubts, you can do something about it. Let me show you how. 

Education is a journey we take with our children; that's my motto!

This is how I put it into practice as a homeschooler: by re-evaluating my beliefs around my abilities. If self doubt creeps in for you, too, I have some tips for you! 

Here’s the big work of this podcast: Getting down to the heart of parenting and education, and learning more about ourselves as we learn more about our children.

You Are More Capable than You Think

I believe that ANYONE can teach their own children. It’s true! 

I want you to follow yourself. I don’t want you to follow me blindly, or to believe that the exact things that will work for me will work for you. I never want my work to make you feel inadequate or not enough.

My job is just to share and mentor. I know that parents NEED the knowledge of child development and Montessori scope and sequence that has for so long been highly guarded in training institutes and shared only with classroom educators. Parents deserve to have these skills, whether they are getting them from blogs or from courses or from a parenting mentor. They should be offered skills to learn to speak their child’s language!

This is what Homeschool of the Redwoods was born from--this, and my own need to continue to refine my skills as an educator with adults in virtual learning communities.

Support Is Necessary for Success

All this said: most adults, unless they are going to school to become educators, do not receive any education on parenting or childcare. We are all naturally capable of teaching. We just need support!

I keep getting these emails from parents who do not feel confident in their ability to teach their children. They worry they do not have the skills. To this I ask: Who or what is giving you this feeling? Are people approaching you and actually questioning your ability to teach? Or is it your own self-doubt and insecurity shining through? 

Here are Two ways you can address Your insecurities 

1. Create a mantra. Repeat consciously: I am 100% capable. Say it to yourself. Say it to others. With conviction, and like you really believe it!

2. Consciously develop skills you are lacking: if you feel like you did not have enough opportunities for learning about child development, go out and seek more information! There are so many ways that you might go about this: Join a group! Read some books. Take a course. Find a mentor. Treat it like any other underdeveloped skill you have that you want to do better with--find the new things that would be useful to you, and dig deeper! This process can help you learn more about your children--but also learn more about yourself, your temperament, your strengths and weaknesses.

REMEMBER: Affirmations and Mantras are great, but are nothing without action. Take whatever action you need to take to feel like your most capable self!!!

Gratitude

Today, I’m grateful to my children, for being literally and figuratively heavy. They have shown me that it is okay to drop things--even if things are broken--because everything is okay. You always just pick up the pieces. You can move on.