"And remember," I add with all the gravity I can convey, "this is complicated by the fact that he likes you."
I don't recall what the situation was when I gave out this tidbit of advice. I can't remember why it mattered. But it did. For whatever the details, it was important that my little brother liked the girl I was talking to. That was a big part of the issue.
"Don't talk about stuff you don't know everything about, Luke." I don't know how he found out. But he did. And he was mad.
I can still feel the way my heart pounded when I realized that I was wrong. I didn't know everything about the situation. In fact, I knew very little about what was going on. Worse yet, I was faced with the probability that I had confused the issue. I was confident my observations were correct, but not complete. And that incomplete picture had led me to the wrong conclusion. I'm sure my little brother was attracted to her. But I'm unsure, today, if that mattered at all in that situation.
This all floods back as I consider these comments: Do we really use things "out of the box" our early years of homeschooling because we lack the confidence?
Well, yes. Absolutely.
And yet I think this idea--which I see again and again--that we're insecure when we start out, confuses the issue. We're insecure, not because that is part of who we are, but because we don't know what we're doing. Our insecurities are based in our lack of knowledge. And that lack of knowledge is the real issue. Put another way: We rightly lack self-confidence when we have yet to have learned how to do something.
The great news is that you can learn. In fact, you can likely attest to how much you've grown in your abilities to homeschool. And as you've learned how to educate your children at home, you've grown in confidence in your ability to do so. Why? Because you've succeeded again and again.
You can homeschool. But if you're feeling intimidated because you don't know how to do it with your preschooler (or your high schooler, for that matter), we'd be thrilled if you took advantage of the resources you have in homeschool curriculum. Sonlight, as someone once said, teaches you how to homeschool.
~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Empty Nester
P.S. Already know what you're doing but don't know about something within Sonlight? Not sure which package or product would be right for your students? Chat with a Sonlight Advisor and gain confidence from someone who is here to share with you what she has learned.
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