We are homeschoolers, now how to make friends?
We have been homeschoolers since 2015. It all started when my oldest started pre-K. Her then “teacher” made her feel so bad one week that I saw the sparkle in my child disappear. “She’ll get over it” “You’ll get used to it” “They need this” “She’ll be okay” “She needs to develop thicker skin” I heard it all.
If we have to remind ourselves that our 4-year-old children need to develop a thick skin in a world that does not treat them kindly, then maybe the ones who need to go back to school are the adults. But that is a topic for another blog.
Talking with my husband we decided together to give homeschooling a try. And within a few months, we knew we had made the right decision. The more time passed by the more sure we were. And up to this day, with much experience under my belt, both homeschooling and public school, I can confidently say that homeschooling our children has been the best decision me and my husband ever made together.
Now times are different, and my children are getting older. The needs are different, the world is different. And just like in every other aspect of life, we have to adapt. My oldest started to express the need for more friendships and the desire to meet more people who were more like us. We had many connections and friendships with sports people and kids from sports clubs that had many things in common but were simply so different because they were public schooled.
So after a long year in 2023, we decided to step out of sports for a little while and focus more on meeting like-minded people. This brought us to meet beautiful people who have shown us support and friendship, my kids now have several little groups of friends who they hang out with regularly and they maintain meaningful relationships while still homeschooling away.
Long story short I started a little Art Club for them, I love art, and my kids love art so I thought why not? It is nothing too structured at all, and it is more dedicated to socializing and hanging out. No pressure, no rights or wrongs, just art, and friends. The photo above shows a piece of art that was made by a member of our homeschool group, can you believe how beautiful it is? I was completely floored when she shared that she had never used watercolor before.
We had our first meeting a few days ago and I remember feeling very nervous. I wanted the kids to have fun and enjoy each other’s company while doing something fun that they would enjoy, i felt pressure to make it come to fruition by myself and self-doubt was kicking in.
I prepared myself, visited a few stores, compared prices for the parents, and made a list that was the most affordable possible. practiced new techniques and learned more about color theory. Played with different types of paper to see which one was better for the overall experience of the teens. I made video resources for the parents to see the materials in video format, made lists, and communicated with people in many ways possible. Worked against the odds because Facebook was messing up my post’s visibility. Anyways, it was a lot of work and many good steps into preparing myself to bring value to the kids, yet, self-doubt was there.
Because self-doubt will never go away, you just have to figure out how to quiet it down and ignore it most of the time while moving forward and continuing to have actions towards a goal. So if you’re reading this and your struggle with self-doubt please know that we all do, and that it’s ok. Don’t let it win, it’s not true. Self-doubt comes from your ego and your ego is a big big liar.
The event went wonderfully, we had a few kids that showed up and my kids had an absolute blast with them. All the effort was rewarded and my doubts left the building, now I know the way the nerves feel right before I start the club meeting and it’s only a little bit of butterfly but, the joy in my kids and all the kids who attend makes it all worth it. This is how I give back to my community, I bring opportunities for kids to get involved in something healthy and fun and to stay on the good side of life. I covered the faces of some members in the picture above for privacy reasons.
Art is a constant in my life, something that doesn’t seem to go away. And for that reason I love it. Art is there for me when I feel sad and when I am happy, I can create something beautiful no matter what I am feeling. There is no expectation of perfection, there is no judgment of mistakes, there is just love and acceptance for the results at hand.
I hope this blog inspired you in any way to give art a try, or maybe to consider homeschooling if you are a single mom in texas. It is not easy but in our lives, nothing is easy.
Xo,
Hazel
