Stress and squabbling aside, election season also offers an opportunity to reflect on the qualities of good leadership. Do you consider yourself a leader? Regardless of whether or not you see yourself as one, you are a leader if nowhere else than your home and school. And your followers—your children—are learning leadership skills from you. Make those lessons count!
Stress and squabbling aside, election season also offers an opportunity to reflect on the qualities of good leadership. Do you consider yourself a leader? Regardless of whether or not you see yourself as one, you are a leader if nowhere else than your home and school. And your followers—your children—are learning leadership skills from you. Make those lessons count!
No, no, no! I’m not saying that to scare you. I just want to let you know that you’re doing better than you think in some areas and help you shore up a couple of weak spots with a few reminders.
First, strong leaders don’t have it all figured out. That homeschool group that you and your friends are thinking of starting? Do it! Those moms don’t care that you don’t have it all together. They just need someone to talk to, some kids for their kids to play with, and maybe a field trip or play date here and there. They just want to hang out with other homeschooling parents!
You and your friends may not feel like leaders, but that little support group idea will grow to include over a hundred families and launch friendships that are still going strong in the grey-hair-and-laugh-lines years.
Strong leaders don’t know it all. You may be able to get away with faking it in elementary school, but algebra is going to come along and blow your cover. A good leader isn’t afraid to admit when she’s in over her head or defer to those with more skill or expertise. That may mean learning alongside your kids (or a bit ahead of them) so you can explain concepts in ways they can understand or outsourcing some parts of their education to a tutor or co-op.
Strong leaders share their knowledge. You know that creative writer who struggles with topic sentences? Yes, it’s a great idea to show her a few examples, but quit telling her she can’t use those examples because she needs to learn to come up with her own! She’ll get there. For now, if she needs to use your topic sentence to release the flow of ideas in her head, let her use it.
Strong leaders lead by example. You want your kids to read? Set aside time for everyone to read every day—including yourself. You want to raise life-long learners? Take an online course or sign up for that cake decorating class in town. You want them to learn perseverance? Don’t give up on that goal you’ve been working toward. You want them to do hard things? Let them see you doing the things that push you out of your comfort zone.
Strong leaders know when to push, when to pull, and when to take a break. Learn to recognize when your kids need to be challenged and when they need help. It’s okay to put a subject on the shelf for a few weeks or even a few months when you recognize that your child just isn’t ready for it right now. It’s also okay to knock off school in favor of the playground or nature park every once in a while.
Someday those little ones you’re teaching will be adults who display leadership skills that amaze you—skills that they learned in quiet moments and ordinary days of observing the leader hiding inside you. Don’t worry, mama. You’ve got this!
ris Bales is the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest voice behind the popular homeschooling blog, Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She and her husband of over twenty-eight years are parents to three amazing kids—one high school senior and two homeschool grads. Kris has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. She also seems intent on becoming the crazy cat lady long before she’s old and alone. Except now she’s started collecting birds. Live ones.