The end of the year is the perfect time to reflect on what went right, what could be better, and so much more!  This episode digs into some powerful reflection around your child’s education that you can use for improving their education moving forward.

Transcript:
This is Decoding Learning Differences with Kimberlynn Lavelle. This episode is reflection. So this episode, I wanted to take a little bit of time to encourage you, to encourage you, to take some time to reflect as this year is coming to a close take some time and reflect on the year, especially in regard to your homeschooling journey, or if you're not homeschooling in regard to your child's educational journey.

And in regard to your family's journey, it doesn't just have to be educationally related. Although that tends to be my, like, hyper-focus, it doesn't have to be about education, just anything regarding your child's schooling. So take a moment and reflect with me and we're going to go through just a few questions. So my first question for you is what has gone well this year?

What has been your favorite part of the year? What has gone really well? And if you think about your child's education, what were the things that you had in place at any point in the year that seem like that's really working for us? That's going really well. I can celebrate that, whatever it is, whether it's classes that you took vacations,

you took activities, you guys did together. Books, you read a curriculum, you chose a schedule, a learning environment that you set up a conversation that you had it ritual that you started, or a tradition that you started. Anything that was like, that went really well this year. What were your favorite activities? So this is similar to the last question,

but it's more specific to the activities that you guys did this year. What activities did you engage in this year that you really enjoyed? Whether it was baking together, going on hikes together, going on a vacation together, doing things separate. Maybe it's sending the kids to a camp without you, or sending them just to karate class. Will you go and do yoga next door or whatever?

What's your situation that worked really well for you? What activities did you really enjoy this year? And not just your kids, but what did you as the parent really enjoy this year? And what were your families? What are your family's favorite memories from this year? What will they be like? Yeah, that was really good. That was really cool.

I loved the way we did that. What are your family's favorite memories this year? So this is yours and your, and your kids. What is, what is the really special memory that occurred this year now? Way to take a little bit of time and think through what could have been better. This is a really big question. What could have been better?

What could have been better regarding your child's reading curriculum? What could've been better regarding your child's math instruction or curriculum or activities, what could've been better regarding their writing? What could have been better regarding their interest in their education? Isn't what could have been better regarding the schedule that you set up? What could have been better in regards to the environment that was set up?

What could have been better in regards to the activities that you guys chose to do, or that you, the amount that you did, did you do too many that you did do too few? And of course there's going to be a lot of things that could have been better that are just completely out of your control. You didn't get to decide whether or not there was a pandemic this year or last year,

it's completely out of your control. And it does impact a lot of our year and every year has its challenges. Every year has things outside of our control that makes the year a little bit harder than it otherwise would have been. But my challenge to you is there's usually something that makes a year harder and maybe not as much for your family as for another,

you know, sometimes a family is going through a really challenging illness and it's really hard and it's much harder for them than for that family that year, that year is just, it's something that it would have been better if that didn't happen. Right. So there's plenty of that could have been outside of your control. And it's, it's great to write those down and think about that,

but I want you to spend most of your time focusing on what could have been better that I do have control over, or what could I have done differently to take a little bit of control over the thing I had no control over? Or did I do as much as I could just reflect on that?<inaudible> so what could have been better? So your takeaway this week is to listen to the questions again,

really take some time to think through it. Maybe pause after each question to answer it. I'm there will be a download available to go with this episode, because I want you to really take some time to journal it out. So there'll be a download of all the questions for you with a little bit of space to write, but I would encourage you to actually transfer the questions into a journal and really spend some deep time writing and reflecting and processing this year.

Taking time to reflect will help us set the stage for next year, by taking the time right now, to just think through what went really well, make sure you continue or do the next version of that. That's even better. If you have ideas for that, it is working, keep at it. What could have been better. And then you can come up with a plan of what can I do to make this better.

And if you're stuck, I will be having a challenge soon. And the there'll be more spots available for some consulting soon. So email me to get on or check out the website to get on the list. The link will be below. What were your wins? What are your hopes? And is there anything I can do to support you? Let me know all of this.

Kimberlynn@DecodingLearningDifferences.com.