Sometimes what we need to live better lives is not a resolution, but simply a shift in focus. Often this shift in focus is an expansion. We become hyper-focused on one part of our lives and this causes us to neglect other areas. We then feel like a failure because so much of our life is in dissaray, falling apart, a mess.

Pulling back the zoom feature reveals the big picure. Sometimes we zoom in simply because that big picture is of a messy room. We seek to avoid it and zooming in is much faster and easier than cleaning the room.

We do this not only when trying to take photos in a messy house. We do it when we are teaching our kids. The most common tendency is to hyper focus on shoving more and more information into their brains. We think giving them a great academic foundation will give them an amazing future.

And we zoom in on just that part of the day and of their lives. We forget all the other things their brain needs to grow. Children are not computers. We can’t make them more amazing just by throwing more code at them.

Their brain needs a few things that computers do not. Without these things we are essentiently stunting their academic development and growth, because feeding them information is just one of four things that their brain needs for healthy development.

Instead of making a resolution for your homeschool this year maybe you can just quit zooming in on this part of your homeschool. Your homeschool is so much more than just that academic/teaching part of your day. Your child is so much more than just an absorbent sponge.

Your child’s brain needs four basic things to grow.

• Nutrients (obtained from healthy food)
• Oxygen (obtained from intense exersice/movement)
• Love (obtained from cuddles, laughter, sharing smiles, ect.)
• Information (obtained from books, documentaries, games, and more)

Don’t make zooming out so complicated that you zoom right back in.

Just make sure you do each of these things with your kids everyday.

You can print out the reminder checklist below and hang it up where you see it every day. (Maybe a bathroom mirror?)

In the morning remind yourself to:

• get them moving once during the day
• feed them one healthy food item
• do something that makes them smile
• teach them

You probably don’t ever forget to teach them. Even on the weekends you are telling them about things, taking them places, playing games with them, reading books, or putting on a show about their favorite animal.

Zooming out and covering the other things your child’s brain needs can create lasting change in both your relationship with your child, their own happiness, and their end level of intelligence.

What if you have completely neglected one of these things? Is it too late? Doesn’t brain growth slow down as kids get older and then stop?

No. No. And No.

Brains keep growing. The more you give them all these things the more they grow. And who even cares how ‘fast’ the growth happens? Childhood is not a race to the end. Young adulthood is not an endpoint, but a begininng. We are just setting the foundation for a lifetime of brain growth and it is never to late to start paying attention to an area we completely ignoring before.

Instead of writing resolutions to make our parenting and our homeschools better, let’s just zoom out.