Developing a Growth Mindset

Recently, I shared how we all deal with fears regarding homeschooling. A great way to combat your fears regarding homeschooling is to develop a growth mindset. Address your fears, list them out, clean the slate, and begin a new to eliminate those pesky fears. Develop a growth mindset. While this isn’t a homeschooling requirement, it should be! It will do wonders in your life as well as your children’s. Yes, that is right. Developing a growth mindset isn’t only for you. It is also important for your children to develop.

First, let’s dig into what a growth mindset is. A growth mindset is a belief that we are always learning and growing. There is always room for improvement. That means we are not comparing ourselves to Homeschooler Perfection on Instagram, but we strive to grow beyond what we have already accomplished today. It has been found that people who have developed a growth mindset are more motivated and productive in business, education, and sports.

People with a growth mindset believe it is within their nature and control to improve. Therefore we are more capable of change, growth, and progress with patience and hard work. People with a growth mindset thrive on challenges and often see failure as an opportunity for growth. A growth mindset creates a passion for learning instead of looking for approval.

How can you develop a Growth Mindset?

A growth Mindset is great to adopt for both adults and children. There are tons of resources for both as well. If you are interested in more information about this, I recommend a deep dive at your local library and online.

I am going to share nine tips that will help you develop a growth mindset in your homeschool so you can just jump in and get started.

Be flexible! Go with the flow. If something isn’t working, take a break, let it go, come back or don’t.
Be humble enough to accept that there is always room for improvement in yourself.
Be constructive, not critical.
Treat setbacks as struggles that will help you form and grow within the learning process rather than huge failures.
Realize timelines are restrictive, everyone goes at their own pace, don’t try to fit someone else’s mold.
Focus on tasks and combat that fixed mindset with reminders that failure is NECESSARY for growth.
Give up perfectionism and aim at doing a little better each time.
Stop worrying about the outcome and focus on the journey you are on learning and growing.
Develop a supportive community and collaborate to maintain focus.

The best way to develop a growth mindset is to be kind to yourself and your children and remind yourself that the learning process is important. Your child is important and should be recognized based on their effort rather than their intelligence or ability. Once a growth mindset has been developed, you will notice that you and your children strive for accomplishments, allowing yourselves to be curious and exploring beyond previous limitations.