What Can We Learn From a Home-Schooling Mother of Six?
How does a mother six children do it without losing her marbles?
Does she worry about failing her children by home-schooling them when she’s not a teacher?
How does she handle the tech and screen time with so many kids?
What about sibling harmony and discipline? How does she find any ME time?
I was eager to jump on a Zoom call with Karisa Rivera, a mother of six children ranging from age one to 14. She answered all of these questions!
I also revealed the word I banned when my kids were little and how I stood my ground against societal pressures to have games consoles. (I absolutely don’t judge others who have them, but I’d like other parents to know it is possible.)
This is a must-watch for new parents with a clean slate who’d love to instil family values right from the start, but Karisa also has some beautiful words for parents of older kids who may feel hard on themselves for making mistakes or wishing they’d done things differently.
What did I learn from this mother of six? That those of us with smaller families sure know how to make life harder for ourselves than we need to!
Karisa has a lot of great wisdom to share about how she promotes family harmony by instilling a set of core family values around unity and respect. She also sheds light on the logistics of how home-schooling works in her (very full!) household.
I was planning on a 30 minute chat, but at the 30 minute mark we reached some some extra gold and I didn’t want to cut things off! So keep watching for:
30:00 – Sibling harmony and family values (Super inspiring!)
35:00 – Her two golden rules for all mothers (I absolutely love these.)
43:00 – Screen time and tech rules (What she dared to do when it became an addiction – and how that turned out.)
58:00 – Beautiful advice for parents of older kids who may feel hard on themselves for making mistakes or wishing they’d done things differently
Karisa Riviera lives in Miami, Florida with her husband and their six children. She is a personal empowerment coach serving women in the Latina community. www.mujerradiante.com Instagram @karisariviera
In the comments below, tell us how many kids you have? Are you home-schooling them because of lockdown? Or were you already a home-schooling family? Share what you think of Karisa’s tips and advice!
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I finally got round to watching this! After the main lockdown period in the UK but ahead of the feared second wave and the possibility that we may have to do all of this again. This is great advice and a really good reminder that doing simple things will have a big impact on the quality of our time together. Karisa’s ideas made me feel like we did some things really well through lockdown and that there are other things we could have done better and that now would be a good time to reflect on this before we forget, so we are more prepared for next time. I love the idea of putting a plan together and giving the children as much control as we are able to. And crystallising our values so it is a common language within our family and so they have a better understanding of why we make certain decisions and set certain rules. We have started to do this but there’s more to do. I like the idea of putting a mirror to how the children feel after 1) screen time and 2) another activity they love, like drawing, and showing them the difference in how they feel and what they have gained from that time. I have had a low level feeling of worry about another lockdown and what the impact will be on my children and us, however I see now that I can approach it with positivity and in a different way to last time, in order for it not to feel relentless. And, by protecting the small periods of time in the day I have carved out for Me Time, this will benefit all of us and is priority not a nice to have. Thank you Kelly and Karisa! xx
Thanks so much for sharing your insights from watching. They in turn will help other mothers reading this. By approaching it with as positive of a mindset as you can, you’ve absolutely got this Jude. 🙂 xx
It’s a great resource for parents who are considering or currently navigating the homeschooling journey. Thank you for sharing your experiences and advice!