Hey Reader,

Happy Wednesday, friends! It’s the last week of our Foundation Month, and I saved this one for last on purpose. Because I think it might be the one some of you need to hear the most. ❤️

Life

Here’s something that might surprise you: I have a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, a Master’s in Teaching, and over twelve years of experience teaching and tutoring math.

And I Google formulas in front of my students.

Yep. I said that.

Here’s what happens: Students show up to tutoring without telling me ahead of time what they’re working on (even though they are supposed to give me advance notice!). So I’m often teaching with zero prep. No notes, no textbook, no idea what’s coming until they open their backpack and show me.

And sometimes they pull out a concept I haven’t touched in a while. Maybe it’s been a year, sometimes longer. I know the math, and I understand the reasoning behind it. But the specific formula? It’s not sitting at the front of my brain ready to go. 😅

So I tell them exactly that. “I know how to do this, but it’s been a minute and I don’t remember the formula for sure. Let me look it up real quick.”

You know what happens next?

They relax. Every single time.

Because if their math teacher can say, “I need to look that up” without the world ending, then maybe not knowing something isn’t the catastrophe they thought it was either!

And then I get to show them something even more valuable than the formula itself. I get to model how to find what you need, how to read a reference and make sense of it, and how to apply it to the problem in front of you. That’s a skill they’ll use for the rest of their lives. Cause I don’t just look it up, I think out loud, explaining my process the whole time, and that’s gold. Many times students don’t learn from your perfect knowledge, they learn from you modeling your thinking process as you find the answer to something you don’t remember.

I tell my students all the time: math is not about memorizing everything. It’s about knowing how to find the answers you need when you need them.

Homeschool + Math

If a math teacher with a math degree has to look things up, please hear me when I say this: you are absolutely, 100% allowed to not have every answer at the kitchen table.

Your child does not need a parent who knows everything.

They need a parent who’s willing to say three words that change everything during a hard math lesson: “Let’s find out.”

Not, “I don’t know, I’m sorry.” Not, “just skip that one.” Not even “try harder.”

“Let’s find out.”

Those three words teach your student something no curriculum can: that not knowing is a starting point, not a dead end. When you model curiosity instead of panic, or when you show your child that looking something up is a normal part of learning and not a sign of failure, you are building something in them that goes way beyond math. You’re teaching them that it’s safe to not know. And when it’s safe to not know, they stop shutting down and start asking questions.

We’ve spent this whole month talking about foundations: finding the cracks, going back to repair them, letting go of the calendar. This is the last piece: letting go of the pressure to be perfect.

You don’t have to have all the answers. You just have to be willing to look for them alongside your student. And the beautiful thing? Your kid is watching you do that. And they’re learning more from your honesty than they ever would from you pretending!

Grace

Can I be real with you for a second?

I think one of the biggest lies we believe as moms, as teachers, as Christian women, is that asking for help means we weren’t up for the job.

But Scripture says something completely different.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”James 1:5 (ESV)

Given without reproach. That means without the sigh, the eye roll, or the, “you should know this by now.” He gives generously and gladly to anyone who asks!

God never expected you to have all the answers in homeschooling, parenting, and even your faith. He gave you permission to ask before you ever needed it. And He’s not keeping score of how many times you come back with the same question (which is amazing cause I don’t know about you, but I tend to have to ask the same question a LOT!).

And here’s the thing I keep coming back to: God doesn’t call the equipped. He equips the called. If He called you to homeschool your children, and I believe He did, He’s not going to leave you stranded at the kitchen table wondering how to explain fractions. He will give you what you need, when you need it. Maybe that looks like patience you didn’t know you had. Maybe it looks like the right resource at the right time. Maybe it looks like the courage to say “I don’t know” and mean it as an invitation instead of a defeat. But whatever it is, God WILL equip you. All you have to do is ask. I’ve mentioned this a lot this month, but it’s worth repeating: Prayer first. Always. We tend to make prayer our last line of defense when it should be our first line of offense!

So if you’ve been carrying the weight of needing to be enough, smart enough, patient enough, prepared enough, put it down. You were never meant to carry that. He was. ❤️

See you soon!

- Mrs. Holman

P.S. That’s a wrap on Foundation Month! We found the hidden cracks, we pulled everything out of the closet, we let go of the calendar, and now we’ve let go of the pressure to be perfect. You’re doing better than you think. And your student is lucky to have someone who cares this much. 🩷