Over the years, I’ve heard something offered occasionally that I think is a terrible motivation for living life and making choices for yourself or your family, and it is this: “You get out there and show ’em. Do it well and prove them wrong.” It can play out in a wide variety of ways in our…
Category: Grow as Homeschooler
Are You Doing Too Much?
A few Saturdays ago, I sprained my ankle while coming down our stairs toward the garden. Moving too fast, I misjudged where the sidewalk ended, and the grass deceived me into believing the ground was taller than it was. My ankle rolled. HARD. I *HEARD* cracking noises, y’all. Yikes! But you know what? By Monday morning I…
Stop Waiting For a Zap
Today I want to ask you something: Have you been waiting for the elusive “zap?” What I mean by that is: Are you waiting for something to happen TO you in one of these areas: Is your child throwing tantrums and out of control? Are you in a marriage slump? Is your house a wreck? Are…
Is It Biblical to Teach Our Kids About Sex?
The topic is one that makes some (nearly all?) parents “gulp” and feel a little nervous. Do we really have to talk about it? How do we talk about it? What should we/shouldn’t we say? What if we say too much? What if we don’t say enough? What if we say the wrong thing? Are…
A Child Left To Himself
One day last year, I walked into our bathroom and found my 3-year-old, Moses, with his arms awkwardly positioned, slightly up in the air. Upon hearing my footsteps, he dropped his hands. His big, winsome smile didn’t fool me. 🙂 It was clear there was something in one hand he had pulled down and was trying to…
4 Questions to Help You Evaluate Parenting Advice
As parents look to parenting books, methods, advice, and make decisions about how to raise up their children, there are skads of opportunities to encounter really lousy advice. It can be difficult, in this age of TV psychologists and celebrity moms and PhD-toting “experts”, to know what is right.Rather than try to lay out specifics,…
Seasons of Life & Homeschooling
Like parenting in general, it helps me when I think about homeschooling in terms of seasons. Each season has its own unique joys, its own unique challenges, and each is discernibly different from the one before. HOMESCHOOLING BEGAN LIKE SPRING Was it that way for you? (It’s not that way for everyone, so don’t feel bad…
Modern-Day Chariots: What Are You Trusting In?
In King David’s day, it went like this: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.” ~Psalm 20:7 What are our modern American “chariots?” What do we trust in? I have some ideas. Scan them and see if any of them strike a nerve…
6 Ways I Handle Being an Exhausted Mom
Feeling exhausted? ME TOO! At this point of motherhood, it seems I should walk around with caution tape. That would give everyone around me a warning before they talked to or interacted with me. Maybe I could wear a sign: WARNING, WARNING, WARNING!!! DO NOT GO INTO THIS CONVERSATION WITH GREAT EXPECTATIONS. In fact, DIAL THOSE EXPECTATIONS…
Homeschooling at Your Child’s Pace
One of the things I love most about home education is this: You can wait for understanding and move through material with MASTERY as the goal. There is no need to “plow onward” to keep on pace with the rest of the class. You look at what your child is grasping and retaining, and assess what…