Last fall, I was at a high school volleyball tournament, watching my daughter play with her varsity team. She has the privilege to play on a homeschool high school team (which thankfully wears a bit more modest uniforms than most). During a tournament, her team has to play several schools each day. As they began […]
I love gardening metaphors. They really help us understand some of the challenges we face as parents. You know…our home is the garden; we are the gardeners tending it; the fruit coming out of the garden is our children; the fertilizer is..well, you can’t take metaphors too far. I’ll have to think on that one. […]
I remember several years ago having a conversation with one of my children about doing his schoolwork. He said, “Mom, I’m not smart enough to do this.” Mentally, I took off my “Teacher” hat and put on a “Cheerleader” hat. “Of course you are smart enough. It just takes practice and some more time. Here, […]
In preparing for a workshop for an upcoming conference, I have been spending time in the Bible, looking for parenting, children, and marriage encouragement. We all want to know how to be the best parents. We love our children from the moment they are placed into our arms. Our entire lives are changed at that […]
From the moment our children are born, we do it. “How much did your baby weigh?” “When did she start to roll over?” “My child can say over 30 words, and he is only 6 months old!” Well, it is natural to want to know how everyone else is doing. It gives us some benchmarks […]
We do it everyday. We want to train our children well; we want to teach them how to do things correctly; we are concerned that they use the right words with the right motivation. So we correct them. We do it all the time. Sometimes that seems to be all that we ever say to […]
It goes without saying that children love to play. They begin exploring things around them when they are infants: grasping, mouthing and staring. This is how they learn. I remember nearly anything that came near my young toddlers (including the dog) would invariably end up in their mouths! As they grow, children need to continue […]
I bumped into an old friend from high school over the holidays. We hadn’t seen each other in decades, so we began catching up. “What are you doing with yourself?” she asked. I paused. Then I began, “Well, I’m a stay-at-home homeschool mom…” I didn’t stop there; I felt I had to continue, “…but before […]
I recently read an article by the TIME Magazine folks that echoes what I have been encouraging parents for quite some time. They discuss findings that show why so many students upon college graduation are unable to obtain or hold down a job. The students have the diploma. They are likely skilled in their career […]
This time of year, I try to assess my household schedule. I always seem to come up short, too. At the beginning of the school year I have plans to stay on top of my household cleaning, meal preparation (I will incorporate at least two crock pot meals and a vegetarian meal into our menu […]