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It’s Okay to Take it Slow

One advantage to homeschooling is time. Finding time in the classroom is not easy feat. A teacher must find the time to educate a classroom full of kids in the span of six hours. I always thought teaching was a profession not for the faint of heart and for those with a calling. I will be the first to admit that I am not sure I could conduct a classroom as well I do my homeschool with only three students. With a smaller number of students, no principal or pressure to have your class pass tests, a homeschooling parent has … Continue reading →

Has Your Diet Fallen on its Face?

So what did it? Was it a cupcake with whipped frosting? Was it an extra serving of pasta? Was it that grande cup of full fat latte with real whipped cream and chocolate drizzle? Tell me what caused your diet to fall on its face. Maybe it wasn’t the food that tempted you but stress, feelings of low self esteem, or the decision to celebrate with too many calories. There are a million reasons from not being able to say no to dessert to a death in the family that can cause you to go off of your diet. There … Continue reading →

Caretaker Stories: Moments of Lucidity

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Friends and family who have experienced the progression of Alzheimer’s disease say that things get a lot easier once the person with the disease stops remembering. I can definitely see how that can be the case. People with the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease are often combative and difficult to deal with. As example, I offer my own experiences as caretaker for my grandmother. In the early days of the disease, she was very defensive about gaps in her memory. If she couldn’t remember something, it was because nobody had told her. Sometimes, her brain would come up with a … Continue reading →

Slow to Offense

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It was a beautiful Relief Society lesson. Despite being pressed to fill in at the last minute, the teacher had obviously prepared, and spoke from the heart. The Spirit was strong. One sister raised her hand to comment on the underlying message given. A second and third sister shared similar testimonies. I felt sure that the Lord was prompting us as a class to grow together, that this message was one we needed to hear. And then it happened. Another sister went back to the surface issue being discussed. It was as if we were discussing the underlying ramifications of … Continue reading →

The Stuff That Memories Are Made Of

Today I was thinking back to last week when my son and I visited my parents for a couple of days. While we were at my parents’ house, I realized that a lot of the things in that house are things that bring back memories from my childhood. Seeing my son interacting with these items as well as exploring the house that his mommy grew up in made me think about how places and things can be important reminders of the stories tht make up a family’s history. In my parents’ living room, there is a child sized rocking chair. … Continue reading →

4 Steps to Relaxation for the Overly Anxious

Anxiety plays a troubling trick on us. We’re often so anxious about all the things we need to do that the only means of relieving the anxiety seems to be getting everything done. But as I discuss in-depth in my book Overcoming Anxiety Worry and Fear, everything is never done. From cleaning the house to finishing up a day’s work tasks, there will be more of the same tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that. The only means of realizing relief is to make the time throughout the day, every day, to relax amidst the tasks that will … Continue reading →

Letting Your Kids Set the Schedule

There are days when it’s hard to motivate your homeschooled students to do their work, but we know the value of what we’re doing, and we want to press forward and continue on the positive path we’ve chosen. One way I’ve found to help my kids get more in the groove is to let them choose their schedule. There are a number of different ways to do this. First, you can let them decide which subjects to do first, second, third, and so forth. For the first little while, they’ll probably choose to do all the fun things first, leaving … Continue reading →

Getting Back in the Groove

I came down with a really bad case of bronchitis in January, and wasn’t good for much of anything. I could point and grunt, but that was about it. School suffered—at least, the parts that require me to think. And we won’t even discuss how my housework suffered. That’s just too pitiful. After I recovered and we were able to get back into our groove, I noticed a distinct lack of enthusiasm on the part of my twelve-year-old son. It was hard to get him to feel any excitement about resuming our routine, especially when it came to math. Our … Continue reading →

The Part Time Homeschooler

In our area, the rents are astronomical. This means that many parents work outside the home. However, our area also has large and growing numbers of home learners. How do parents juggle the two? First, we have flexible work schedules. I work three days out of the week, but I am taking a morning off a week and using flex time to cover this. This means that I have an extra morning to do some home learning activities. We also use weekends and evenings. Now, since we’re fairly causal learners, we life learn on weekends and evenings as everyone does. … Continue reading →

Maintaining Your Weight

Are you happy about the idea of just maintaining your weight? We rarely hear people talk about that. We constantly hear about the need to lose weight but we don’t hear about the part where we just maintain our weight. I have been in a real rut lately with my eating and exercise habits. I fell off the wagon for a bit and although I have tried to get back on, it has been a rough road. It’s become that rollercoaster ride of having ups and downs. I just can’t seem to get myself completely together. One would think that … Continue reading →