You won’t want to miss my interview with JK Mergens, creator of the Learn Math Fast System, on The Homeschool Sanity Show.
You’ll learn why your child struggles with multiplication, tips for keeping math simple, and more!
See LearnMathFastBooks for more. Get $5 off with code DRMEL.
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I have written about my battles with overeating before–in a booklet for Lutheran Hour Ministries called The Way to Weigh Less (scroll down for the PDF), here on the blog, and in So You’re Not Wonder Woman?
As a psychologist, my preferred approach to weight loss is a cognitive behavioral one. I see the need for changed thinking before lasting change will occur. As a Christian, my preferred approach is to rely on God and His Word to create the needed change.
In I Deserve a Donut, you find both. It’s a reference book of the lies we tell ourselves that keep us overeating together with the tools we need to defeat them. Author, Barb Raveling, takes readers through a series of questions in every tempting situation that if answered, will be enough to bolster your resistance. In addition, Scriptures related to each tempting situation are available for the renewing of your mind.
You may have the same skepticism that I did in reading the premise of the book. Am I really going to pick up this book when I’m tempted to eat a donut? Maybe not. But the questions and Scripture can be just as effective after the fact.
The most powerful testimonial Barb shares in the book is that her friend lost 100 pounds by just reading through the book and renewing her mind with truth daily.
Even better, the book is appropriate for any approach to weight loss you choose. You will not be sorry you purchased this life- and waistline-changing book. I’m waiting for the author to come out with a book on procrastination.
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This week I tested whether David Seah’s Emergent Task Planner could help me get more done. I pre-planned 3 tasks and added more as they “emerged.” I also estimated how much time the tasks would take and scheduled some of the pre-planned tasks. Scroll to the bottom of last week’s post for details.
Given my attitude, yes. I was tempted to say no, but the truth is I think I would have done even less without the process of writing out my plan each day on the ETP. That being said, I’m not that excited about continuing to use it. Maybe I’ll change my mind when my rebel has been placated.
I don’t need a paper planner like this now that I’m using Skedpal. However, I think this may be a good analog tool for people who aren’t as rebellious as I am.
This week I’ll be testing Steve Kamb’s Do it Now approach. Just as Steve Kamb, the blogger behind Nerd Fitness, suggests, I am going to stop putting off daily living tasks until later. Instead, I will do them “now.”
The concept. Steve argues that we make work for ourselves by putting off things like dishes, laundry, and clean up. Doing it later means doing it longer. The principle of Do it Now does not mean that you interrupt your work for every person, demand, or idea that presents itself.
This is not a new concept to me at all. In fact, it’s a problem I thought I’d mastered. But slowly, I’ve noticed that I am not immediately hanging up my clothes, putting my dishes in the dishwasher, or putting school books away “now.” I am waiting for that magical time period when everything is quick and fun to do known as “later.” Of course, later usually makes tasks more onerous.
If you’d like to join me this week, here’s what you do. Read Steve’s post and watch the funny (and strangely motivating) video he includes. Purpose to handle all those little tasks that should be done as you think of them “now.” If you’d like to comment or share this post, you’d better do it now. You know you won’t have time later. 😉
To see if Do It Now helped me, click here.
Are you on Google+? Follow me here.
Here are the links to the productivity hacks I’ve tried so far:
Week 16: David Seah’s 7:15AM Ritual
Week 17: Another Simple and Effective Method
Week 18: Daily/Weekly/Monthly To-Do List
Week 19: Ultimate Time Management System
Week 25: Make it Happen in 10 Minutes
Week 33: David Seah’s Ten for Ten
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It’s been a wild, wonderful month getting back into the swing of all our homeschool activities and being busier than ever as a blogger. If blog talk makes your eyes roll back in your head like my husband, feel free to scroll down to the other hot flashes. I’ll forgive you.
September was the second most popular month on this blog after August.
Top Posts for the month were:
Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Being Pregnant – Just when I’m convinced that this one is losing steam, I get another bunch of readers.
Where to Find the Easiest Homeschool Record System Ever – Blessed Beyond a Doubt reposted my free download for lesson planning / record keeping and brought a lot of traffic in.
Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Being a Mom – Still in the top 3.
Staying Sane While Homeschooling Preschool –the top traffic-getting new post of the month. There are some great ideas in this post for you to pin if you can ever find time to get online!
Top Referrers for the month were:
Pinterest – Followers have doubled since this summer with the What’s Hot in Homeschooling and Christian Inspiration boards being the most popular.
Search Engines – It’s interesting to me that “weekly to do list” is the most popular search term that people use to find me, followed by “classical conversations reviews.” The funniest search term of the month was “why am I anxious about using an airplane restroom?” which leads them to this post.
Blessed Beyond a Doubt – an excellent source of free printables in particular.
If you don’t like to hear about any kind of writing, or you don’t care about my feelings AT ALL, keep scrolling. Otherwise, I’m excited to report that this Christian book on life change made it to #17 on the free self-help Kindle list. Today I found a list of things from Training Authors I should have done to move it even higher while it was free, but as it is, I’m sure I’ll be talking about this when I’m 80. It doesn’t take much to thrill an author. Speaking of that, if you read a book and love it, review the book. If you have the author’s contact information, drop them a line. They’ll treasure your feedback as I do.
Yes, I know. I’m still on the same subject in a way. Except I’m really excited about the encouragement and ideas homeschoolers can get from my new podcast. I’ve learned so much about podcasting this month and from the guests I’ve interviewed. The Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network has been getting so much fantastic feedback about the kinds of shows they want to hear. The hosts have their work cut out for them! I hope you’ll tune in this October for shows on staying sane while teaching math and creating a parenting plan. Please tell your friends to listen too.
I’m finally going to give you some recipes! But it’s been challenging to find time to make new things this month, so I only have one true new recipe for you.
Baked KFC chicken
I got this recipe from Facebook and I liked it a lot. Two of the kids were especially fond of it and no one disliked it. No frying required.
I used 2.5 pounds of fresh chicken tenderloins and Lowry’s Seasoning Salt instead of Season All.
Teriyaki Stir Fry
I bought this at Wal-Mart and made it adding chicken and really, really liked it. My husband raved about it, too. It’s relatively healthy for a store-bought convenience meal. I normally make my own stir fry, but this was excellent for when I want to save a little time.
Apple Crunch Pie
This is my all-time favorite apple pie recipe. I did NOT make it in September, but I did buy everything I need to make it in the next couple of days. I make extra to freeze and eat at Thanksgiving. Here’s the recipe.
I read some superb books for kids and one for adults this month and just had to share.
This book was not at all what I expected. I assumed it was a fictional tale and was pleasantly surprised to find it was a wonderful biography. My almost-eight-year-old was so entranced by it that he wanted me to read the adult material at the back of the book. We then watched a YouTube clip of the subject of the book and enjoyed it. Highly recommended.
I read this children’s book in an afternoon and couldn’t stop telling my husband what I read. This book, that is chock full of pictures, is not only an exciting biography, but is a great reader for American history. It’s an excellent discussion starter on mediums and spiritists (Houdini was committed to debunking them) and the importance of overcoming fear.
This was an uplifting and heart-wrenching modern missionary biography. I came away from the book inspired to help street children and to be more diligent in my service to the Lord. YWAM biographies have been a major source of spiritual growth for me and my children. I can’t recommend them enough.
They’re not the least important. It’s just that I knew people who know me best would hang with me to the end to read about them.
Caleb, a senior, has applied to two colleges and is narrowing his list even further.
Sam, a sophomore, has his driver’s permit but I haven’t taken him driving yet. I’m still recovering from the first kid. He shadowed our dentist last month and says he wouldn’t know if that’s what he wanted to do unless he was actually drilling teeth or something. I get that.
Andy, an 8th grader, is doing well in drum lessons and is planning on joining a table tennis club now that he can sometimes beat his dad.
The younger kids are excited because we are redecorating their rooms this winter. They helped choose the bedding which has already arrived. They’d like dad to start painting now! I’ll share pictures in a future post.
Those are the hot flashes I’ve been having (at least the ones I dare to discuss online).
What are your hot happenings this month? Got a recipe you want me to try? A book to read? I’m all ears!
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This week, as we settle into our homeschool year, I thought you might like a little inspiration from a homeschool mom of many. I know I appreciated it!
Finding Your Homeschool Groove
How to Teach (and Learn) Geography – Classical Conversations at Home
I found this article on teaching kids geography to complement Classical Conversations and I became hooked on the subject:
A Simple Way to Learn Geography
Then I found this brilliant idea for helping kids make maps from Homegrown Learners.
I told my curriculum connection about these fabulous ideas and she asked me if I’d ever heard of Visualize World Geography. Of course, I hadn’t! She explained that while it was an expensive curriculum, she found that it quickly and easily taught her kids the names of countries that most adults don’t know. I found the best deal (and reviews) of it at Homeschool Buyers Co-op. If you purchase used, make sure you are getting the DVDs as these are apparently the best aspect of the program.
The Little Man In the Map: With Clues To Remember All 50 States
Once I was sold on the visualizing method of learning geography, I was pleased to find this inexpensive resource for teaching kids the states.
More and more homeschooling parents are looking for online curriculum that allows their older students to be independent. Barbie of My Freshly Brewed Life shares a review of Uzinggo–a curriculum I’d never heard of, that works for her middle school daughter.
I have more hot tips than I can share here, so be sure to like the Homeschool Sanity page on Facebook or follow What’s Hot in Homeschooling on Pinterest.
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Are you a leader? If you’re anything like me, you’ll say no.
Unfortunately, in our culture, saying you’re a leader or even that you aspire to be is seen as a negative thing. We’ve come to equate the power-hungry, the arrogant, and the unscrupulous with leadership. That’s unfortunate, because we don’t have as many quality leaders as we need. When elections roll around, we groan because we have so few good options. But the impact of a negative view of leadership extends beyond politics.
At our church’s women’s retreat, one of the women told me she saw me as a leader. That wasn’t surprising considering I lead Bible studies and have been in charge of numerous programs over the years. What was surprising is that I didn’t see myself that way.
I have internalized the idea that it’s not ladylike or appealing to seek leadership. I’ve just allowed myself to “fall into” the role, so I can’t be accused of being one of those aggressive people no one likes.
While my negative attitude hasn’t kept me out of leadership, it has kept me from developing my leadership potential. I haven’t worked to develop as a leader. I haven’t fully considered the impact of what I say and do on the people I lead (even if only by example). I’ve certainly experienced the consequences of this. I started a small group Bible study years ago without any leadership education. I believe that I could have prevented some serious problems that developed, had I thought of myself as a leader from the beginning.
At one time, my strong-willed son expressed an interest in a political career. It didn’t take long for the media to beat that idea out of him. But I didn’t help. Deep down, I assumed that in order to succeed in politics, my son would have to lack character. Rather than training him in what it means to be a godly leader, I just hoped the interest would go away and it did.
If we aren’t really clear on what a leader is, how will our children understand?
When I first read Dan Black’s blog On Leadership, I wondered what I was reading it for. Not only was I not a leader, but I wasn’t interested in leadership. Dan must have been inspired by the Holy Spirit, because he kept interacting with me through my blog and Twitter and I was impressed. He was really behaving like a godly leader and he was so young!
The more I read, the more I realized that studying leadership wasn’t much different than the personal development material I pore over. The only difference is intention. Leaders develop themselves so they can serve others. That was a completely different definition of leadership than the one I was operating from. I started paying more attention to what Dan wrote.
When I read his new book, The Leadership Mandate
{affiliate link}, I felt I finally understood what it meant to be a leader. Of course, it has nothing to do with the talking heads on TV! I realized that I needed to teach my children the principles in Dan’s book so they would be willing to lead as the Lord calls them and would know how.
The Leadership Mandate isn’t just a book describing good leadership; it’s a book that suggests how to live it out. There are action steps for each aspect of leadership. What’s even more important to me than the specific steps is the new attitude this book has helped me adopt. I’m not living for me; I’m living to serve others! Whatever I choose to do is an example to others for good or evil.
Embracing my leadership potential has been very freeing. I don’t feel I have to hide it. Instead, I can focus on how to help people using what the Lord has been teaching me.
That is the mandate for every Christian — to love others — is it not? I hope you will read The Leadership Mandate
and will join me in developing your leadership skills and raising up a next generation of leaders. If you get the book this week (beginning 9/30/13), Dan is offering some free bonuses. Make sure you check them out!
I’m a Christian psychologist turned homeschooling mother of six. My life can be a little crazy, so I look for sanity-saving ideas to use and share. I hope you’ll read my About page to learn more.
-Dr. Melanie Wilson
