I hope I’ve convinced you that planning makes homeschool moms happy. If you haven’t yet read the reasons planning rocks for homeschool moms, do that first. Today we are talking about how to keep happy planning going. If you’re like me and you have begun using numerous planners only to leave them languishing on the shelf, you’re going to love this post.
My guest on the Homeschool Sanity Show, Diona Navarro, had these tips for continuing to use your planners.
Buy a planner that works the way you do.
“Don’t just buy a planner because it’s cheap, pretty, or other people are buying it,” Diona says. She explains that the right planner for you should allow you to record your thoughts. Her preference is for a planner that allows checklists and is something she can make pretty with her supplies.
Keep it simple.
Diona sets up her planners so others could take them and use them to direct her family’s day. That means it has to be easy to understand and not overloaded with tasks.
Keep it accessible.
Diona advises leaving your planner out where it’s visible. Leave it on the table in the kitchen, for example. The more you see it, the more you’ll rely on it.
Plan to plan.
Diona takes time every Saturday and Sunday to use her various planners. Without set times for planning, it wouldn’t happen. Diona advises that you plan more than one week at a time in case you can’t do your regular planning time.
I love the tips that Diona gave us. I have a few of my own to add.
Use your planner as a guide, not a boss.
You’re the boss. And no matter what you said you wanted to do in your planner, you get to change your mind. Like a tour guide who has ideas at the ready for you, your planner is happy to take you on any side trips you want to take. A tour guide is not evaluating you and neither is your planner. Planners don’t grade our performance.
If we view our planner as our boss, we will resist opening our planners and having a performance review. Here is how I solved this very pervasive problem for myself. After I have made my plan for the day, I close my planner and walk away from it. I take a picture of my planner, so I can refer to it later in the day when I feel a little lost. But closing my planner gives me permission to take the route I feel led to take through my day. Like a map, my daily plan is there to refer to if I need it. This perspective and approach have made me more likely to follow my plan for the day.
Make planning the best part of your day and week.
My planning always begins with time with God. I am in prayer and in the Word and I have peace. I recognize small matters for what they are. I am reminded of the power I have in Christ for the big matters that are facing me.
I love beginning my planning time with gratitude. That attitude is proven to improve mood even in those who do not recognize a sovereign God. My monthly plan gives me a picture of all my family’s activities and how much I have to be grateful for. I love that I have the opportunity to assess areas where I have missed the mark as well. I can leave any guilt or fear that I have right there on the page.
Once I have spent time with the Lord, I feel ready to consider my priorities for the day. I make this part of planning so rewarding that I don’t want to miss it. I sit in a comfortable chair with excellent light. I have blankets at the ready and often a cute little dog to cozy up to at the same time.
I allow myself to use stickers and colorful pens and motivational quotes as I feel led. I end with a realistic view of how my day will go that gives me peace.
Conclusion
Using these tips, I believe that you can continue as a happy planning homeschool mom. To get even more from your planner, make sure you subscribe to learn the habits of the organized homeschool mom and how to make adopting them easy.
Which of these tips will best help you keep up the planning habit? Comment and let me know.
Planning has made me so much happier in my homeschool. I want every homeschool mom to have the same happiness. I hope to convince you to start planning for the first time or to resume your planning habit.
I asked Diona Navarro, homeschool mom and planner extraordinaire from AllDayEveryDayMom.com, why happy homeschool moms are planners. I’m going to share her reasons as well as my own in the post below. But you’ll love listening to this podcast episode even if you read. Diona is so inspiring.
We are happy planners because we experience freedom.
We homeschool moms enjoy tremendous freedom with our schedules. What a blessing! We enjoy even more freedom when we plan. We can make sure the must-do’s are accomplished in the most efficient way possible, so we can enjoy teaching and learning with our kids in the way that makes our heart sing.
We are happy planners because we make time for the best things.
When we plan, we are intentional about making sure the seasonal activities, the great books, and the fantastic field trips happen. When we don’t plan, we often find ourselves disappointed in our homeschool.
We are happy planners because we don’t forget.
Planning makes it less likely we forget appointments and invitations and to-do’s. No one likes the embarrassment of forgetting these things. But even better, because we plan memory-making activities, we are more likely to remember them. We can even keep our planners to remember the good times we’ve had.
We are happy planners as we anticipate activities.
We envision our planned activities and we get a hit of dopamine that makes us feel great. We imagine how excited our kids will be when we go on that field trip, do the cool science experiments, or read a fantastic book together. In fact, anticipating is often better than reality!
We are happy planners because we reduce anxiety.
When we feel that we have so much to do (and isn’t that ALL the time?), but when we get it on paper, it feels manageable. We can control it. We can make decisions about which tasks to delete and which to defer so we can have a reasonable achievable day.
We are happy planners because we’re actually doing something.
That sense of peace we have in planning can lead to another source of happiness: doing. Research is clear that we are more likely to do something when we have planned when we will do it. Furthermore, we are happier actually doing things. We may enjoy talking about our homeschooling or life plans, but nothing boosts our mood like being productive. When I follow my plan for the day, I feel fantastic. I want you to experience that same happiness.
But what if you’re not actually using your planner?
Make sure you subscribe so you’ll be notified of my next post / podcast episode that will share how we can keep the happy planning going!
What makes you happy about planning? Comment and let me know.
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I believe you should study movies as literature with your teens! Here are six reasons why and then I share my review of Cinema Studies, the best way to study movies as literature with your kids.
#1 Movies really are literature.
At one time, novels weren’t considered worthwhile for instruction. Imagine! Now we know that reading novels improves vocabulary, comprehension, spelling, and writing.
Today there is a continuing stigma that movies can’t add to our children’s education. Movies are what our children should watch in their free time, right? Wrong! Movies, like plays, are based on written scripts or books. Because they are literary, movies can be used to teach concepts like character development, plot, setting, and much more.
#2 Movies are taught as literature in the public schools.
Many homeschool parents I talk with are afraid that watching movies isn’t worthy of high school credit. I assure you: The study of movies is credit-worthy. My son took this course as a public high school junior. Because he was taking a number of AP (read time-consuming) courses, his guidance counselor recommended that he take an easier class like a movies as literature course to complete his schedule.
Movies as literature courses count as English elective credits and are an excellent addition to a college-prep transcript.
#3 Movies create great opportunities for discussion.
Kids are used to talking about the movies they see. If you have a teen who isn’t a talker, discussing a movie is a great way to understand your teen’s views on life. Movies can expand your teen’s understanding of others’ motivation and can be used to teach social skills. Teens are more likely to talk about movies than other topics because there are few wrong answers–just opinions.
#4 Movies provide excellent writing prompts.
A movies as literature study provides interesting and personal writing subjects. Writing prompts are rarely dry and students with multiple learning styles can recall and respond to the movies they’ve seen in writing.
#5 Movies are fun for kids to watch.
Even though your kids are learning, they think of watching movies as inherently fun. You’ll get less procrastination and pushback on watching a movie for homework than nearly any other assignment you might give.
Movies mimic the more entertaining lessons of childhood and can be enhanced with great snacks!
#6 Movies are a fun family and friend activity.
Parents of teens rarely do math with them just for the fun of it. But a movies as literature course can get parents involved in the learning process. Some movies have mature themes and aren’t appropriate for younger kids (or you may want to save the films for when they’re older). But the teens and adults in your house can enjoy time together while still putting in homeschool hours.
A study of movies as literature is also a lot of fun in a group setting. It’s the perfect class for co-ops and learning centers. Your teen will enjoy discussing the movies watched with their homeschool friends.
Why Cinema Studies is the Perfect Way to Study Movies as Literature with Your Teen
I used another movies as literature course in the past and highly recommend Cinema Studies instead. Here’s why:
It includes some more recent films teens enjoy. Studying movies as literature doesn’t mean that the films have to be painful to watch because they’ve become culturally irrelevant. While Cinema Studies includes classics like Casablanca, it also features Rudy — a personal favorite! The movies are easy to find, unlike the previous curriculum I used.
It doesn’t require you to stop the film over and over again to answer trivial questions. If your teen watches the movie (especially with the questions at hand), answering questions correctly should be no problem. Your student may need to watch the movie a second time (as recommended) to write the paper. In our co-op, we discuss the movie one week and review papers the next, so students may forget specific examples to use in their writing.
Writing assignments are short and engaging. Writing a long paper on every movie is way more work than students in traditional schools are required to do. Tedious writing assignments can kill interest students have in studying movies. Students always have a personal response option for their papers, which they love.
Cinema Studies is digital and economical for more than one student. I am able to make copies of the materials for all three of my kids using Cinema Studies.
The answers are in the teacher’s guide. I have been loving watching the movies with my kids and my husband has joined in too. BUT if I wasn’t able to watch the movie for some reason, the discussion question answers are right there for me.
Be sure to check out Cinema Studies and get ready to teach movies as literature in your homeschool! What is a favorite movie you would love to study with your teens?
I didn’t intend to homeschool. I had a Ph.D. in psychology and I planned to practice part-time and be home with my young children the rest of the time. But then I started homeschooling. I found a way out of the CHAOS through FLYLady and routines, and eventually found that I loved it. Surprised, I found it was a fulfilling career. But as I came to love homeschooling, legalism threatened to destroy it. Here’s how.
Even though I hadn’t wanted to homeschool and only did it at what I believed was the Lord’s urging, I found myself wondering why everyone wasn’t doing it. Scratch that. I found myself judging other Christians for not homeschooling.
It was clearly what God meant in Deuteronomy 6:7, wasn’t it? That’s what so many speakers at Christian homeschool conferences said. It was like the 11th commandment. So why wouldn’t loving Christian parents stay home to make sure their children were raised in the faith? Yes, I knew people who sent their kids to Christian schools. But you couldn’t be too sure what teachers would teach, and you certainly couldn’t be sure of the influence the other kids in the school would have.
My husband and I had a community of like-minded homeschooling friends. When we heard stories of Christian kids gone bad, we trusted in the admonitions of Christian homeschool speakers and authors who served as mentors. If we would keep our children out of Sunday school, youth groups, and the dating scene; if we would keep them from summer camps with public school kids; if we would keep them from reading the books, listening to the music, and watching the movies that other kids did, our kids wouldn’t be like those other kids. They would be better.
If we followed the Christian homeschool plan for our families, we could rest easy that our kids would be Christians (many of them pastors and missionaries) who wouldn’t have premarital sex, wouldn’t have a substance abuse problem, wouldn’t end up living in our basements at 30, and wouldn’t reject us. That was the plan, and we felt great about it.
My husband and I frequently talked about families who weren’t following the Christian homeschool plan like we were. Many of them already had problematic children. We shook our heads with a tsk-tsk. They should have homeschooled or homeschooled the right way.
The homeschool plan failed
Our homeschool went smoothly for years. The kids were agreeable to our plans for them. They would complete a college degree while in high school. They would graduate early without debt or the negative influence of college. They would begin dating when they were ready to marry. Our kids would homeschool their kids.
And then my oldest, a smart, strong-willed child, entered puberty.
I don’t have to tell you what happened next, because you won’t be surprised. Yes, he rebelled against everything. Everything. He wanted to go to college far from home and visit us once or twice a year. He wasn’t sure about the Bible and he didn’t agree with our politics. He wanted a girlfriend in junior high. He became defiant and disobeyed us frequently.
Another homeschooling mom we had just become acquainted with talked to me about his behavior. Underlying every word she said was her judgment:
“You’re not homeschooling the right way.”
I was devastated. I didn’t see the irony at the time, nor did I recognize the truth: I wasn’t homeschooling the right way.
Through many tears, we and our son realized that we were terrified and were acting out of those fears. We were afraid our son would reject the faith, our family, and everything we believed in. He was afraid that if he didn’t see things our way that we would stop loving him.
By the time our oldest asked to go to school, he had become less oppositional. We knew that this was God’s calling for him, and we agreed to it.
But the damage had been done. Here’s what I mean: our oldest son had made our legalism clear. We cared more about our homeschool plan and looking good as parents than we did about him, than we did about our other children, than we did about Jesus. Our son’s period of acting out (which he later related to hormones) tore down our idol of homeschooling. We are so grateful.
What homeschooling without legalism looks like
The first change I noticed when we left homeschool legalism was far less judgment of others. We stopped talking about how this or that family was allowing a teenager to date. We prayed more compassionately for those whose children were struggling. We gave advice less and listened more.
The second change I noticed was far less judgment of ourselves. A legalistic homeschool is very tough to maintain. Everyone has to do good and look good because when they don’t, the parents (as the homeschool leaders) are to blame. Bad behavior led to fear which led to anger. We started taking ourselves less seriously.
The third change I noticed was a shift in responsibility. We had felt entirely responsible for how our kids “turned out.” We came to recognize that we took ownership of responsibilities that were rightly God’s and our children’s. Ultimately, we realized that we couldn’t homeschool our kids into the faith and godly living.
Is Leaving Legalism for you?
What’s funny is that at one time I would have believed it was my responsibility to help you leave legalism. I now know that if God is calling you out of legalism, He is far more effective at that than I could ever be. If the Lord brought you to this page, I do want to suggest that you read the book Leaving Legalism by Kendra Fletcher.
Like me, Kendra is a homeschooling mom who fell for the trap of legalism. She calls legalism “hope shifting.” I love that. When we shift our hope from the finished work of Jesus in our lives and our children’s lives, we are destined to wander in the homeschool desert.
It’s so disappointing, but there aren’t six steps for leaving legalism. 🙂 Instead, like the Underground Railroad, there is a Conductor Who will lead us out of it. I pray you will follow Him.
Conclusion
If our son hadn’t made our homeschool legalism clear, I hate to think what the results would have been for our family. We still love homeschooling but not more than we love our kids and our Lord. Have you ever fallen prey to homeschool legalism? Tell me in the comments.
I didn’t think I needed strategies for homeschooling giftedness. I thought I should just be celebrating that my child loved to read and was so quick to learn. But my lack of understanding of my children’s gifts did them a disservice. I learned where I went wrong when I was asked to present on homeschooling gifted kids for my local homeschool conference. I’ve learned three things about homeschooling a child’s gift that can allow our children to flourish.
From watching movies and television, my idea of a gifted kid was a six-year-old college student or a Doogie Howser doctor. I knew for sure I didn’t have one of those, and furthermore, I had no idea how to teach a kid like that.
In reading about giftedness, however, I learned that what is typically portrayed in the media is profound giftedness. Spelling bee winners and childhood Rhodes scholars are not the epitome of giftedness. Instead, kids who are advanced in a subject or activity, kids who are fascinated by and have a voracious appetite for a subject, and kids for whom some endeavor comes easily and joyfully are likely gifted. Gifted kids may not meet the IQ criteria (which varies by source, by the way), but have a gift or talent nonetheless.
And speaking of giftedness, you may not want to give your kids the label. When I mentioned my son’s giftedness to a relative, I was immediately chastised as though it had to be kept hush-hush. I shouldn’t upset people by bragging or causing them to compare. I should pretend like he was no different than any other child.
But the truth is I see giftedness in every child. My adult autistic nephew can outbowl me any day of the week. He has bowled 300 games, something I’ve never achieved and likely never will. My brother has several learning disabilities but has always been able to put things together just by looking at the parts. I have to read the directions over and over again and still get it wrong.
I once thought I had just one gifted child but now see gifts for writing, foreign language, music, leadership, faith, interpersonal skills, humor, sports, and more. I also began to see the giftedness in the kids in my co-op. A student who struggled with writing was an inspiring speaker. A student whose grammar wasn’t perfect possessed creativity in writing that was astounding. A student who slowly and methodically approached an engineering problem solved it well before the other students.
I also began to embrace my own giftedness. Because of painful school experiences, I insisted I was no different than anyone else. I wanted friends more than I wanted to be smart. But in preparing for that talk on giftedness, I recognized myself in the description of gifted people. God has given me a gift for writing and speaking–gifts to be used for His glory. When we deny our gifts, we can’t develop them or share them. Accepting our gifts makes us better teachers for our own and others’ gifted kids.
Emphasize strengths while working on weaknesses.
I heard Joyce Herzog say that our kids will not be employed in their area of weakness, yet we tend to focus our efforts in that area. The greatest geniuses and leaders in history had weaknesses. Had the lion’s share of their time been spent on improving their weaknesses, the world likely would have been deprived of these gifted people’s inventions, knowledge, or leadership.
We do not have to have a balanced curriculum for a gifted child. If your child loves to read, let her read. Don’t insist that she be as masterful with math as with language arts. If you have an introverted child with a coding gift, don’t schedule all his time in social activities or sports. Do we want to help our children become competent in areas of weakness? Most certainly! But we can accept average in areas we know are unlikely to be an important part of our kids’ future.
A graduate student in English told me that her English and reading scores on the ACT had put her in the top 1% of all test takers, but her math score was well below average, even though she had done well in class. The university created a custom scholarship for her. She will not be taking math tests to succeed in her language arts career.
My husband is one of the most skilled salesmen and social people I know. His college GPA wasn’t stellar, but during his college years he sold gym memberships. His parents could have insisted he quit his job and focus on getting better grades. They didn’t and his first employer was most impressed with his sales experience. He has had the same lucrative career selling library books since college.
Spend your homeschool time maximizing your child’s gift. That is one of the greatest blessings of homeschooling. We can provide a tailor-made curriculum to grow our child’s gift instead of going with a one-size-fits-all curriculum. My friend’s son took a EMT course while in high school because he wants to be a doctor. My son worked 20 hours a week in management during high school because leadership is his gift. Jonathan Harris’s son developed his own drone photoraphy business.
Challenge your child.
When I spoke to parents of gifed kids, the most common question I received was “How can I challenge my child?” These parents understand that just giving a child the next grade level of curriculum isn’t the best practice.
resources for kids who are weak in an area or twice-exceptional
Sometimes we need a new approach to homeschooling our gifted child. Perhaps we are using textbooks or an online learning platform when we have a child who needs to do, to research, and even to teach in order to learn best. There are incredible options available to us now that can save us time. Sometimes we just need to tweak the curriculum we already have. We may be teaching kids together with various gifts and we need to find a way to save time and our sanity. Homeschooling Gifted Kids has you covered.
When we have a twice-exceptional child or just a child who is weaker in a subject, we need to know which options are best. That’s another reason I love Homeschooling Gifted Kids. It’s a fantastic resource for getting the challenging subjects in as well as for finding ways to stretch your child in her area of strength.
If you have a child who is profoundly gifted, there is even a section of the book on college. Cindy doesn’t tell you what to do but gives you important questions to consider in that case.
Conclusion
When you rethink what giftedness is, allow your child to focus on an area of strength, and challenge your child, your child will flourish as a homeschooler. Homeschooling is a fantastic option for teaching a gifted student. With these tips and a copy of Homeschooling Gifted Kids, you can feel confident as your gifted child’s teacher.
When we struggle in our homeschooling, it’s easy to look for answers in a book, online, or from friends. The answer is usually as close as a prayer.
Here’s how to pray powerfully over our homeschools. Of course we can pray using any words. We can pray from our hearts. We don’t need a formula. However, sometimes we don’t have the words. I am using the Lord’s prayer as a model for praying over our homeschools because we have it memorized. I’m including commentary on the prayer to help us think in alignment with God about our homeschooling. Please join me in praying over your homeschool right now.
Our Father, who art in heaven.
Some of us didn’t have loving, supportive fathers. Some of us still may not have a father who is supporting us in our homeschooling or providing loving, godly leadership for our kids.
Some of us may not have believing husbands or husbands who are our partners in home education. We may feel all alone in our work and exhausted.
Some of us may lack homeschooling friends, who know the challenges of the homeschooling lifestyle. We may not have anyone to co-op with, do play dates with, or just chat with on a regular basis.
But each of us has a Father in heaven who is far more of an encouragement and help than any earthly father, husband, or friend could ever be. He is our father, our husband, and our friend.
Hallowed be thy name.
We often forget what holy means, which is a synonym of hallowed. Holiness means that our God is not only sinless but so awesome that in His presence we would fall to our faces. We may never have been in the presence of anything that evokes that kind of awe. I know I haven’t.
God’s power and holiness aren’t just awe-inspiring though. They are available to us in our homeschooling. Every single trial and difficulty and weakness we have is tiny in comparison to the power of God. Our God is ever present with us in our homeschools. But when we pray, we experience him fully.
His kingdom is characterized by the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control — all things we desperately need in our homeschools. We often think about the future kingdom at his second coming, but his kingdom can be present in our homeschools today when we pray.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
We are often confused about what to do with a child who struggles academically or behaviorally. When we pray, we can be confident that God’s will will be done in our homeschools. Of course, God’s will is always done in our lives. But we worried homeschooling moms need reassurance. We can relax knowing that God is arranging our circumstances to ensure that His will is done in our homeschool and in our lives.
Jesus is the bread of life bread and represents everything we need for life. In 2 Peter 1:3, God promises us that we already have everything we need for life and godliness. If we have more month than money, if we have need of medical care to diagnose and treat a troubling condition, or if we need friends in our homeschooling journey, we can be confident that God will give us this bread. We can go about our day joyfully, knowing that our Father in heaven cares about us and our every need.
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
We have an opportunity every day to forgive our children for their shortcomings, their immaturity, and their foolishness just as God forgives ours. In the process of asking for forgiveness, we model for our children how they should parent our future grandchildren. We model the humility that God can use to lead others to Christ.
And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil.
Unlike every false God, our Father does not tempt us with things that will harm us. He does not tempt us to spend too much time online, too much money, or too much emotion on small matters. Instead, our God makes a way out from temptation. When we are ready to yell at our child for fighting with his brother once again, when we feel tempted to pull into the fast food drive-through, though we’ve already visited twice this week, or when we feel like skipping math because it makes us anxious, we can call on our God for the grace to do what we know is the right thing and He will provide it.
Although it’s easy for us to become preoccupied with avoiding evil and protecting our children from it in the form of media and peers, we can know that our God will deliver us from evil. Why?
For thine is the kingdom and the power
The power for homeschool parents to lead lives worthy of our calling does not come from us but from Him. We have only to ask for it and believe that we have it.
And the glory
We remember that the glory for smart, polite, talented children belongs to Him alone. We pray that we would ever remember how weak we are and how great He is.
Forever and ever.
The math, literature, and chore lessons will not last forever. But the discipleship will. We are raising up missionaries who will share the Gospel with others, no matter what their chosen vocation. In homeschooling we are laying up treasure in heaven. When we homeschool in faith, we will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Amen.
We believe what we just prayed and we ask the Lord to help our unbelief as we continue to pray. Consider praying the Lord’s prayer with your children and talk with them about how the prayer applies to our homeschools. These are powerful words that grow our faith.
My thanks to our sponsor KiwiCo for supporting The Homeschool Sanity Show. Remember to go to: http://kiwico.com/homeschool to register for your kit by paying shipping only. If you would like to read a copy of my commentary on the Lord’s prayer, go to homeschoolsanity.com/Lordsprayer for the link. If you know a homeschooling friend who could use some encouragement, share this episode with her.
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.
