I’ve been super-busy working on the Beta launch of the all new www.homeschoolconvention.com/reviews. This is the internet’s first advertising-free expert reviews site, and it is brought to you homeschoolers BY homeschoolers! Be sure to drop by and leave your own thoughts and ratings on products in our continually-growing database.

This week’s featured reviews are especially appropriate for the Thanksgiving/Advent season. We had a lot of fun putting these together, and we think you’ll enjoy them, too. Come check out books, media, and even toys that help you teach the meaning of thankfulness to your children.

Be sure to stay tuned for the biggest thing to hit homeschooling – the grand opening of www.homeschoolconvention.com coming this March.  Brought to you by Home Educating Family Association, publishers of Home Educating Family Magazine and the Well-Planned Day planners, this virtual convention will change forever the way home educators obtain information and support one another. Don’t miss the big unveiling!

Full disclosure – I am employed as Director of Product Reviews for Home Educating Family Association. I receive no compensation for any of the links within this post

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Benefits

This simple – yet slightly time-consuming – exercise of clearly defining and ordering life priorities yields several benefits. Priorities give clarity of focus to daily, weekly, and long-term projects. Priorities ease the “I should be doing something else” guilt and eliminate the”I didn’t get it done” sleepless nights. With clear priorities, we can confidently do what should be done at any given minute, resting in God’s perfect plan for our lives.

I’ve been writing my personal life priorities since I was a teen. I’ve always kept to a list of ten (I’m a little weird about numbers). I always write them down somewhere. And I always re-evaluate regularly.

When to Set Priorities

Priorities change. That is a good thing, not a bad thing. Life changes, time, personal growth, and trials can all affect goals, interests, and resolutions. I re-evaluate and re-write my list

• with each significant life change (birth, death, marriage, move, etc.).
• when experiencing a period of intense trial, fatigue, or difficulty (illness, burn-out, relationship problems, financial crisis, etc.)
• before beginning anything new (new job, new ministry, new routine, new year)

So I do end up re-evaluating priorities at least once a year, usually more often. I find the process extremely therapeutic, calming, and energizing (is that an oxymoron?).

How to Set Priorities

1. Get Away.

This is when your vacation home on the deserted island comes in handy. I don’t have one of those. I do prefer to exit my life as much as possible. I have flown – alone – to a family member’s home for a few days. I usually just clear my calendar, turn off the phone, and hide at the library, a bookstore, or a museum. Sometimes, I’ve just told my husband I need a break and shut myself up in the bedroom for a day or two!

2. Get Some Rest.

Really. Sleep. A lot. Things that seem so difficult and impossible to the weary and frustrated will become much more manageable with rest. At least one day of plentiful sleep and healthy food is necessary to re-charge my mental, emotional, and physical batteries. A week is better.

3. Pray It Out.

Just let it all out to God: the fears, the frustrations, they hurts, the inadequacies. For me, this time of prayer is cleansing. Maybe it’s my inborn pride, stubbornness, and rebellion, but it takes quite a few hours of throwing it all toward the Mercy Seat before I’m ready for my Creator to peal back the layers of self and sin to reveal the root of my problems.

But don’t rise from the knees yet. Communing with God here, now, on the basis of forgiveness and restoration, I now am yielded and listening to His still, small voice of authority over my life. This is peace, this is success, this is purpose, “finding God’s will and doing it.”

4. Write It All Down.

Out comes the paper and pencil. I don’t think about the order, the time, or the significance. I just write. Everything I do, everything I am, everything I want. I write it all down … pages and pages of lists, fragments, thoughts, and goals in a jumbled heap of words.

After a time, some prayer, maybe some more sleep and a sandwich (writing makes me hungry), I look it all over. Is there a pattern? Do some things belong together? What doesn’t fit or doesn’t belong? A list begins to emerge.

Some questions I consider while brainstorming:

• How do I define success?
• What am I doing that I love?
• How do I find fulfillment?
• What are my current strengths, talents, and gifts?
• If I were to die today, what is one thing I will be glad I did or wish I had accomplished? (then expand to two things, then three things)
• What do people depend on me to accomplish for them? (then evaluate each: are these right expectations of me?)
• What is my legacy?
• How do I picture my life in 50 years? In 10 years? Next year? Am I living toward that now?
• What is my role within God’s economy (His kingdom, His Church, His creation)?

After writing a rough draft of my top 10 list, I pray some more.

5. Seek Counsel.

As private and personal as my list is, I at least share it with my husband, sometimes with another trusted counselor, too. I need an objective evaluation not of my process but of the product which will set my course over the foreseeable future. Did I forget something? Did I miss-sort it? Is this realistic?

6. Post the List.

My current priorities (written just this summer) are copied in my personal journal, posted on my bulletin board beside my desk, and inked on the front pages of my planner. I hand-write every copy of my priorities; the act of physically copying the ten helps me remember and personalize them.

7. Live the Priorities.

Every week I re-read my priorities. Sunday afternoon I relax with my planner, my homeschool planner, and my priorities to plan the family schedule, make my to-do lists, and generally look ahead. This is ensures I live out my priorities in the immediate future, no matter how chaotic the role juggling becomes.

I’ll discuss how to live your priorities within your weekly schedule later. Suffice it to say that establishing sound priorities is foundational to scheduling and handling periods of stress or emergency.

I’m not sharing with you my current top 10 for a reason. After seeing the Lord grow and change my priorities drastically over the past decade, I’ve come to the understanding that each person’s priorities are personal to their walk with God. Like me, you will want to evaluate how your marriage, your family, your homeschool, your extended relationships, your work, your care for yourself, and your relationship with God all fit within His divine will for your own life.

Have you recently re-evaluated your priorities?

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Working and Homeschooling Before

This was not the case a generation ago, when I was a homeschool student instead of a homeschool mom. The homeschool movement was still in the pioneering stages then. Parents were by and large unconnected to resources, publishers, and support groups. Finding information, materials, and encouragement was time-consuming and difficult. Most homeschool families utilized institutional materials and methods, which took time and effort to convert to home use. Legal threats in the nation-wide hostility toward parental rights in education caused each family to spend even more time and effort on reporting, records, and paperwork. Homeschooling was more than a full-time job itself.

Even if a mother did assist her husband by working part-time in or out of the home, social pressures kept her from saying it openly. Most homeschool families came from conservative churches where godly womanhood was divided along “stay-at-home” or “working woman.” Public misconceptions regarding homeschooling pressured women to assure questioners she was devoting undivided attention to her children’s education. One large homeschool legal defense organization reportedly denied representation for any family with two wage earners. It was not in a homeschool mother’s best interest to openly say, “I work and homeschool my children.”

Working and Homeschooling Now

It is a much different scenario today. The growth of homeschool support groups and the invention of internet and social media make information and assistance readily accessible for any homeschool parent. The homeschool materials boom in the last 2 decades provides a plethora of easy, affordable, accessible ways to teach your children any subject under the sun. Freedom for homeschooling and relaxing of regulations frees families to concentrate on real learning.

There is no longer a stigma attached to working, either. Not to diminish the real problem of feminism within our society and even churches, godly women have found a new path: putting God and family first, they strive to be a helpmeet to their husbands, discipler of their children, and shining example within their homes, churches, and communities while exercising their God-given gifts and talents for His glory.

Where are They Working?

Talk to any number of homeschool moms and you will find a variety of ways they work. These busy, organized, talented women are entrepreneurs, freelance writers, consultants, and tutors. They direct co-ops, keep books, run day-cares, design websites, and provide public relations. Some bake, sew, counsel, and decorate. They are in sales, advertising, education, nursing, and the performing arts.

How Do They Work While Homeschooling?

Ask any working homeschool mom, and you are likely to get a wry response to that question.

• We don’t do it all at once!
• Delegation.
• By the seat of my pants.
• Lists and more lists. Even a list for me.
• Some days better than others.

I understand the pressure of working while homeschooling. I have worked as a private music teacher/church music director for the entire time we’ve been homeschooling our four children (working between 20-40 hours a week), up until two years ago. I then put music aside for health reasons while I began writing for the homeschool community.

I now work as Director of Product Reviews for Home Educating Familly Association, a job that is nearly full-time. I’m also taking college courses at the Institute for Creation Research’s new School of Biblical Apologetics. I have four children, ages four to thirteen, that I am teaching classically. I know the physical, emotional, and spiritual pressures that working while homeschooling brings.

I plan to write more on this topic in the future, since I know a lot of you are in the same boat. In fact, I’ve outlined several posts already for this series. In the future, we’ll discuss topics like

• Setting and maintaining your priorities
• Schedules: can’t live with them, can’t live without them
• The spiritual life of the busy, working homeschool mom
• Taking care of yourself
• Making marriage a priority
• One-on-one with your children
• Balancing friendships
• And more.

In the meantime, I want to hear from you. Are you a working homeschool mom? What are your biggest struggles? 

You can help. Donations are being accepted for the Central Texas Homeschoolers relief fund. These donations will be distributed to registered homeschoolers who have lost significant portions of their materials to fire. Mardel Christian and Education Store has generously offered to match 25% of donations. Simply go here to help homeschool families purchase new books, educational materials, and school supplies.

If you are a homeschool familiy in Bastrop or surrounding areas, and you’ve been significantly impacted by the wildfires, please go here to register for educational relief.

Special thanks to Home Educating Association and Mardel for setting up this fund.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed with all the responsibilities of homeschooling? You might be asking, “Will my kids turn out okay?” What if you could hear from homeschool graduates who have been there? In this e-book, 20 graduates share how thankful they are for the opportunity they had to be homeschooled, and they want to pass on their gratitude to you. Each chapter is full of motivational stories that will encourage you to continue with the journey of home education. This inspiring e-book is a must for every homeschooling parent! If you need a little motivation, let 20 homeschool grads come into your home and say, “Thank you!”

You can get your own FREE copy of Thank You! 20 Grads Tip Their Hats to Homeschooling Parents and Amy Puetz’s FREE Heroine’s of the Past e-zine here.

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