Beating the Winter Slump

It’s January, for a few more days anyway. Along with New Year’s Resolutions, cold weather, and trying to fit back into those pre-holiday jeans, January means back to school for most of our families. For many of us, it also means the Dreaded Winter Slump.

If the dreary winter days have you feeling a little more like this:

 than like this:

then you might want to join me over on the CME Retreat blog for some ideas about how to Beat the Winter Slump.

'Tis the Season

...to panic about not getting it all done! Along with the beauty of the Advent season and the wonder of Christmas, December also brings the end of a school term for most homeschoolers. “What do I do if we aren’t ‘caught up’?!” is a questions that I see popping up all over the place. As that end-of-term deadline looms, moms are pulling out those beautiful, color-coded, spreadsheet schedules that they so lovingly crafted in August and measuring them against where their children are now.

PANIC NOW!!

If you are anything like me, all you can see is the lessons unfinished, the subjects that never took off, the boxes left unchecked. The panic rises as you think of how behind you are, frantically calculate ways to finish off everything (only three easy weeks of 16-hour days; that’s doable, right?!), and then decide that the only way to “get it done” is to cancel Christmas and your vacation.

Sound familiar?

Step back from the cliff, mama.

Read more at the CME Retreat blog

Do Hard Things

I'm guest posting again today over on the CME Retreat blog. Have you ever hit a roadblock in your homeschool day and wondered, "Is something wrong; should it be this hard"? Have you ever heard that your school days should be filled with joy, or you risk killing your child's love of learning? When things get hard, does it mean that we're doing something wrong?

Have you ever noticed how a particular idea can suddenly appear all over the place, seemingly all at once? Recently I have heard some rumbles on the world wide web that homeschooling is supposed to be a joy-filled endeavor. They say that if it's not, the problem is either with you, the way you have trained your children, or the curriculum itself. They say, homeschooling shouldn’t hurt. If it does, you will kill your child’s love of learning. The moment they leave your home, they will do nothing but play video games and eat fast food all day long. To prevent this catastrophic outcome, dump your current curriculum―maybe ALL curricula―and find something more fun. (Okay, I might be exaggerating a little bit, but only a little.)

It sounds so good. Who wants our days to be hard? If there is a secret that can make it easy, who wouldn’t want that?! But we are called to be wise and discerning. I know that just because something sounds good and appeals to me doesn't mean that it's true. One way I know to test an idea is to look at other parts of the world and ask myself whether this idea fits what I know to be true. Are there other situations where we get to experience wonder-filled days, joyful times where we and our kiddos are reaching our goals and desires? Well, yes. And no...

Please head over to the CME Retreat page to read the full article. After you do, I would love to hear from you, here or on the CME Retreat blog. Have you had to overcome a particular struggle in your homeschool? What did you decide to do about it? How did it go for your family?

Truer than True

Next February, something incredibly exciting is coming to Colorado! Colorado Springs will play host to our first ever western-region Charlotte Mason conference. I am very excited (and so stinking nervous) to be one of the speakers. Today, I'm blogging on the Charlotte Mason Educational Retreat website about the unique power of fiction in education.

Join me over on the CME Retreat blog to read the full article. After you check it out, I'm curious to know, how do you feel about fiction as a tool for education? Have your thoughts or concerns changed at all over time? Strike up a conversation here or on the CME blog. We would love to hear your thoughts.