Moms are meant to graduate

I’m graduating this week. Sunday was a Baccalaureate service for our oldest child, and the week will wrap up with the commencement of her Class of 2013. While my long-ago-little girl takes exams and anticipates her diploma, I’m doing some evaluating of my own. I’ve been the best mom I could be, but I have not been a perfect mom. Is mommy guilt seeping in?  A mom can’t help but ask herself if she did the right things, made too many mistakes, or gave her children a good example to follow. Did my children see me? … read my Bible …

Share

Mentor”ish”ing on the Trail + Monday M.O.M. Link-Up!

by Erin MacPherson I’m part of a run”ish”ing group with six of my girlfriends. We call it run”ish”ing because if you’ve ever seen me run, you’d know that I certainly could not be labeled a runner.  Run”ish”er is a stretch.  But regardless, every Saturday morning we get up bright and early and meet at a local park to go run”ish”ing.  We even have shirts to remind us of our athletic prowess (or lack thereof). Now, I know it sounds crazy (who gets up at 6 am to do something sporty?) but it’s become the part of my week that I …

Share

Connecting with their Learning Styles

A few years ago, during one of my more challenging homeschooling days with my kids, the Lord showed me a scripture verse that has stuck with me. “Then the Lord looked over all he had made and he saw that it was excellent in every way.” Genesis 1:31  I wondered, does this mean that my kids are excellent?  I have to be honest here, I really had not thought of my kids as excellent.  After all, they were making my day very difficult.  I looked at the scripture again and knew it was true, my kids were excellent.  I just …

Share

How to Get into Your Child’s Classroom

The year Lori’s oldest son Max was in my first grade classroom, she often came to work one on one with children, assist in projects, or partner read. Since she had an infant, she would bring a car seat with her little one strapped in to sleep while she helped out or just spent time in the room. Max loved school that year and blossomed in every way. A few weeks into Max’s second grade year, Lori stopped by after school one day to ask me a question. There at the classroom door, her eyes filled with tears as she …

Share

Messy Business

Being a mom is messy business and I don’t mean in the disorderly home kind. Our children, even before they can walk or talk, have the power to turn our world upside down and our hearts inside out. My husband, Tom, and I were concerned about our two-year-old’s speech and language development. We decided to have her tested. During the evaluation follow-up, the speech clinician declared our daughter to be aphasic. She said, “I expect she will never go to ‘regular school’, read, calculate math, or hold down a job.” This did not fit my neatly packaged idea of my …

Share

Mentoring thru the School Year

         Subscribe today for your FREE copy of… FACING YOUR FEARS – 31 STORIES FROM M.O.M.     By now many schooling families have written or received their first progress reports. Areas of weakness emerge, the lunch menu sounds dull, and new pencils have broken tips. Moms who have a mentoring mindset will succeed, even when school year challenges stack up against us. How can mentoring give you a Grade A school year? Teacher to Student Whether the parent wears the hat of “academic teacher” or shares it with another adult, teachers have the potential to mentor …

Share
Parents and Teachers

Proverbs 31 for School Parents

Subscribe today and receive your FREE copy of… FACING OUR FEARS – 31 STORIES FROM M.O.M.     Would you like to be the parent every teacher hopes for? No matter the setting where your child receives education (traditional, co-op, library time, home), teachers appreciate parents with”partner hearts.” When I recall the many parents who were gifts to my classrooms, names like “Connie, Mayisa, Barb, Kathy, and Bill” come to mind. They made me a better teacher, and they made my classroom more effective. Their children loved having them there, and they were imprinted on my teacher-heart. It’s worth it …

Share

A Mother’s Heart…The Smell of Freshly Sharpened Pencils

“It’s wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it!” (Eccl. 11:9a TLB)         Those of us in, ahem, our later years were deprived. Deprived? Yup. We didn’t have things like… air conditioning computers videos or DVDs chat rooms and social media big screen TVs (or color for that matter) games like Wii text messages iPods cell phones – ‘cause the only blackberries we had came out of grandmother’s garden! Forced to be outsiders, we actually got exercise by running around playing tag, kick ball, or roller skating. We circled the neighborhood subdivision on our bikes until …

Share
Help Me Scrabble Game

How to Volunteer Without Wearing Out & Day 9 Giveaway

Today’s Great Giveaways! PURSE-onality Challenge Journal, Bible Verse Cards & “Let’s Get PURSE-onal CD By: Cheri Gregory 31 days of replacing “baditude” with God’s word and gratitude by focusing on four positive habits: spotlighting personality strengths, eliminating complaints, journaling gratitude and memorizing scripture. Comes complete with journal, Bible verse cards and Let’s Get PURSE-onal CD. Great for moms and to use to teach your children  hot to navigate life with an attitude that glorifies God. Being a Great Mom, Raising Great Kids By: Sharon JaynesAND an Engraved Bookmark AND Beautiful Note Cards Be B.L.E.S.S.E.D.! That is what Sharon Jaynes teaches as she …

Share

Teacher Trouble & Day 5 Giveaways

Today’s Great Giveaways! The Plan A MOM in a Plan B World By Debbie Taylor Williams Do you ever feel like throwing your hands in the air and saying, “I can’t do this”?  Being a mom is hard and life is filled with Plan Bs.  Whether your Plan B is a strong willed child, a rebellious teen, being a single mom, a chronically ill child, or a tot’s tantrums, God doesn’t want you to live in Plan B despair.  Join Debbie, mom to two adult children and Mimi to three grandchildren, as she walks you through 18 parenting land mines …

Share