iHomeschool Studio

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If you're looking for encouragement in a BIG dose, you'll want to know about the iHomeschool Studio coming up the second week of February, 2014. 

Continuing education for home educators - to inspire, to encourage, to give you some big ideas and a whole lot of motivation. Who doesn't need motivation at this time of the year?

Kendra will be speaking on Organization For a Peaceful Home on Tuesday the 11th at 5 p.m. EST. She'll cover the basics of home organization but also the nitty gritty of homeschool organization, with an emphasis on electronic and paperless tools.

The sessions are live but included in your ticket price are MP3's of every single session so you can listen any time you want! Woot! Between episodes of HomeschoolingIRL, click on over to one of the iHomeschool Studio sessions and learn some new tricks!

See you there!

Should Christian Girls Have a "Plan B"?

What if her Plan A is to ride horses with the President?

Kendra here. I'm writing from the perspective of a 43-year-old woman who was once a girl and is now raising three girls, and I have something to say on the subject.

Ready?

I hate the idea of "Plan B". You know Plan B, don't you? Plan B is what Christian girls are told to have in case Plan A (marriage) somehow doesn't pan out. Or your husband dies. Or leaves you for another woman.

Plan B assumes that the best thing God can call a young woman to is marriage. Bar none. Where did we get such a notion? If you're feeling uncomfortable about now and just clicked open a Bible site in your browser so you can show me where in Scripture a girl's Plan A must always be marriage, then you have probably been conditioned by your church/pastor/Christian book reading/Christian school/culture to believe that above everything else, a Christian girl is to be married or she's living on Plan B. And everyone knows Plan B is lesser.

I don't believe the idea of Plan B is unique to the homeschooling community because I was not homeschooled and yet still grew up heavily influenced by Plan B thinking. I do believe that we Christians propagate the notion that marriage is the best thing a girl can aspire to.

I'm challenging that. I'm throwing down the gauntlet and making a stand for us all to rethink "Plan B". Want to get in on the discussion? Join Fletch and me for a lively Homeschooling IRL episode all about raising girls this Friday at 5 p.m. Pacific. Subscribe to listen any time you like right here.

What Working Out Less Taught Me About Homeschooling

How My Kids See Me

After a crazy-stressful couple of years, I've put on 20 pounds. I can blame my circumstances and my tendency to carb-load when I'm really feeling pushed (flour tortillas with melted butter, anyone?), but one of the things that really shot me in my own little feet was thinking I had to workout 5-6 days a week or it didn't count.

All or nothing.

This month, I picked up the weights again and got back to the lifting workouts I love. This month, I'm committing to 3 workouts per week. Period. I really fought with myself on this one, with the little angel on my right telling me I was a good girl for starting over and the little devil on the left scornfully snickering that I was already a failure.

I've done a whopping 7 workouts and do you know what I have already learned? Less is more. With a target of 3 workouts per week, I am hitting it every single time. No guilt because I only made it happen 4 days instead of 5, or 5 instead of 6. 

I'm not a full-time workout diva. It's not my job to be a hard body. It is my goal to drop the unhealthy extra pounds and my vanity likes smaller clothes and no back fat, but my job is wife, mom, educator, writer, and speaker. Think my 5-year-old cares if my arms are chiseled? Nope. 

So I was thinking about all of this and a great sweeping realization hit me like a snowball to the backside (as if I'd know what snow feels like): less can be more in homeschooling, too. There are 108 different options to add to our Christian Kids Explore Science and The Mystery of History, but if I open the book and we discover truths together by reading or watching a video or coloring the page I printed out, it is enough. Maybe better, because the driven-by-Pinterest homeschooling mom hiding in me is ugly with a capital U. 

But the homeschooling mom who loves my kids well because I'm not living in an unrealistic world of over-achieving wackadoodle craft-creating field-trip producing nuttiness is what my family will love most about homeschooling. Just ask my 20-year-old, who's already commented about the kinder, gentler mother his younger sibs get to experience. 

I did the week's first workout tonight. Tomorrow, I'll let my 5-year-old smash his little legs against my side as we read Treasure Island and build Legos. And it will be more than enough to satisfy the hungry hearts in my home.

Kendra

Raising Boys: Ten Simple Tips - A Free Download!

The HomeschoolingIRL BOYS Week Continues With a Freebie! Download your own copy of Raising Boys: Ten Simple Tips, which Fletch and I put together just for you. Ten easy tips full of grace and love.

Come listen to our BOYS! episode, where you'll laugh, cry, and feel totally normal when we're all done. We've got 5 boys and we're here to tell you that these boys are a whole lot of fun! 

-Kendra

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Coupon Codes from Our HomeschoolingIRL Sponsors - Come and Get 'Em!

Gosh, we love the companies that are shouting out for HomeschoolingIRL!  We have the support of some very special people, and we happily get to share their coupon codes with you here. Good stuff!

We use and love a lot of things from Bright Ideas Press, including The Mystery of History, Christian Kids Explore Science, and A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers. If you want help organizing The Mystery of History, I've got a couple of posts and vlogs for you on the Preschoolers and Peace site. Why re-invent the wheel?

$5 off any purchase of at least $25 with code fiveoff
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Affiliate codes below. You can see our disclosure policy here.

In real life, we often feel as if we're on this homeschooling journey alone, and really, some of you are. Great conferences like Teach Them Diligently can be a big boost. I like the workshops and the keynotes and being able to talk to vendors about what they've got, but I think I like the connections with real homeschooling families even more. 

Fletch and I will be in Nashville and Dallas, and we'd love to see you there! The Early Bird tickets are gone, but you can get $8 off with code Save8Now 

When Homeschooling is a Buzzkill

We're just warming up here on HomeschoolingIRL, but already our most popular episode by far is Homeschooling is a Buzzkill. Honestly, I'm not all that surprised. I've spent the last 8 years blogging for homeschooling moms over at Preschoolers and Peace, and I've spoken at dozens of homeschooling conventions. There isn't a week that goes by that some weary mama doesn't approach me in person, via email, or on social media with that familiar catch in her voice. 

And very often, tears. 

Most of us will tell you that homeschooling is the hardest thing we've ever done. Some homeschoolers don't love having to teach the academics, but most of us feel like it's the intensity of relationships that wear us out and force us to look inward at our own frailties and failures. It's not easy.

In those moments when I stand in my closet and tell God I'm done, I give myself the freedom to be brutally honest, both to Him and to me. This homeschooling? It's a buzzkill.

And right now is about the time in a blog post where I should be telling you it's all worth it, right? I will. It is. But almost the worst thing to me is when I am struggling through the difficulties of something and someone else comes along to tell me to "buck up!" and realize what a big, important job I'm doing. Sometimes, I just want someone to recognize my struggle.

So here it comes, the encouraging end of the post: tell yourself the truth. In the noisy, hectic mornings, the long afternoons, the wearisome evenings with a fussy baby and dinner on the stove, tell yourself the truth. Homeschooling is hard, God has your back, and you are loved.

Let's Get This Party Started!

Welcome to Homeschooling IRL!

We are super excited to finally have a home on the web - a place where we can reach out and connect with our listeners, share our podcast links and info, and blog on topics that will hopefully give you some great little nugget to cheer you on for the week.

And now, let's get this party started! Who wants to win a $100 Amazon gift card? You wouldn't turn that down, right??? Enter below and Rafflecopter will pick a winner! Contest ends at midnight PST on December 27th, 2013.

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