Avsnitt
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Two weeks ago, I shared a few examples of how useful and fun seeing and responding to your children's Sparks can be. I explained sparks and how they can help you and your kids connect.
Last week I illustrated how you can Spark your kids and give them interesting and fun opportunities for learning. This week is more of the same. : )
I have written about sparks, kids, and the connection between the two for almost fifteen years. I’ve watched for and used sparks with my grands all that time.
When I switched from the homeschool community to the broader parenting community, I didn’t share this information as often. However, I LOVE using sparks and in the coming weeks, I will share more because the better you are at seeing your kids sparks and sparking them, the more fun, learning, and connection you will have in your home. It’s important to remember that what we think of as play can be, and is, learning for children and sometimes teens. : )
Last week I talked about doing a treasure hunt of my home and shared two activities we did from what I found in my kitchen. Today’s ideas are also from that kitchen list.
One thing we don’t do enough is play as a family.
As you learn to utilize Sparks they will help you create family fun. So listen up and then have some fun. -
Last episode I shared a few examples of how useful and fun seeing and responding to your children’s Sparks can be.
But to engage our kids and help them learn new things we don’t need to wait for their Sparks. When it comes to learning, we can spark them and then watch a fire of interest take hold. It’s a fine way to engage as a family and to show our children that learning can be fun.
Join me as I share how to treasure hunt your home so you can give your children experiences that teach them that learning doesn’t need to be boring but can happen in fun and exciting ways, anywhere. This is useful for children to experience and internalize so they won’t become stagnant in their desire to learn as they become busy adults.
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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My hairdresser, Emily, works out of her home. Most of the kids are in school but she has one little guy who is four and still at home during the day. We have fun conversations.
The last time I was there he brought me two green balloons which he held close together in his hands. He asked me if I knew what they were. I said, “Sure, they’re green balloons.” He laughed and replied, “No they are butt cheeks.” His mom was a bit mortified, but I grinned and told her about a friend of mine and her experience with the whole poop, snot, blood, and butt cheeks thing.
Join me as I share this story and two others that will help you know what your kids are interested in right now and then use that knowledge to bond your family, build your relationships, and have a great time with your kids.
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When I lived in Montana with seven children, I was a busy mother. You’re smiling because you know exactly what I mean. A family, regardless of its size, is a handful; lots of cooking, laundry, cleaning, driving people here and there, and so forth. I look back and wonder how in the world I did it all.
I have also pondered how I managed with so little connection to other women. I had my church friends. I had my school band club friends. I had friends when I was a Girl Scout Leader. I had friends that I taught community classes with.
What I had very little of were face-to-face, heart-to-heart connections, where you sit down, breathe together, and confide in each other. There are reasons for this. I am a leader, but I am also a loner. I like to get in there, get it done, and then I want to be alone. I chose to work and manage on my own because I felt I could. I didn’t think about how to fit these types of connections into my life because I didn’t think they were important, and I was busy!
Join me as I share what I learned over five long years about the value of face-to-face and heart-to-heart connections regardless of where you are in your life.
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On March 3, 2024, I published a podcast titled Are You Afraid to Read Hard Books? After that article was published, I got a wonderful email from one of my readers, who is also a dear friend.
I get emails regularly telling me how good an article was or how helpful it was to the reader. This email contained some of that. What struck me though was another thing that happens now and then. Someone takes what I have written, and they build upon it! This is massively motivating for me.
I asked Joy if I could share her thoughts with you because what she has done with family reading is magnificent. I think that some of you will want to follow suit, in some fashion.
Join me and see the tremendous event her family has put into place when it comes to reading great books.
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This has caused me some consternation as I have moved along life’s highway. Do you realize how much has changed since I was born in 1950!! It wasn’t such a big issue until I became an adult and technology exploded.
Recently I was forced to move from Windows 10 to Windows 11. I was freaked out. Join me as I share how managing technology, with its twists and turns, is like moving down the road of life and parenting. It will be illuminating!
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In our world, we’re so used to having technology always with us that it’s challenging to be without it for even a short time. Technology, as wonderful as it is, can be a two-edged sword.
I have written several articles on using, abusing, and letting go of technology. I have experimented with this myself. A recent email I received has me thinking about it again.
Before I share the email, I want to share some of my experiences with technology, managing it, and not being managed by it. This has required that I commit to taking technology breaks.
Join me as I share personal experiences with the joy, difficulty, and rewards of learning to manage your technology use.
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Early this spring Jodie was taking a short trip. She hauled the suitcase out of the garage so she could pack. Later, she asked me if I had seen it. No, I hadn’t but I went upstairs to help her look. We searched everywhere and then lo and behold we saw it! It was leaning up against the wall by the front door, in direct sight. It wasn’t hidden by anything. Sometimes we get blind!
This type of blindness happens when we’re working on relationships, teaching our children, managing our home, figuring out how to use time more wisely, getting better systems in place so life flows more smoothly, using money wisely, healing ourselves, etc.
Experience has taught me that no matter how invested we are, we can’t always see what is right in front of us. Sometimes we are blind. There are reasons for this: preconceived ideas, weariness, our bucket is empty, feeling that the issue is too big, maybe we aren’t smart enough, we lack helpful resources, and others.
Join me as I share 8 tips that will help you overcome occasional blindness and find solutions to sticky issues with greater ease.
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Seven years ago, Jodie and her family moved from Kearns, UT. to West Point, UT. We were living with them, helping with Maggie and the other children. Living in a home with kids was assisting Don with his health challenges. It was a win-win situation.
Eventually, we needed a home that was more handicap accessible. Don found the house in West Point and when Jodie looked at it, she could see how good it would be for us. However, many things needed to be upgraded. That was daunting to think about.
Join me as I illustrate how we put our home in order and use it as an example of what it takes to put our inner houses in order. You will be surprised at the similarities and how powerful this will be.
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I have learned from lived experience that simple systems are usually the solution to difficult problems in time and life management. This was not an easy lesson to learn, and I occasionally still ignore this truth, but when I do, I suffer.
Join me as I help you understand what a system is, how it works, and how it can change your life. If you are living with default systems then it is harder to care for yourself, do the important things, and still care for your family. Join me as I help you understand what a system is, how they work, and how they can change your life.
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I had a funny conversation with a single dad. We were talking about how to keep things clean and how to get our kids to clean. I noticed he wasn’t an efficient housekeeper. He felt he was doing ok, and it was ok, just not very clean. : ) This comes from someone who was a professional housekeeper for almost two decades.
This dad told me they have a long-time family friend named Steffanie. She is a natural-born cleaner, like me. When he asked the kids to clean anything they would respond, “Dad’s clean, or Stefanie’s clean.” Gotta love kids!
My goal today is not to discuss different systems for getting kids to do chores or how to get kids to do chores. It’s about keeping home management and teaching in place while reinforcing good relationships at the same time. I’m sharing two things I did that worked for a time and helped build relationships. One is truly radical. It will leave some of you speechless and others of you laughing. I’m sharing them because they illustrate the importance of relationships over home management.
Join me and see how you can care for home and family and still build relationships.
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I had a conversation last March with a young friend. Yes, it has taken me over a year to figure out how to share our conversation. The topic is challenging, and I am busy caregiving. This last comment leads us into my conversation with my friend.
She was overwhelmed and felt like a parenting and personal failure. She wanted to know how to identify the essentials and have some control. : ) I could relate to everything she was feeling and suffering. Frankly, I was in the same boat but for different reasons. She was asking me something I was just beginning to get a handle on myself. That is probably why over a year passed before I could share the conversation.
Join me as I share our situations and the tips I shared with my friend that help me manage what is and where I am.
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I have a granddaughter and a dear friend with special needs. I have another friend who has six children with special needs. These relationships require us to face many challenges but if we can find beauty and joy in the journey, as my friend with the six special needs children says, we choose the scenic route.
This doesn't just apply to families with children like my granddaughter and friends. Doesn't every child have 'special needs?' Isn't parenting any child a challenge of change and growth?
Join me as I share some tips on how you can choose the scenic route despite the challenges of parenting any child.
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I read a verse of scripture that sparked this article. “I have commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth. . .therefore, First, set in order thy house” Doctrine and Covenants 93:43 On this day, I read it in a new way. I focused on “First, set in order thy house”. It brought to my mind another verse of scripture. “For now we see through a glass darkly”. 1 Cor. 14:12
Seeing through a glass darkly is an apt analogy when we are sharing knowledge with our children. If the windows to our home are dark, we cannot see out of them clearly. Everything we see will be dimmed by our own darkness. We will not be able to give more light to our families than we possess. We must be enlightened first, and then we can share with our children.
It caused me to think of the classics I have read and my spiritual canon. If we are unfamiliar with good literature and that which informs our belief system, then we cannot call them to mind when a quote, verse, or thought might enlighten a child, illuminate a teaching, open a new learning adventure, or ease a soul. These quotes and teachings won’t be in us because our house is empty, and our windows are dark. As parents, we want to do and say the best thing when it is needed, so we can give help, comfort, and knowledge to our children. Having light in our own house, so to speak, is vital.
Reading good books and our spiritual canon or other writings that inform our belief system is like washing our windows and filling our house with light. As we enlighten ourselves, we see more clearly. We see our children and their needs more clearly.
So, how do busy parents find the time for self-education, reading, and reflection?Join me as I share nine tips that will help you learn and grow despite the business that comes with being a parent.
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This is the last article in the series on cleaning systems. This is the system I use today. Let me give you the back story.
I have tried many cleaning systems, but I always returned to ‘THE LIST.’ I am a list maker. It seemed the most useful and satisfying way to manage my daily work. However, I am also a finisher. This and list-making can be a combination for failure. It isn’t that you fail, but you always feel like a failure because you can never finish the list.
In real life, you never finish the list. Part of the reason for this is, that not everything you have to do in a day is on the list - dishes, meals, laundry, running kids to friends, that extra trip to school when someone is ill, and so forth. This list/finisher combination caused me grief for most of my life. If I am not careful and follow my current system, it still can be. Just being honest. : )
When I found myself in a four-generation home, just as busy as when I was raising seven children, I began praying about the issue. God knows me well, and he likes me how I am. But He also knows there are ways that I can manage my natural way of being/energy better. So that seemed like the best place to go for help.
Join me today as I share the cleaning system I use today, why it works for me, and why it might work for you.
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I read an article my friend Donna Goff wrote called Trade in Your To-Do List. The article I read, resonated with me because my daily worksheet can feel overwhelming. The problem is, I rarely get each item on the list finished, even if I am running circles all day long, Donna had experienced the same thing. And no matter how much you accomplish in a day, if there are unchecked items left on your list it can leave you with a sense of not having done enough. It shouldn’t. I know better. You probably know better. Donna knows better. But occasionally it does.
Join me as I share a fun way to take a break, clear your head, and possibly make way for a systems tune-up in how you keep on top of things at home.
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Anne Murdock just retired from decades of working with special needs children. That is our big link, as I have a special needs granddaughter. We met in church and became fast friends. Although I moved, we have stayed in touch. Recently we began meeting for lunch. We each drive about 30 minutes and it has been fun.
A few months ago, we discussed a cool system Anne uses to help women stay on top of their work at home and have fewer moments of feeling like they can’t manage. It’s called Household Bingo. You check off the boxes as you finish jobs until you have a bingo. Take time to reward yourself, read a book, take a walk, listen to music, etc. Then you work for the next bingo. Eventually, you will have crossed everything off the card. Then you create a new card by asking the question, “What is most pressing right now?” Sounds interesting, doesn’t it!
It is a simple system using the principle that small things, done consistently, make big things happen.
Join me as I explain how this simple and effective system can keep you from saying, "Why am I in such a mess?"
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In the next few weeks, I will be sharing some cleaning systems from friends of mine and myself. We all need help managing the 'pile' of things that need to be done so that we don't get bogged down and feel like failures. This is a very familiar feeling to most of us!
I begin with my friend Donna Goff who is a writer, teacher, mentor, and mother to a large family. Join me as we explore how she stays on time and avoids the dreaded 'neverending list.'
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There are many ways to recharge and care for yourself but they aren't helpful unless you know what works for you. and did you know that what works can change and then you have to go back to the drawing board.
Join me as I share an experience from 2011 and another from 2024 that is illuminating when it comes to understanding what works for you when you need to recharge.
I will also share why I don't buy the idea that to recharge we have to go outside of the chaos of daily living. If that is the case, then many of us will get very little self-care.
It doesn’t matter how you recharge. When you know what works, do it daily and the heat of the day will be less intense. -
In the last two weeks, I’ve given you some information on Sparks and how to use them to connect with your children. In the article on March 10 – SPARKS - The Big Fail, I mentioned that when we learn to utilize Sparks, we can help our children love the idea of learning.
Kids have a lot to learn, and often, whether we homeschool or use public or private schools, the love of learning can get buried. We can’t prevent times when school is boring or too hard. But we can keep the desire to learn alive, as we utilize our children's Sparks.
When I was speaking and teaching, I spent many hours helping parents use their children’s Sparks. I wrote LOTS of articles on the experiences actual families had. Today’s article was written in 2012, the same year I had my big fail and many big wins.
My friend, Leah, was taking her family to Florida and wanted them to LOVE the trip and to LEARN a lot. We both knew what I wrote in the article two weeks ago - Life is about learning, and the best-lived lives happen when we continue to learn. Leah wanted this for her boys.
Join me as I share how Leah got her boys on board and how she took a Spark and turned it into a roaring fire.
- Visa fler