Parent Training

 Not everyone has a homeschool convention nearby. No fair! Let me help you with that! Today you can sign up for a convention all of your own, that you can have one by yourself, from home, on your own time, and in your PJs. What is a "Master Clas...

Do you ever wonder if you have everything you need to plan high school courses for your child? Well, wonder no more! In my free class, I'll teach you all you need to know to get you through high school planning.  When they were young, my boys wo...

Month-By-Month Homeschool Meltdown Avoided with 12 Keys to Calmness. Homeschool moms can suffer from a month-by-month meltdown as they try to balance homeschooling and everyday life. If you are feeling overwhelmed, pained, or stress-paralyzed, check ...

Preparation Prevents Panic! Are you ready for high school? I know that many homeschool parents are intimidated by the thought of homeschooling through high school, and are unsure about how to plan for this final stage of their child's education. Thes...

A great letter of recommendation can make the difference in college admission, and boost scholarships. They can help compensate for low SAT or ACT test scores. They are almost always required for college admission and job applications. Who should wri...

You can afford college! I want to show you how to earn BIG merit based scholarships! You will even learn how to earn scholarships for kids that are academically or athletically dis-inclined. In this class you'll learn why merit scholarships provide t...

[Free Class] Homeschool Records That Open Doors Want a GREAT return for your homeschool investment? Creating excellent records for our boys had, by far, the BEST RETURN of any investment we made as homeschool parents. You will be shocked at how ...

How to Have a Morning Meeting Your role as the parent changes over time. With young children you are a primarily a caretaker. As they enter elementary school, you become the teacher. In high school, you transition to mentor. Later, when they are adul...

What Grade is Your Child in Next Year?

What grade is your child in next year? Are you ready? If you need to plan for the coming year, I have a book that's a perfect fit, no matter what grade!

Homeschooling Middle School with Powerful Purpose: How to Successfully Navigate 6th through 8th Grade

Middle school is a time when homeschool parents often get frightened and quit. But now is no time to panic! Middle school can be the sweetest, most rewarding time to homeschool! Learn strategies for gently guiding your preteen through the physical, intellectual, and social changes that come with this age. You will be able to reconnect with your child and be encouraged and energized to prepare them for high school and beyond.

How to Homeschool 9th and 10th Grade: Simple Steps for Starting Strong

If starting to homeschool high school makes you nervous, this book will help you homeschool with confidence. Get a great start homeschooling high school! Learn what you need to cover in freshman and sophomore year! These are exciting years in your child's life!

Junior Year is the Key to Homeschool Success: How to Unlock the Gate to Graduation and Beyond

This book covers the important tasks of junior year, including taking the PSAT, preparing for college admission tests, attending college fairs, choosing a college, finding merit scholarships, and getting a jump on senior year. Have you “fumbled the ball” in previous years? There is still time to catch up and be ready for college applications during senior year! Have you kept good records all along and given your child a college prep education? There are still plenty of other tasks that need to be done!

Senior Year Step-by-Step: Simple Instructions for Busy Homeschool Parents

Does the thought of homeschooling senior year of high school seem scary to you? It doesn't have to be! You can do it, just take it one step at a time! This book covers homeschool records, forms and deadlines, college application essays, college interviews, planning a graduation ceremony, how to save money and get those scholarships, preparing for college life, and more! Get the encouragement, tips, and tricks you need to get through senior year.

Heading to College

Are your kids headed to college? You don't need a book, you need to know what to buy for them to take to college! Here is a list of things that will likely be needed during the year: College Packing List. Some items may be restricted by your university, so check their policy before buying electrical equipment such as microwaves, refrigerators, and toaster ovens.



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How to Be a Better Home Educator

You can become a better home educator this year and every year and build a better homeschool with tools you have around the house. You may be anxious and searching for something to make you feel secure. But some things really won't help you at all - and sometimes they actually make the situation much worse and increase feelings of incompetence. A degree in teaching will NOT make you a better home educator. Parent Partnerships will NOT make you a better home educator. School at home will NOT make you a better home educator. On the other hand, as you begin to homeschool, you will become more and more confident over time. As you shape and mold your child's behavior, they become more cooperative. And as you learn more about homeschooling, you'll start to get your sea-legs, instead of feeling weak in the knees about the task. Homeschooling WILL make you a better home educator. Continuing education WILL make you a better home educator. Investing in your vocation WILL make you a better home educator. You can become a GREAT home educator! The love you have for your child will ensure success! Learn more about how to become a great homeschooler in this article, How to Be a Better Home Educator.

Real quick. Right now The High School Solution is $100 off WITH lifetime access PLUS added bonuses!

What to do ... what to do ... right?

I know you may have been considering the High School Solution for awhile ... but since I'd much rather you take decisive action in one direction or another, I thought I'd break it down in a super clear way.

You should STEER CLEAR of the High School Solution (as far as the internet can take you) if:

 

This post contains affiliate links. If you click and buy I may make a few pennies, but not enough for a latte.

Team of Experts to Help You Handle Technology Boundaries

It's a new world, with changes we could not have imagined years ago. Parenting has always been challenging, but these days the hardest parts of parenting involve electronic gadgets or technology. Whether dealing with smart phones, tablets, computers, social media, or video games, parents need help figuring out how to manage this new environment.

But how, exactly?

Imagine sitting down with a team of experts and having a heart-felt and encouraging conversation with educators and counselors, along with real parents, as they guide you to create a healthier home for your child, even in the midst of this technology-steeped generation. That's what you'll find in my new book, TechnoLogic: How to Set Logical Technology Boundaries and Stop the Zombie Apocalypse, designed to help you set logical technology boundaries in your home. TechnoLogic includes contributors from many disciplines and walks of life.

Check out who you get to sit down with, in our book-based conversation:

Todd Wilson

Todd Wilson of Familyman Ministries is the author of Taming the Techno-Beast, Helping You Understand and Navigate Your Child’s Electronic World book and workbook set.

Todd is a dad, writer, conference speaker, and former pastor. His humor is well known and his down-to-earth “realness” has made him a favorite speaker at homeschool conventions across the country. You may also have heard him speak on Focus on the Family. As founder of Familyman Ministries, his passion and mission are to remind dads and moms of what’s most important through weekly emails, seminars, and books.

Todd and his wife, Debbie, homeschool six of their eight children. Two of them have already graduated. They live in Northern Indiana and travel across America in The Familyman Mobile. Learn more at The Familyman website. Todd knows what he is talking about and has vast experience talking with parents about technology and many other issues. You can completely trust his knowledge, judgment, and experience as he consults with families around the world.

Kim McDaniel

Kim McDaniel is the co-author (along with Hilarie Cash) of Video Games & Your Kids: How Parents Stay in Control.

Kim has provided a lot of guidance and encouragement for TechnoLogic. A devoted parent, wife, and a professional counselor, she has provided clinical services to families, children, and adolescents for 20 years in a variety of settings, including residential programs, hospitals, and in her own private practice. She’s a strong advocate of parents taking control of the role digital media plays in their children’s lives. Contact Kim directly at thriveprofessionalcoaching@gmail.com. Kim also recommends the reSTART Center for Digital Sustainability website for more information and support.

Cris Rowan

Cris Rowan is the author of Virtual Child: The Terrifying Truth About What Technology is Doing to Children. You can find her book, programs, and informational newsletter at Zonein.ca

Cris is a well-known author and speaker to teachers, parents, and therapists throughout North America and in China in the field of sensory integration, learning attention, fine motor skills, and the impact of technology on children’s neurological development. Cris has a Bachelor of Science degree in Occupational Therapy and Biology, and is an SIPT-certified pediatric sensory specialist. Cris serves on the committee for the Institute of Digital Media and Child Development, and is the CEO of Zone’in Programs Inc., offering products, workshops, training, and consultations to help promote technology boundaries and enhance productivity. Cris is the creator of the Zone’in, Move’in, Unplug’in, and Live’in educational programs for school and home. Her Foundation Series Workshops help educate parents, teachers, and therapists about how technology affects child development and her Zone’in Training Programs help train other pediatric occupational therapists.

Real Parents and Families Around the World

Real parents have shared their family stories in TechnoLogic. Some stories are painful but they are always honest and revealing. Your comments and questions gathered from my work as The HomeScholar have provided much of the inspiration for this book.

Scattered throughout the book you will also find encouraging tidbits and tiny quotes that I call Lee's Lessons - helping you feel like I'm coming along side you to help with creating technology boundaries.

I'm very excited about the launch of my new book, coming out this week on Amazon! To look inside and pick up your own copy, click here!





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Technology Use Guidelines and Minecraft

The “Technology Use Guidelines for Children and Youth” were developed by a panel of experts, with contribution from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Pediatric Society. The guidelines recommend that teenagers 13 to 18 should engage in no more than two hours of technology per day. They do not make an exception for really, REALLY fun games or even educational games.

Why?

Even educational games can be strangely addictive. One of the most popular games right now is Minecraft. This seemingly harmless game gets a lot of positive attention due to its ability to promote creativity and imagination, but there is a darker side to it. Many parents whose children are deeply involved in Minecraft report that its addictive properties are unlike anything they have ever experienced.

You will discover many such stories through a quick internet search on “Minecraft Addiction.” Amazing, isn’t it? Page after page of articles and columns with titles such as, “Help, My Child is Addicted to Minecraft” and “How do I get my son to reduce his addiction to Minecraft?” Parents, tread carefully here. Even seemingly wholesome games can be detrimental to your children’s development.

Minecraft is an extremely popular game. Parents are being pushed hard by their children to allow early usage of it. There are violent components to it and there are wonderful components, what Andy Doan, a colleague of Cris Rowan's terms “digital broccoli” and “digital candy.” You have the positive part of Minecraft, the construction, the building … it’s an amazing game and it could be pro-social.

Sit down and play the game with your children, and see if you can work out some management tools, steering them toward the more pro-social aspects of the game. Ask yourself, “Is my child social? Do they have friends? Do they go outside and play? Do they get along with their siblings? Do they sit down and eat dinner, and have a social conversation with the rest of the family? Is their development okay? Is their academic performance okay?”

If for all of these questions, you’re thinking, “check, check, check,” then your child might be one who benefits from some aspects of Minecraft. If the reverse is the case, and your child is becoming asocial or antisocial (they don’t want to go out anymore, they don’t have any friends, they’re grumpy all the time, angry, they’re not wanting to come to the dinner table and socialize with the rest of the family, all they want to do is play video games) then you have a problem brewing.

The Technology Use Guidelines include even the hours spent on Minecraft - even the hours for school. You want your children to have a technology balance, so they can experience a full childhood and full education as well as have fun with things they love.



Does your child love Minecraft or other games? Have you struggled to create a technology balance in your homeschool? Check out my upcoming book to help you set logical technology boundaries in your home! This post is a brief excerpt from TechnoLogic: How to Set Logical Technology Boundaries and Stop the Zombie Apocalypse. Available in both Kindle ebook and print.





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This post contains affiliate links. If you click and buy I may make a few pennies, but not enough for a latte.

Do you have a strong willed child in your life? This book will provide help for parents with strong willed children! I read it while in Glacier National Park on vacation and it was awesome!

Cynthia Tobias is the queen of learning styles - the guru of kinesthetic, auditory, and visual learners - and an awesome author. Her gold-standard book is The Way They Learn, a classic for home educators which is helpful for choosing curriculum with your child in mind. She is more specific in this new book, geared toward parents with strong willed children. You Can't Make Me (But I Can Be Persuaded): Strategies for Bringing Out the Best in Your Strong-Willed Child.

I requested this book so I could understand more about the challenges parents face, and brainstorm solutions with my Gold Care Club members. I was shocked to find out how applicable this book is to my own life, even without children at home. I've come to realize that adults deal with other strong willed adults, from time to time, and the strategies remain the same. I could see much-loved extended family members between the pages of this book, and was able to use the lessons I learned in my day-to-day life.



The best part about You Can't Make Me is that it's written from first-hand experience by a mom with a strong-willed child. Cynthia doesn't promise it will all be roses and smooth sailing; she knows how difficult life can be. At the same time, because she has lived through it herself, she can provide balanced encouragement and options as you struggle with the daily challenges of a child or teenager who is not easily persuaded to do even the simplest things.

My favorite chapter is about turning conflict into cooperation, "How Can I Turn Conflict into Cooperation? Proven Strategies to Help you Both Thrive." You see, with a strong-willed person, you can't issue an order or they will immediately revolt. Cynthia Tobias recommends you ask questions instead, which may guide them to think through the situation or ask for help as they make their own decisions. She talks about choosing your battles, knowing in her own life that even the SMALLEST point can dissolve into the LARGEST argument if you make everything non-negotiable. She explains that parents often give far too many warnings, and instead should avoid threats and limit consequences unless completely sure they can follow through.

Five to Thrive tips for working and living with the strong-willed child.
Don't try to solve everything at once. Some tips will work better than others, but all of them will work to varying degrees depending on the child, the day, the mood, and so on. Remember, hundreds of SWCs (strong-willed children) have endorsed these strategies, and hundreds more are out there just waiting for you to ask them for more ideas. It won't be as hard as you think!

Throughout the entire book, she repeatedly reminds us to make sure the strong willed child always knows that your love is unconditional. No matter how big the challenge, unconditional love is the message they can take into adulthood, the irrevocable gift from a parent to a child. Each chapter begins with scriptural encouragement, a bonus for Christian parents feeling overwhelmed.

If you have a strong willed child of any age, this is a GREAT book. If you have a strong willed adult in your family, I also think you'll enjoy it - and then you'll be prepared if you end up with strong willed grandchildren in the future.

Great book, I loved it! Five stars! 

Available on Amazon here: You Can't Make Me (But I Can Be Persuaded): Strategies for Bringing Out the Best in Your Strong-Willed Child by Cynthia Tobias.



 

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