If you believe that your success is based on the success of your children, beware. That’s a lot of pressure for you both and it will lead to burnout, or at least frustration. It’s akin to stage moms and sports moms. They are nothing if their children aren’t successful. I found myself falling into this dangerous pattern. I put so much pressure on myself to make sure my children would be successful that I found myself totally empty and discouraged. I had bumped God right out off the throne and put myself there instead. Bad idea. I do not make a good God. I had to realize and give God His rightful place again.

As a Christian, I believe the success of my children ultimately rests with God. I can facilitate but He alone can bring the fruit.

I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. 1 Cor. 3:6 The Message

God makes things grow. In BPA we are all about planting seeds but we need to make sure that we stick to our job description. If we remember our place then we can shake off that weight of legacy and embrace the here and now, trusting God with the future.

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.              Heb 12:1,2 KJV

I have taken the time to test all of these–so I do know what I am talking about. I am guilty of all of these in recent months. (Yes, all at the same time. I am an all-or-nothing girl, so I don’t do too much halfway.) Thankfully I am making changes so none of these happen again.

1. Change plans–a LOT. Make schedules, lesson plans, buy resources and use them for a week or so and then change things. Blow off school and use excuses. Then you can feel guilty too. Never finish books or complete plans so you are sure you won’t feel a sense of accomplishment and your children won’t be satisfied with completion either.

2. Take God’s place. Make yourself responsible for all sorts of things beyond your control. Stay awake nights thinking about all you think you did wrong that day and never give yourself grace.

3. Isolate yourself. Don’t ever get out of the house. Don’t make friends in real life. Don’t join a HS support group or a co-op. Don’t even go to the library. Just hang out at the house, surrounded by all your perceived shortcomings and brood over things. Don’t do any hobbies either.

4. Put all your identity into your role as a home educating mama. Wrap up your self-worth in your children and their “success.” This requires you to heap on lots of guilt–which, again, is a bonus. Never think about anything but home education and when you introduce yourself make sure you label yourself a home educator first.

5. Never take a break. Keep chugging along like a weary warrior and never pause for anything. Or if you do, then feel–you guessed it–guilty about it. Have school year-round and never take a vacation. Don’t stop to smell the roses or to catch your breath. Ever. Study constantly and prepare lessons relentlessly.

Now you don’t have to make the same mistakes I did, which cost me dearly in the last 6 months. Even one of these can send your home educating dreams off the deep end and you wake up dreading each day. I hope you will avoid these pitfalls and keep things in proper perspective so you can enjoy this season of your life.

Relating to Life and Biblical Principle Approach Home Education

My place in God’s Symphony

The encouragement addiction

Creating unit studies using the Biblical Principle Approach

We are history

Average kids are gonna rule the world

Yes, home educating is my job

Life is tasty in small bites

Commonplace blogging

Relating to Bookbinding

In art, bigger really is better

Slow books

Bookmaking fun with kids

Which came first, content or concept?

Using your artistic voice

It is not a matter of simply tossing out the old and starting fresh Monday morning. There is a process that will keep you growing, learning, and on track. I cannot stress strongly enough the word transition. It is a process, not a box you open and use right away.

First you must renew your own mind. You cannot teach it until it has been made light to you. Take time to internalize scripture, principles and the ideas of America’s Christian history before you even begin to add it to your lessons.

Then you choose one subject and 4-R that. Leave all your other materials as they are and teach only that one subject BPA. Introduce this new way of learning in history, literature or whatever subject you feel led to choose.

Add one subject each year that you teach from a BPA perspective. Baby steps will prevent burnout. Jumping in and trying to teach every subject this way from the start will leave you exhausted and frustrated.

Keep your standards high and your expectations low. Your children may struggle with ideas and producing their own work. Present one idea per lesson per day. Don’t overfeed and be patient. Let them sit with ideas and wrestle for their own education. They will own it and real learning will happen.

Making small changes over the years will get you where you want to go. Displacing ideas, Biblical reasoning and producing your own work all take time, effort and patience. As long as you understand it’s not a race but a journey, your transition can be a happy and painless one (but not without struggle!).

• Make it into an alphabet book they can fill with words and pictures for each letter.
• Cut and paste random pictures and phrases as journal prompts.
• Add pictures of things the child loves.
• Draw in random frames for them to add their own custom art work.
• Add pictures. The child can make up a story to go with the pictures.
• Make a picture book that has no words. Let the pre-reader make up a new story each time.
• Make a drawing book that has only half of each picture. The little artist can fill in the other half.
• Add random affirmations or compliments. As they fill up the book they will come across your kind words.
• Include some “Poetry Recipes,” simple poetry ideas (like haiku or cinquains) they can practice in their book.
• Sprinkle “story starters” throughout the book for budding authors.
• Include pictures of family and friends.
• Call it something special, like a Dream Catcher or Idea Machine. Not everyone likes to journal but everyone likes to capture their ideas at one time or another.
• Add inspirational quotes or stories to feed their passion in a subject.
• Add library pockets with tags, envelopes, fold some pages and add other scrapbook paper goodies they can manipulate.
• Add words at random they can add to their writing vocabulary.
• Ask them questions about themselves on a few pages and let them talk about themselves.
• Draw some random shapes and let them doodle them into their own creations.
• Make your own dot-to-dots or coloring pages by tracing family’s or pets’ faces.
• Give it to them to start a back and forth journal with a parent. Sometimes children will write things that can be hard to say out loud and it can be a great communication tool.

Make sure to include colored pencils and an eraser so they can create to their heart’s desire. My next book arts post will give you some ideas on making books from scratch for children.

So here are our plans for this year.

Bible: Judah Bible Curriculum (my favorite) and trying to work in some study of the Days of Awe. We are in grade 4.10 of the rotation.

Integrated studies for history, literature, English and geography. I am using a history backbone and we are learning through literature. Lots of great books. I am using Genevieve Foster’s book Abraham Lincoln’s World as a basis for our history and it’s working out great. The time period this year is mainly the 1800’s and we will finish the year with a study of our state’s history. Our overarching Principle for this year is America’s Heritage of Christian Character.

Math: Ray’s and other resources I have to add variety, along with studying a few mathematicians.

Science: tons of experiments from Janice VanCleave’s books. Earth science, oceanography, astronomy, and cytology.

Music: it’s always happening here. Two children take lessons at a local music school and my husband is a musician. We do some extra music games and then we try to have family praise & worship.

Foreign language: the girls want to learn Spanish so we are using The Easy Spanish. It really is easy (gentle lessons).

What will make what we do Biblical Principle Approach? Ask Renae.

Here’s what our weekly schedule looks like:

• daily: Bible, math and integrated study
• science, Spanish and art 3 days a week
• oldest daughter is starting homemaker lessons that she is working on independently
• I also work with my 5yo on phonics and a few simple things separately

Not complicated, not too much. Mainly reading great literature and learning from books (which is what literature means). I am finally getting to see my dream fulfilled and I am so thankful. (If you note the date on that post you will see how long this process has taken me!) I will try to post more often about how our year is progressing, like I did in my journal’s early years here (feel free to peruse the archives).

If you have written about your home educating plans, please feel free to leave a comment & link to it.

I do not make tickets but I do have a little round rubber stamp that I use to mark in the back of my books so people will know I made them. When I get to making more elaborate case bound books and such on a regular basis, I think I will make up some of these. I think it’s important for future generations to know as much about where a book came from as possible. Do you mark your books?

And for the record, I think the artist book colophon has it all over the ticket. (detailed in the next post on bookbinding).

Some links on the topic of bookbinders tickets:

• Photos of tickets in color
• http://sevenroads.org/Articles/Mitchell1953/BookbindersTickets.html
• http://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine_books_blog/2009/03/a-bookbinders-ticket-and-bookseller-labels.phtml
• http://www.wesellusedbooks.com/bookplates.html

Because this blog incorporates several things I am passionate about, I want you to leave me a comment about what you are passionate about. I will draw THREE winners. Two will win my ebook and one will win a for real blank journal. (US residents only please. )

Deadline is September 15, 2009. Only one entry per person please. I’ll announce the winner Sept. 16.

Three wrapped Christmas presents

So here it is, the new and improved PrincipledMom. No more slicing my life into pieces. This is me–happy mom, inspired home educator, enthusiastic book artist, pursuer of Biblical principles, fountain of creative ideas. For whatever reason you follow my blog(s) I am sure you’ll enjoy the renewed energy and focus here. Hopefully you’ll see how art and home education can happily coexist. And I plan to take you all on the amazing ride that is my life; books, children and all. I’m getting more personal, more current and more artistic. If you want me to address a specific topic or idea, just let me know.

So welcome to my modeled blog! I tried to make things easy to find. If you have trouble navigating the site, please leave a comment and let me know.