Right now I’m looking for a few homeschoolers who’d be interested in reviewing my new book, Stages of Homeschooling: Beginnings. Please email me at cardamompublishers at sbcglobal dot net by 2/14/12, and I’ll get you a review copy. Thanks!

This is the first of four eBooks in the Stages of Homeschooling series. The rest are:

Stages of Homeschooling: Enjoying the Journey (Book 2)

Stages of Homeschooling: Letting Go (Book 3)

Stages of Homeschooling: The Empty Nest (Book 4)

Stages of Homeschooling: Beginnings is available only through Amazon as a Kindle book. It’s $4.99, or free if you’re an Amazon Prime member.

Don’t have a Kindle? No worries: just download “Kindle for Your PC” (it’s free; step-by-step instructions are right here.)

Want more info? Here you go:

Are you thinking about homeschooling your child, or have you just recently begun homeschooling?

Are you looking for practical information from someone who’s lived the homeschooling life?

Do you need evidence (for yourself or for relatives and friends) of why you shouldn’t send your child to public school?

Are you looking for homeschool encouragement?

If you answered “yes” to even one of those questions, then Stages of Homeschooling: Beginnings is for you. Having spent 25 years homeschooling her four children (including one with special needs), writer Barbara Frank wants to encourage and inform those who are just beginning the homeschool journey.

This book is divided into seven sections:

•  “Why Choose Homeschooling?” (Great reasons to homeschool your children)
• “What’s Wrong with Public Schools?” (Why today’s public schools make homeschooling more attractive than ever)
• “Advice for New Homeschoolers” (Homeschool how-to’s and suggestions)
• “Surviving the Early Years” (Teaching your preschoolers)
•  “Becoming a Homeschooling Parent” (Taking on your new role)
• “Handling Doubts, Fears and Hurdles” (Because the prospect of homeschooling can be daunting, especially at the beginning)
• “Nobody Told Me” (Barbara shares some unexpected benefits of homeschooling)

This book will show you that homeschooling is a great choice for your family.

At the time (last June 9, to be specific), I was reacting to a book I had just read called Why We Get Fat. It made so much sense that I decided to give the author’s recommendations a try, if only for a few days. It was easy enough to stick to that I just kept at it all summer as we packed and moved, and all fall as we unpacked and then pitched many of our belongings while keeping and placing only our most needed and wanted possessions. (See “The Downsizing Chronicles.”)

I feel great, which is a good incentive to stick to the plan, as was my recent reading of another book, Wheat Belly, which helped me understand why I feel so good now. But I can’t help wondering if my efforts were helped along by the fact that for the first time in many, many years I have the time to concentrate on an eating plan instead of being too busy with homeschooling to think about it beyond a few minutes of good intentions. Again, maybe it’s pure coincidence, but I have to wonder.

The bonus for me is that I was becoming increasingly incapacitated by lower back pain when I stood or walked. It had been a problem for about ten years. And now it’s completely gone! Where before I had to sit down after walking for five minutes, I can now walk as long and as far as I want. I keep expecting the pain to strike but it never shows up, thank God.

If you’ve struggled with your weight, I think you’ll find these books to be very helpful:

And if you feel like you’re too busy homeschooling to try losing weight, now you know that there’s always hope that you’ll lose weight once you have more time to yourself 

You see, “we” bought an Amazon Kindle quite a while back but he became so attached to it that it’s now his Kindle (he denies this, but he’s always using it!) There are many things he loves about the Kindle, but recently he found out that he can check out a book for free on his Kindle and keep it checked out as long as he wants, and he really liked that idea 

So we’ve decided to allow my newest book, Thriving in the 21^st Century: Preparing Our Children for the New Economic Reality, to be checked out for free on Amazon because the economy isn’t getting any better and we want people to learn how they can prepare their kids to thrive in challenging times (hint: homeschooling is definitely a part of the process!)

Of course, you can read free excerpts of the book here, but if you want to read the whole book, learn how you can borrow it for free here.

Now that I’m not homeschooling anymore, I actually had time to make most of my Christmas gifts, which was a lot of fun, and my beloved sewing machine got a workout. Since I always need music to sew by, I bought myself some early Christmas gifts: a few new cd’s.

I learned about the first cd earlier in the fall, when I stumbled onto a wonderful new show in the PBS Great Performances series called “Let Them Talk.” It featured actor Hugh Laurie, who most people know as the main character on the television show “House.”

I’ve only ever seen the pilot of that show and I didn’t care for it. However, my husband and I know Hugh Laurie from the marvelous “Jeeves and Wooster” series, which we discovered at the Door County Public Library when we lived up in Sturgeon Bay. After borrowing and watching every videotape they had, we ended up buying the series on DVD. We still love it.

While today’s Hugh Laurie is a far cry from Bertie Wooster, both shows display Laurie’s considerable musical talent. Bertie sang silly songs while playing the piano. The real Hugh Laurie took his musical talents to New Orleans, where he indulged his longtime love of the blues by singing and playing the piano and guitar with a marvelous set of musicians. I watched “Let Them Talk,” the show that documents his trip (you can watch it in full here) so many times online that I finally decided to buy the cd so I could hear the music even when I’m not near my computer. A wise decision, as I’m now doing a needlework project for someone and can listen to “Let Them Talk” while I work in my comfy chair far from the computer.

My other purchase is actually a set of two cd’s called “The Gospel According to Jazz.” I discovered one of the songs on it (see video above) last year and fell in love with it. After hearing that beautiful song I looked up Lalah Hathaway on YouTube and found her work with Kirk Whalum and his group. You can only play YouTube clips so many times before you break down and buy the music; at least that’s my experience. Hence my purchase of the two-cd set.

If you like jazz, and if you like praise music, this is the perfect combination. I’ve been playing these over and over and I’m not tired of them yet (the rest of the family may be, but too bad!)

Just last week I found out that my sister (a radio personality) interviewed Lalah Hathaway several times some years back. Wish I’d known who she was then as I would have enjoyed the interviews. Now I know that she’s the daughter of Donny Hathaway, whose work I’ve always enjoyed so much. Even if you’ve never heard of him, you’ve probably heard him sing:

Anyways, if you’re looking for some new music or an entertaining dvd set, I highly recommend these artists:

I love talking with these women. We share a common history that most people can’t understand, and of course, that’s the main topic of conversation (besides our children, of course).

However, I have to admit that, despite being homeschooled, some of our now-adult children have disappointed us in different ways. (I can’t share too many details here, because I want to respect the privacy of these young adults.) In most cases, they’re doing great making their way in the world, but some have made sinful choices in their personal lives that have upset their parents. In one extreme case, someone chose a lifestyle that nearly killed them; sadly, they’re not out of the woods yet, after more than a year. (It really grieved me to hear about that person).

We moms openly share our disappointments with each other knowing that we can relate to each other so very well. We all had such great expectations, and some of them have been dashed.

I know this is common for parents. But I think it’s especially painful for homeschooling parents because we devoted our daily lives to raising our children, not because we had nothing better to do, but in part because we expected that our efforts would reap benefits for our children. And while the adult children I know have clearly reaped educational benefits from homeschooling, some of their lifestyle choices make it clear that not everything we taught them stuck.

I should point out that some of our expectations were created by the books we read and the speakers we listened to back when we were new homeschoolers. Even now, you’ll find some saying that homeschooling creates strong Christians, good citizens, yada yada. In fact, some people have made lucrative careers out of saying those things. It’s what everyone wants to hear. After all, why should we go through all this work if it’s not going to pay off?

But the fact is that there are no guarantees. And to those who point fingers and say, “Well, if you just do it right, your kids will turn out right,” I say “Beans!” I realize there’s no question that my husband and I made mistakes. All parents do. But when I think of how the Israelites treated God (see Exodus), why did I expect that none of my children would rebel or go in a different direction from the way we pointed them? Clearly each person must make their own way in life (and hopefully toward God). Not even the love of a homeschooling parent can overcome the effects of sin in the world.

But of course we had to try, and those of us specifically called to homeschool our children can’t regret it. (My mom friends and I talked about that a lot over Christmas!) We tried our best, but we’re learning that ultimately, our adult children’s lives are between them and God.

As for the verse in Proverbs that homeschoolers quote so often, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it,” I’ve written before that it’s a principle, not a promise, and also that we can’t ignore that phrase “when he is old.” Homeschooling doesn’t turn out perfectly formed adults at age 18. Each person is a lifelong project of God’s. We homeschooling parents were deeply involved in the first stage, but God will use all sorts of people and events to shape our children over the course of their lives. Hopefully there’s still time for each one of them to come to the personal realization that living God’s way is the only way to live.  (We talked a lot about that, too.)

If newer homeschoolers could have heard our conversations over Christmas, it might have frightened them. That vision of homeschool success is what kept us going during the most difficult times, and I hate to pop that bubble for anyone.

That said, I suspect that even if every homeschooling parent could be convinced that homeschooling is good but doesn’t create perfect adults, they’ll still be disappointed someday if their adult child makes poor choices. It’s what happens when you love someone so much. And since it’s this painful for us, imagine how God, the only perfect parent, feels when He sees us making similar poor choices.

Kindergarten Stories and Morning Talks with Over 125 Illustrations, the 1890s kindergarten curriculum, is now on sale for $5.99 (reg. $9.99) for Kindle and Nook.

Thriving in the 21^st Century: Preparing Our Children for the New Economic Reality, my latest book, is on sale for $7.99 (reg. $9.99) for Kindle and Nook.

Please note that these sale prices are for the eBook version of these titles, not the print version. But…

… we are having a sale on the print version of The Imperfect Homeschooler’s Guide to Homeschooling: for a limited time, get free shipping and a free 111-page eBook with your purchase. Just use this link to buy the book directly from Cardamom Publishers; your eBook will arrive within 24 hours and we’ll ship your book in 1-2 business days for free!

(Act now—-all three of these sales will be ending shortly.)

But some interesting things have been happening, and I hope to write about them soon. In the meantime, I wish you all a blessed Christmas.

I got up at 6:45 am and looked out the bathroom window. Seeing it was dark, I went back to bed and slept for a few more hours.

I was cooking at 4:15 and I looked out the kitchen window and it was already getting dark. I hate how few hours of daylight we have this time of year.

So, why do I look forward to this day so much? Because now we’re over the hump. From here on out, each day will get a little longer. Joy!

I’ll appreciate the extra minutes of daylight every day from now until early June. Then I’ll start thinking about the summer solstice and how there comes a day in June that’s the longest day, and after that each day will get shorter. And I’ll get depressed just thinking about that.

I suppose that sounds silly. My husband thinks so. But there must be someone like me out there who’s celebrating the fact that once we get past today, each day will be just a wee bit longer, the sun will go down a little later, and we’ll be one day closer to spring. Right?

Me: You’re a goofball.

Josh: I’m not a cheese ball! You’re a cheese ball!

Me: I said ‘goofball,’ not ‘cheese ball.’

(Brief pause.)

Josh: Mmmm, cheese ball!

Crazy kid