Many of you in the homeschool realm are familiar with Apologia Educational Ministries, especially their wonderful science curriculum. You might not know they also carry a range of other books such as their Worldview Curriculum or their recently published Flourish: Balance for Homeschool Moms that I recently had the chance to read and review.
Flourish:A Balance for Homeschool Moms was written by Mary Jo Tate who is homeschooling mom to her 4 sons. She an author of several books as well as an international editor. She also hosts the show "Flourish at Home" on the Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network. She wrote this book as a way to help homeschooling moms "stop enduring the journey and start enjoying it". She shares practical ways to achieve better time management in a moms everyday life.
The 289 page book contains 16 chapters and in the table of contents, each chapter lists subtitles of what is covered in that chapter.
- An Invitation to Flourish
- Change Your Mind to Change Your Time
- The Freedom Toolbox
- Where Did My Time Go?
- Aim High: Setting Goals
- What Do I Do Next? Seven Essential Planning Tools
- We Interrupt This Program
- It's Time for an Attitude Adjustment
- Oxygen Masks and Monkey Bread Days
- Training Your Children
- Making Memories
- Managing Your Home
- All of Life is Learning
- Solo Act: Flourishing as a Single Mom
- Home Business
- Moving Ahead
At the end of each chapter, there is a Take Action section. This usually involved answering some questions that made you self-reflect and really think about what you had just read. Sometimes this section also involved a challenge to change or do something different.
The back of the book contains additional resources as well as planning forms (which can also be downloaded online and customized when you purchase the book).
My Thoughts
This book has been such an encouragement as well as an eye opener for me. A few of the authors points really hit home with me. She said that by saying yes to something means I am saying no to something else. How often do we as moms feel like we need to stretch ourselves thin by taking on too much just because we feel "that is what we are supposed to do"? As Mary Jo stated,
"Opportunity does not equal obligation. Saying no to some things allows you to say yes to more important things".
This sentence was freeing and is helping to change my outlook on things I say yes to.
Another one of her encouraging quotes I have been trying to focus on is:
"Find peace in the space between the ideal and reality"
Let that sink in a second, I know I had to. We all have the idea of what we want our lives to look like but let's be real, most of the time our reality doesn't match up. And that is ok! Mary Jo shares practical ways to help find the balance in our everyday life. She encourages moms to set specific goals and makes it a point to remind us that we need to make time and care for ourselves as a person as well. She speaks from experience as a homeschooling mom who has been in the trenches and faced trials which makes her advice applicable to moms like myself.
While this book is geared towards homeschooling moms, any mom would benefit from reading it especially if you feel like you need a practical way to recharge and reorganize your daily life. I think this would be a great book to read along with a close friend so you could discuss it together while keeping each other accountable to the changes you make.
Flourish: Balance for Homeschool Moms is available for $15.
Connect with Mary Jo Tate at:
#flourishathome
Perfect I was just looking for a homeschooling book to encourage me!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed it and am reading it again this time to make highlights and notes. I love that she is down to earth and the things she shares is realistic and doable!
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