Ready for next year? My favorite part of high school is planning the classes for my teenagers to take the following year. If it is not yours, relax. I will walk you through a simple way to plan next year. Keep the Lord part of the process and cast your cares on Him!

Time to Plan

After you've evaluated the past year, it's time to make a plan for next year. Don't forget your overall plan for high school. If you want to design your own classes, you may want to review Create Your Own High School Courses and High School Credits. What classes does your teenager still have to take before graduation? Are their classes that she would like to take? Are there things that you still want to teach her? The years are flying by, but there is still time to do that special project you've always wanted to do with her--weave it into a class!

Dream Big!

At the beginning of every school year, I start my planning by dreaming big--the sky's the limit. Yes, most of what I write down gets chopped but sometimes God does amazing things to let homeschooling dreams come true! One year I wrote down that I wanted my family to play sports together for fun. No one liked my idea of spending family night playing basketball or volleyball instead of watching a movie. But, a family friend started Sunday Sports on Sunday afternoons where children and adults from our church play soccer and football for four hours every Sunday afternoon.  Sometimes, the whole family goes, but my children go almost every week!  It's great exercise, fun, and takes care of that P.E. credit for high school.

Why don't you try it too, after a simple prayer for God to give you wisdom, creativity, and vision! Jot down everything you can think of that would be awesome to do in the coming year. Write down books you'd love for your teens to read and other books you'd love to read aloud together. (Yes, you can still read aloud together in high school!) Think of adventures that you'd enjoy with your teen. Now, walk away from the list for a few days and keep praying about the coming year. Let this be the most prayed-over year ever!

In Light of the Overall Plan

What classes/credits does he still need to take before graduation? Pull out your overall plan for high school. Are there any skills (e.g. writing) that he needs to focus on?  Make sure to include these skills in class assignments. Find out what enrichment classes, dual enrollment classes, and coops are available for your teen to participate in next year.  Do any of them interest you or your teen?

Creativity in Teaching

It's that time of year again when homeschool conventions, curriculum catalogs, and all kinds of sales on homeschooling products are going on. What should you purchase for next year?

Stop and Evaluate Before Planning Next Year

Before you order, sit down and make a plan. But, before you make a plan, evaluate the past year. Have you had one of those years where your child did all the work, but can't remember anything? Or maybe they did learn, while complaining how dry and boring the curriculum was. One year I got these wonderful high school history tapes. Katie Beth, my oldest daughter, endured them without complaint, but when it was Julianna's turn to use them, she let me know how difficult it was to listen to them. Jenny Rose has never even heard of the tapes! I moved on to something new for American History.

Learning From My Mistakes

Katie Beth succeeded with independent learning, but she missed being part of family fun. Looking back, I wish I'd included her in some unit studies. She did all her high school work, except for coops and dual enrolling for three classes at the local community college, on her own. She was in the house with us, but not part of what we were doing.

Julianna and Jenny Rose did a lot of work independently, but they were part of our history unit studies and other classes. It required creativity to weave everything together, making sure we stayed on track for high school requirements and credits, but it was worth the time and effort. Not only did the girls enjoy learning with the family, but it's good for the little ones to hear the wisdom that comes from high schoolers.  Yes, I said wisdom. Teens thrive when they are heroes/role models to younger children and they rise to the occasion to dispense wisdom to younger siblings. 

Don't assume that because your teenager can do schoolwork on their own, they don't need you anymore. Homeschooling is still a full time job in high school. One of the most important thing a mom can do when teaching high school is to discuss what is being learned. Intellectual discussion is stimulating and a way for teens to process all the material in their classes.

Teens Can Help Evaluate

There is one person in our life that we seem to spend lots of money on. Sometimes we don't even realize how much money we spend on her. We don't like to think of ourselves spending so much on that person, but we do. If you want to grow in godliness, stop spending so much money on yourself! There, I said it.

Without realizing it, we think about things we want and need, laying our plans to purchase these things now or later. We are bombarded with messages from advertising on television, at the movies, in the mall, in the newspaper, on billboards when we drive, and from the people we love who know exactly what we "need." Somehow our mind gets wrapped around the idea that buying lots of stuff will make us happy, take away the pain in our lives, help us to become more organized, or help people to love us more. We know, of course, that stuff won't make us happy, but we are bombarded with the lie so often that we start to believe it.

Secret Stuff Area

We each have a secret stuff area. That is the area where we really believe that purchasing items of that kind will make us happy. My secret stuff area is shoes...it is just amazing how quickly a new pair of shoes can brighten up my day. Flowers, chocolate, clothes, music, CDs, DVDs, jewelry, electronic equipment, bling, designer purses, software, or accessories might be your secret stuff area. Maybe it is not so secret. Maybe it is more than one area...you just love to buy stuff for yourself.

We kid ourselves into thinking that the money we spend is all on others, but if you are honest and list everything you spend, you will find that you purchase all kinds of things for yourself. You might buy snacks, drinks, new clothes, comfort foods, music, books, or accessories on impulse when you are out shopping for the family or running errands. We don't think about it, but it adds up.

The Real Issue

The money we spend on ourselves isn't the most important thing, but rather the preoccupation with making ourselves happy and feeding our appetites. Greed, the desire for more stuff, is an appetite. When we feed it with little snacks (a bag of Combos or a bestseller at the check-out line), we are feeding the appetite of greed. What do we really need? How much do we really need? Can we wait to purchase this item later? How much more stuff does God really want us to have?

I'm not trying to sound harsh, but spending money on ourselves reveals the self-centered nature that is needing to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Another thing that reveals this selfish attitude is how unhappy we become when we cannot have what we want because our finances are tight. Is this really how a Christian lady should live and manage her money? How we spend our money reveals our heart and our priorities.

Examine Your Heart

Tomorrow I will turn 50. The years have flown by. I have decided to take several hours this week and look at old photographs. I have pulled out every photo album that I can find. What fun it's been to look back at happy times and reminisce.

Why don't you take a trip with me back to the 1960's when I was a little girl?

I grew up in a normal middle class neighborhood with loving parents. Daddy worked hard at Eastern Airlines and Mommy could baked, cooked, sewed, and volunteered everywhere when she wasn't substitute teaching. With Daddy working for the airlines, we were free to travel by plane to visit my grandparents each Christmas and for summer vacation.

When I was a little girl, my friends parents were all married. I didn't know anyone who had a baby before marriage. We had great neighbors. Miss Millie and Miss Pat would come over with their husbands and drink coffee with my parents. Miss Pat taught me to ride a bike.

One day, we had a neighborhood picnic and all the parents joined the kids playing softball. Wow! I didn't know my mom could hit...and catch. I knew my dad could because he would throw the ball to me on Saturday afternoons. I remember planting a flower garden with him from seed inside the little packets in the hardware store.

"I'm heading to the hardware store. Do you want to ride along?" Daddy would ask. Of course, I did. The hardware store was boring, but being with Daddy was exciting. For my eighth birthday, he dressed up in a suit and tie while I wore my prettiest dress. Daddy took me out to dinner, making me feel like queen of the world. When my husband took my own daughter out to dinner to give her a purity ring, it reminded me of that special night with my father.

"When I am really, really old," Nathan began to explain, his blue eyes sparkling and a big smile on his face.

"How old is really, really old, Nathan?" I interrupted him.

"Oh, like," Nathan paused and tilted his head up, squinting his eyes. "Like 25 or something." Smile.

In five days I will turn 50. I can't believe it. Where did time go? I still feel like a little girl inside who is staring wide-eyed at the world, ready to explore every nook and meet people from every corner of the globe.

Yes, I have learned some valuable lessons along the way, but I am sure I have made more mistakes than wise decisions. I have stumbled and gotten back up, running on and on toward the goal of my life.

Who doesn't long to be beautiful? As moms, very little times exists in our lives to dedicate to outward beauty. We are rushing, moving, working throughout the day, making the world a better, brighter place for our family. When we finally get some make-up on our face and a pretty outfit on our body, it is more than likely to be spit upon or spilled on by one of our little ones.  

If we have several children, our bodies are not as trim and firm as we would like them to be. There are also those pesky bags under our eyes from sleepless nights of nursing a sick child or comforting someone who's had a bad dream.

Beautiful Moms

Yet, I think that there is nothing more beautiful than a mother!

Motherhood is beautiful. The gaze of love that a mother gives her child is breathtaking to behold. The look of joy on a young woman's face when her little one learns to read, or pee-pee on the potty, or recite his multiplication tables is lovely.

There is a beauty about pregnancy, nursing, and motherhood that is impossible to duplicate. Moms lugging a load of laundry to the washer, washing dishes at a sink full of suds, or bandaging a boo-boo are pleasing to the eye. How delightful to watch a mother giggle with her toddler or gaze in wonder at a butterfly with her young child.

Kingdom Beauty Queens

Let's throw away Hollywood's definition of beauty and embrace the Lord's definition of what is truly lovely. Grandma used to say, "Pretty is as pretty does." She must have read the Bible!

"Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful," (I Peter 3:3-5).

Hollywood focuses on the outside. God is more concerned about the inside. A gentle and quiet spirit can make us beautiful and not just lovely for a season, but with a beauty that won't fade away.

If you have spent any time around God's church family, you have heard about a gentle and quiet spirit. You have probably prayed, like me, "Lord, please give me a gentle and quiet spirit...NOW!"

Cultivating a Gentle and Quiet Spirit

"I've decided to go ahead and switch my major from Finance to Accounting," Julianna informed her daddy and me one evening. We had been praying with and for her on this decision for several weeks.

"Well, if you think that's God's will,..." I began.

My husband shot me a look. The look warned me to not share my personal feelings about accounting.

I had mentored a younger Christian girl in college who had majored in accounting. She hated it and I hated it for her. She worked faithfully as an accountant for ten years, married to a college professor, eventually pursuing another field. Her experience put a bad taste in my mouth. Not wanting to see my little girl suffer, I had my hesitations. I have since had to adjust my thinking on accounting. While not all people will enjoy accounting, it is not the boring task I once envisioned.

How thankful I am for people who crunch numbers and are good at crunching numbers. Since starting my own business, I see how important accounting is--how it can even make or break a business. My personal philosophy of educating my children includes training them to start and run their own business. So, when Professor in a Box sent me their Financial Accounting Class, I was excited to check it out. However, after looking it over, I decided to take the class myself so that I can grow in the area of managing my own business. Interested?  Let's take a look at this "course in a box."

What's Inside the Package?

Michael P. Licata, Ph.D. is the creator of this accounting course, Professor in a Box:  Financial Accounting, for homeschooled high school students. He is an accounting professor at Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania. My guess is that he is a popular professor because of his practical teaching style. Everything he taught had practical application with companies that young people can relate to.

Accounting, the language of business, is introduced to the high school student through lectures, homework problems with solutions available, and exams. Taught from a non-traditional approach, there is not a big fat accounting textbook to read. Instead, 12 chapters are divided into 2 or 3 flash lecture slides each. The flash lecture slides include a description of each key concept with discussions of all the important concepts and sample problems with step by step illustrations of how to work them out. The slides are bright and cheerful, easy on the eyes, but very informative and easy to understand. I learned a lot by reading them for this review. They were very impressive.

Investigating the Class