Renewing my commitment to homeschool our children

I am currently reading Morning by Morning by Paula Penn-Nabrit. The book is the story of her homeschooling journey. She is an African American woman who homeschooled 3 sons into Ivy League colleges. The story is interesting to me, not from the perspective of an African American (because I am not one), but of a mother trying to homeschool her sons and give them a chance at the elite educational institutions, if they choose them.

Much of the book discusses racial bias and other issues that I can't relate to, however, the portion of the book I found helpful was the section where she discusses making the education of her sons a priority. I am sure that at one point, 5 years ago, I had that priority. I am sure that somewhere deep down, under the laundry that needs to get done, the dishes, the dentist, the doctor, the orthodontist, grocery shopping, dusting, and all the other miscellaneous things it still is a priority, but right now it feels like something that we are "fitting in" to our lives.

The author had some great ideas that I am going to try and incorporate into our lives.

1. Journaling daily-- self explanatory, easy in theory, but my kids HATE to write. I feel it is probably the single most important thing that I can do right now to help them grow in this area and we are making it a priority.

2. 2 hours of reading time daily. Read alouds, or reading books on their own... But reading EVERY DAY out of a book.

3. Current Events-- discussing an article, of their choosing, every Monday morning. This should help them to know what is going on in the world, as well as helping them express their thoughts on various topics.

4. Schedule the things that are important in our homeschool, and DO NOT schedule other things in their place. I am going to need to schedule journaling time, current events time, reading time and book time daily and not allow anything to get in the way of these things. No more "fitting it in" for our plan.

5. No video games M-F. No exceptions. These are creativity killers in our house and I need to keep them under control, regardless of how unpopular that makes me.

I knew all of these things. I did all of these things. I have somehow turned relaxed homeschooling into homeschooling that gets done about 3 times a week, unless something else comes up, in which case it doesn't get done on those 3 days either.

Hopefully my focus will improve soon. My sons future requires that I am on my game because there is no one to pick up the slack if I am not.