Making Your Home School a "Real" School

In 1991 Dr. Bill Hagan, a religion professor at California State University at Dominguez Hills who was my children’s professor when they were earning their Master’s Degrees through independent study, phoned to tell me that he and his fifteen-year-old daughter were going to be passing through El Paso the following week. He said that since they were going to be here, he would like to come by our house and meet his students in person. Although the children were finished with their school day before he and his daughter arrived, we spent several hours talking about my approach to home education and how I incorporated my educational philosophy into my classroom.

In 1993 our family was featured on the CBS series How’d They Do That? and, because Dr. Hagan had actually visited us in our home, they interviewed him to ask why he thought we had been so successful with homeschooling. When the show aired, I was surprised to discover that in his interview Dr. Hagan said that although we had a homeschool, I ran it like a “real school.” Initially, I was taken aback by his remark because the truth was that I ran my homeschool nothing like a traditional public or private school, and I could not imagine why Dr. Hagan would come away with that impression.

As I thought about Dr. Hagan’s remarks, however, I realized that most people, including many homeschoolers, do not recognize a homeschool as a “real school.” Many people assume that homeschools have little, if any, real structure and that homeschooled students are allowed to study only what interests them and to do so on whatever schedule suits them. Unfortunately, there is some basis for people having this impression of homeschoolers, and it has led to many parents applying this line of thinking to their homeschools.

I am, therefore, writing this blog to offer some insights into how to make your homeschool “real.” Not real in the sense that it will be modeled after the public system, but real in that it will be a structured and predictable part of your family’s daily life.

First, set “real” school hours. At our house, school was in session from 8:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. Normally, that ended the school day. However, if anyone had not finished his work in that allotted time, he came back to school at 1:00 p.m. to complete his lessons. This schedule was a constant during the 25 years that I homeschooled. As the children grew older and their work became more advanced, we found it necessary to make some changes, but the school hours were written in stone. If, however, someone finished his work in less than the three hours allotted, he was “out of school” for the day.

Second, each day give each student “real” assignments that include all of the subjects to be covered and the amount of work to be completed in each subject. When your students know in advance exactly what they are required to accomplish during their school day, they tend to get to work and get it finished so that they will be free to do other things.

Third, set up a “real” school year. Prior to the beginning of the school year, set up your calendar so that you know ahead of time exactly when your school year will begin and when it will end. You may be thinking that this third suggestion should, actually, be the first suggestion. Under normal circumstances, that would be correct; however, I am writing this in the middle of the school year. I have, therefore, moved it to third place so that you can make your adjustments now for a school year that is not on target. 

At the beginning of the school year, mark your starting date and your ending date for the school year on your calendar.  Next, count the number of actual school days in each month (remember to subtract any days such as holidays or school breaks so that you will have an accurate count of actual school days).

If you use a curriculum with daily lesson plans, check to determine whether you have allowed a sufficient number of days to complete all lesson plans. If not, adjust your calendar so that you will either begin your school year earlier or end it later in order to complete all lessons. It is a good idea to allow ten additional days for emergencies and sickness that may interfere with your schedule.

If you do not use a curriculum with daily lesson plans, prepare a daily lesson plan for each student for the coming school year. That way you will know exactly how much work each of your students needs to complete each day.

We are now at the mid-point in the year, but you can use this same system to discover exactly how many days your students will need in order to complete their current grade levels. When you have done that, adjust your calendar to allow time for them to do so. If you discover that in order to complete their work your students will need to have a longer school year than you had anticipated, you can let them know now and avoid a lot of unhappiness in May.

Setting up a “real” school year, establishing “real” school hours, and giving your students “real” assignments each day will help you create a homeschool that operates like a “real” school.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her own story of teaching her ten children from the first grade through master’s degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. For more information visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

It's About Time

The world is comprised of two kinds of people: those who complain that they do not have enough time for everything on their to do lists and those who lament their boring lives where time hangs heavy and they have “nothing to do.”

 Yet, time is the one thing that every person on earth shares equally. Whether you are Donald Trump or a resident of a homeless shelter, whether you are the picture of health or dying of a terminal disease, whether you are a genius or an idiot, you have exactly the same amount of time as every other individual. Each day every person on earth is allotted twenty-four hours. No one can buy additional time and no one can sell time that he will never use.

Time wisely spent has resulted in the acquisition of knowledge that has led to the eradication of many deadly diseases, the ability to communicate with anyone in the world in a matter of seconds, high speed travel, and numerous products that make our daily lives comfortable and enjoyable. Time wasted is like a piece of down carried away by the wind never to be seen again.

When I think about using time productively, my mind always turns to the years I spent homeschooling my ten children. During those years I met many homeschooling mothers who began their school year in September each year with high expectations only to discover in the spring that they were behind schedule and that their students could not possibly complete their courses by the end of May. At that time most reacted in one of two ways: Either they became so discouraged that they did not even try to rectify the situation, and just before Memorial Day they pronounced their students finished for the year, or they embarked on a game of catch-up that made their school days impossibly long. In the latter case, the students became overwhelmed and were able to learn very little.

Because the New Year falls in the middle of the school year, I think this is a good time to take a fresh look at how we as homeschoolers are using our time and the time of our children. Therefore, during the month of January, I will be writing about time management for homeschoolers, and I will share some of the things that worked for me as I homeschooled my ten children. I will offer tips to keep your homeschool on schedule and your school days short.

I also look forward to sharing some of the time management lessons that continued to guide my life after my children had all graduated and I began working full time in our mortgage business. I hope that you will join me this month as we all prepare for a productive New Year.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her personal story of homeschooling her own ten children from the first grade through masters' degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.



Give What You Have--Not What You Haven't

This time of year most of us are focused on giving. Gifts, time, charitable contributions; the list is endless. For those of us with more family than money, this is an especially difficult season. We try to get creative and shop smart, but the truth is that little kids do not lie awake at night dreaming that they will find a package of socks and underwear underneath the tree on Christmas morning. They want video games and talking Iron Man and Buzz Lightyear toys.

It is easy for parents to feel sad or embarrassed or inadequate. We fear that come Christmas morning we will disappoint the children in our lives to some degree. We recoil at the critical stare of those collecting for all sorts of charities when we are unable to help them meet their goals. It is difficult to explain to various people at church why we do not have the time to volunteer for free gift wrapping in the mall or a Christmas cookie giveaway as an outreach to share Christ with busy shoppers.

We tell ourselves that we are just plain selfish if we do not somehow come up with the money to buy those really special gifts or make that generous contribution. After all, isn’t that why someone invented credit cards? Furthermore, if we refuse to make time to perform all sorts of acts of kindness during this most wonderful time of the year doesn’t that prove that we are sort of a cross between Scrooge and the Grinch?

In times like these we will do well to remember what Paul says to the Corinthians:  “…it isn’t important how much you have to give. God wants you to give what you have, not what you haven’t” (2 Corinthians 8:12, The Living Bible). God never expects anyone to give more than he has, and the Bible addresses this point in numerous places.

We have the example of the widow’s pennies (Mark 12:42). Jesus sat watching the crowds dropping their money into the collection boxes in the Temple. Some who were rich deposited large sums. Then the poor widow came and dropped in two pennies. Jesus told his disciples that she had given more than all of the rich men put together because they had given only a small portion of their great wealth while she had given everything she had.

Likewise, Mark 14:3-10 recounts the story of the woman who came to Jesus and poured the flask of expensive perfume over his head. She washed his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. The Jewish leaders criticized her for her “waste,” but Jesus told them to leave her alone. “She has done what she could….And I tell you this in solemn truth, that wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and praised" (The Living Bible).

These women gave it all. They gave everything they had, but they did not give what they did not have. Their giving was sacrificial but it was kept within the bounds of what they had to give—no more and no less.  Jesus himself proclaimed that these two women had gotten it exactly right.

As we head into the last few days before Christmas, I hope that you will remember these women of faith and follow their example. Give what you have in terms of gifts, charitable contributions and time. Be generous, but remember it’s alright to buy one special toy for your little guy and also include the package of socks and underwear beneath the tree. Make a list of your special offerings and stick to it. Unless you know that God is leading you to give something that you had not anticipated, don’t feel guilty about saying, “I can’t.” Time is the only thing that is always limited; you can never make more than twenty-four hours in one day, no matter how hard you try. Save some of it to spend with your family, and take some to enjoy the wonder of Christmas yourself. Most of all remember to give what you have, not what you haven’t.  Jesus says that is enough.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known speaker and author. Her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother, tells her own story of homeschooling her ten children from the first grade through master's degrees before their seventeenth birthdays.  For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

The Story of Christmas (from A Pig Isle Christmas)

As the children watched, Joy stepped forward and asked in a high clear voice, “What is tomorrow?”

“Christmas!” yelled the children.

“And what is special about Christmas?” Joy asked.

Children began calling out their answers from all over the theater:

“No school!”

“Presents!”

“Santa Claus!”

Finally, one boy shouted, “It’s Jesus’ birthday!”

“That’s right!” Joy exclaimed. “It’s Jesus’ birthday!  And on His birthday we give presents to each other. But on that first Christmas, God gave us His son, and that is the most precious gift the world has ever received. Even though that first Christmas happened a long time ago, the world is still celebrating Jesus’ birthday.”

Joy stopped for a moment, and then she began to speak again, “The story of Christmas began two thousand years ago in the little village of Nazareth in Galilee. God sent the angel Gabriel there to tell a young girl named Mary that she was going to have a baby boy who would be called the Son of God and that she was to name the baby ‘Jesus’.

“Mary asked the angel how she could have a baby since she was not married, but the angel told her not to worry, because she would be visited by the Holy Spirit, and God himself would be the baby’s father.”

As Joy finished speaking, Andy lifted his arm and pointed his little finger at the top of the Christmas tree. Then a miracle happened. Suddenly all of the children heard a voice—not in Pig, but in their own languages. The children from France heard the voice speaking French, the children from Germany heard the voice speaking German, the children from China heard the voice speaking Chinese. Each child, no matter where he was from, heard the voice speaking in the language of his own country. The voice sounded like the voice of an angel, and the voice told the children all the things that Joy had just been speaking about.

When the voice stopped speaking, an ornament bigger than a pumpkin appeared on the tree. It was golden and glowing, and inside the ornament the children could see the angel Gabriel talking to Mary.

When all was quiet, Joy continued speaking. “Everything happened just as the angel had said. Mary was going to have a baby boy, and she married a carpenter named Joseph, who was a man of God. Joseph knew that Mary had been visited by the Holy Spirit and that her baby was the Son of God, so he was very careful to obey God in everything concerning the baby boy.

“About that time the Roman Emperor ordered that all the people go to the city where their ancestors had lived so that they could be counted. Joseph had to go to Bethlehem in Judea to be counted, and he took Mary with him.”

When Joy spoke the last word, the entire stage began to glow, and another enormous ornament appeared on the tree. The children could see Mary riding on a little donkey and Joseph walking along beside her inside the ornament.  And they heard a song about the little town of Bethlehem being sung by a heavenly voice that sounded more like a flute than a Human voice, but it must have been a voice because they clearly heard all the words.

The children felt so happy that they did not even want to move, and when Joy continued the story, they listened carefully to every word she said. “When Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem, it was time for her baby to be born, but there was no room for them at the inn. The innkeeper allowed them to go into the place where the animals were kept, and when the baby was born, Mary wrapped him in a cloth and laid him in the manger.

“That night some shepherds were guarding their sheep in the fields outside the village when suddenly an angel appeared to them. The angel glowed with the glory of the Lord, and the shepherds were very afraid. ‘Don’t be afraid!’ the angel said. He then told them that he had come to bring them the best news that anyone had ever heard. This is the news that he gave them—the Savior, the Messiah, the Lord has been born tonight in Bethlehem. And then the angel told the shepherds to go to Bethlehem and to find the baby who would be wrapped in a cloth lying in a manger. Suddenly the angel was joined by a huge crowd of angels singing, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men of good will.’”

No sooner had Joy finished speaking than an ornament appeared on the tree much larger than the first two. The children looked inside the ornament and saw Mary and Joseph with the baby in the manger, and the shepherds in the fields with their sheep, and the angels filling the heavens. As they listened, the children heard the angels singing praises to God, and each child heard the praises sung in the language of his own country. Such joy filled the auditorium that the children began to praise God with the angels, and they sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men of good will!” Each child sang in the language of his own country, and the voices of the children sounded like the voices of the angels.

When the singing had ended, Joy said, “The shepherds went to Bethlehem to see the child, and when they had found him, they worshiped him. Then they told everyone what had happened and what the angel had told them about the child.

“At about that same time, some wise men from the East arrived in Jerusalem asking, ‘Where is the newborn King of the Jews?’ They told King Herod that they had seen a great star in the heavens that had led them there so that they could worship the baby, but the star had disappeared. King Herod was an evil king, and he did not know about the baby Jesus who was the Son of God. Herod called in the religious leaders, and they told him that a prophecy had been given by the prophet Micah that the baby would be born in the town of Bethlehem.” 

“The wicked King Herod then called in the wise men from the East and told them to go to Bethlehem and find the child. ‘When you have found him,’ he said, ‘come back to Jerusalem and tell me where he is so that I can worship him too,’ but Herod had lied when he said that he wanted to worship the baby; he was really planning to kill him.

“After the wise men left Herod, they saw the star again and followed it to the house where Mary and Joseph and the baby were living. When they saw the baby Jesus, they fell down before him and worshiped him. Then they gave him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. Afterwards, they returned to their own land, but they did not return to King Herod because God had warned them in a dream to go home another way.”

At that moment a fourth ornament appeared on the tree, and the children could see the wise men from the East riding their camels inside the ornament. Ahead of the wise men was a star so bright and beautiful that it made the children’s hearts leap with joy just to look at it. And the children could hear the wise men worshiping Jesus and praising God for sending His Son to the people of the earth.

Joy looked at the children for a moment before she spoke. Then she said, “This is the story of Christmas: God sent His son to earth to live among us so that we could know Him and love Him and accept Him as our Savior. If anyone comes to Jesus, He forgives him of his sins and gives him an abundant life here on earth and eternal life with God in Heaven.”

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her personal story of homeschooling her own ten children from the first grade through masters' degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is told in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

What Time is it When the Calendar Strikes December 1?

What time is it when the calendar strikes December 1? It’s Party Time! At our house we make the entire month of December a celebration of Christmas, and that takes a lot of the “work” out of all those holiday preparations.

When I was homeschooling my ten children, they looked forward to the holidays with huge expectations. Of course, all children love Christmas, but like so many homeschoolers, we had more children than money. We could not afford to attend costly Christmas performances or take family trips. Our holiday celebrations had to be cheap and close to home. As a result, we learned to make every aspect of our Christmas preparations into a series of little parties. By making the events leading up to the big day as much a part of the celebration as Christmas Day itself, we were able to satisfy the desires of those little hearts for a magical Christmas season.

One of the things I did was to check out the television listings for special programming. We did not have cable so were limited to the three networks, but that limited selection provided everything we needed. I noted when A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlotte’s Web, and other special programs would be televised, and I always made it a point to watch those programs with them.

I designated one Saturday as Fudge Making Day. No one was required to join in, but everyone did. We made a huge amount of chocolate and peanut butter fudge which we stored away for Christmas, but everyone had to taste everything and scrape the pans. By the time we finished, they were all full of fudge.

For these occasions I allowed everyone to be as involved as they wished, but sometimes I had to really think about what some of their contributions could be. One year when Victoria was only two years old, she really wanted to help. I put a line of miniature marshmallows, a line of chocolate chips, and a line of pecan pieces on the counter. I then stood her four year old brother on one chair and her on another and told them to eat the various ingredients so that I could make certain that they were good enough to put into the fudge. I told them that they were “quality control” and that if they found any pieces that were not good, they had to let me know right away. Every few minutes I would ask, “Is everything still okay?” They assured me that everything was okay. By the time they had eaten everything that I had put on the counter for them, I had finished making most of the fudge. They felt very important that year because they had made sure that the fudge was “safe to eat.”

Every year we had a gift wrapping party and a separate tree decorating party—we always put up the tree the closest Saturday to December 10. I turned on Christmas music while we worked and provided “treats” in the form of cheap store brand sodas and a big bowl of M&Ms.

Daily Bible reading was always part of our lives, but at Christmas I put aside our regular reading so that the last couple of days before Christmas we would read the entire Christmas story from the Bible. By reading the accounts from all four Gospels, we were able to cover everything that the Bible records concerning Jesus’ birth.

I have known families who are able take lavish trips to celebrate Christmas; they go to ski resorts, or they take cruises, or they rent a house on the beach in Maui. I am certain that they have some wonderful Christmas memories, but I suspect that the most precious component of those memories is the time they spent together at those various vacation spots.

Love and friendship are free. By taking the ordinary things that have to be done to prepare for Christmas and turning them into special traditions, we can make all that “work” the best part of the holiday. We can stop dreading the various tasks that must be performed and start looking forward to a month-long celebration of Jesus’ Birthday that every family member will cherish for a lifetime.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker.  Her own story of teaching her ten children from the first grade through master's degrees before their seventeen birthday is told in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

                                                                         
                                    

A Gift from the Heart

What is the best gift you ever received? I’ll bet that the one that comes to your mind first was not an expensive item. Perhaps it was a small gift you received on a Christmas morning when you were a child; it may have been a meal that someone prepared for you when you were ill; perhaps, it was words of encouragement that someone offered when you felt that you could not go on. Whatever you consider the best gift you ever received, it was probably one that was given from the heart.

 As we approach this holiday season, many of us are struggling financially, and most of us have gift lists that are bigger than our bank accounts. We would all like to be able to lavish extravagant gifts on those whom we love, but, the truth is, that those costly gifts are often quickly forgotten. This season I want to encourage you to look to your heart to find the solutions to your holiday gift giving.

Forty-five years ago my husband John and I took a trip to Kansas to visit my maternal grandparents. John had not met them before, but the three of them liked one another immediately. One afternoon John and my grandfather went fishing, and while they were gone, my grandmother told me that she wanted to give John a gift but that she did not have anything she thought he would want.

I assured her that John did not want a gift, but she insisted. Finally, she said, “I know! I’m going to polish his shoes for him.” I assured her that John would not want her to polish his shoes, but she would not be deterred. She had noticed how well-groomed he was, and she remarked to me that a man who was that concerned about his appearance would love a shoe shine.

In spite of my protests, Grandma went into the room where we were staying, picked up his dress shoes, and worked with shoe polish and a brush until they gleamed. She looked very happy as she worked on those shoes, and when she was finished, she proudly placed them next to the door so that he would see them as soon as he returned. I had not thought about that incident for years, but yesterday John mentioned it to me; he said that he was so humbled by her act of kindness that he had felt close to her from that moment on.

My grandmother had virtually no money, but she was a compulsive giver. She never wanted anyone to leave her home empty handed, and she was always able to find the perfect gift for any individual. When she was in her nineties, one of her sons signed her up for Meals on Wheels. As soon as she began receiving the meals, she asked the volunteer who delivered hers about his family. She discovered that he had two little girls, and after that she made certain that she always had cookies in the house. Each day when he delivered her lunch she gave him two large cookies which she had carefully secured in plastic wrap—one for each of his girls.

I can never remember receiving a purchased gift from my grandmother, but I remember all of the times that she made tea parties just for the two of us. These were not child’s tea parties with fake tea in toy cups. She made real tea with cream and sugar and served it with crackers and butter in her best cups. The tea parties always occurred when we were alone. Many cold winter afternoons were spent drinking tea and talking. As one of twenty-two grandchildren, I felt very privileged to have her undivided attention as we enjoyed our tea, and I opened my heart to her. After her death I discovered that she had spent the same kind of quality time with each of her other grandchildren. She had tailored those times spent with each of them so that the two of them were engaged in something that was special to that particular grandchild.

In The Vision of Sir Launfal, James Russell Lowell writes, “(It’s) Not what we give, but what we share—For the gift without the giver is bare.”  A gift from the heart always costs the giver more than a purchased item because it requires that the giver share himself with the one receiving the gift. When we perform a task that requires an expenditure of our time and energy, we are saying, “I care enough about you to give up a little part of myself to benefit you.”  Gifts from the heart require a good deal of thought and effort on the part of the giver, but, in the long run, they are the gifts that we always remember.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker.  Her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother tells her own story of educating her ten children from the first grade through masters' degrees.  For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

Thank God for Fleas

As Thanksgiving approaches many of us are compiling our personal list of things for which we are thankful. I, too, am compiling my list, and in doing so I am putting at the very top, “Thank you, God, for fleas.”

I learned about the importance of fleas from Corrie Ten Boom, the Dutch Christian woman who, along with her other family members, hid Jews from the Nazis when Holland was under occupation. Corrie and her sister Betsie were middle-aged spinsters when they were arrested by the Germans and eventually sent to the concentration camp at Ravensbruck. Because Ravensbruck was among the worst of the camps, from the time they were first arrested Corrie had prayed diligently that they would not be sent there.Yet, Ravensbruck turned out to be the final destination for these two remarkable women.

The sisters were assigned to Barracks 28, a long gray building with numerous broken windows covered by rags and communal beds consisting of platforms stacked three high covered with filthy, stinking straw.On that first day when Corrie and Betsie were assigned their places on a middle platform, they discovered that the straw was infested with fleas—biting, stinging vermin. It seemed to Corrie that fleas were the one thing that would make their incarceration at Ravensbruck even more torturous.

When Corrie began to complain about their circumstances, Betsie reminded her that the Bible says we are to give thanks in everything, and she began to thank God aloud that there had been no inspection when the women entered the barracks, and they had been able to bring in their Bible. Then she thanked God for the crowding because that meant more women would hear the gospel and be saved. Finally, Betsie thanked God for the fleas! As far as Corrie was concerned, that was the last straw. Corrie refused to join Betsie in thanking God for the fleas until Betsie reminded her that fleas were part of the place where God had put them. Grudgingly, Corrie took Betsie’s hand and joined her in thanking God for the fleas, although she was certain that this time Betsie was wrong.       

The two sisters immediately began a nightly meeting of prayer and Bible study where everyone was welcome to participate. Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Eastern Orthodox women joined in the prayers and singing, and others listened. The sisters’ Bible was written in Dutch, but they translated their reading into German so that more of the women would understand. Those women, in turn, passed the words of scripture along the aisles translating them into French, Polish, Russian, and Czech.

At first, the sisters were very fearful when they called their meetings.  In their previous barracks they had been accustomed to having the guards exercise rigid surveillance with half a dozen guards always present. In Barracks 28, however, there was very little supervision. At first the sisters were puzzled by this lack of supervision, but they later learned that the guards refused to enter the barracks because of the fleas. God had provided the fleas to keep the guards away from the nightly Bible study and worship where many women would come to know Christ.

In these difficult times many of us are fighting battles that seem to involve an inordinate number of fleas. We have experienced loss of income, dwindling home values, and failing businesses. It is almost impossible not to be angry and discouraged when we see everything we have worked so hard to achieve snatched away by circumstances beyond our control. Yet, the Bible tells us that not only are we not to be resentful, we are to actually give thanks for everything that comes into our lives.

If you feel that this Thanksgiving you have little to be thankful for, don’t concentrate on what is missing in your life. Thank God for the fleas, and trust that He is using them—every single annoying one of them—to bring about something beautiful. Trust that one day you will look back and understand how He used the fleas to bring about His perfect plan in your life.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother, tells her own story of homeschooling her ten children from the first grade through master's degrees.  For more information visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.