6 Secrets for Women Who Want to Have It All: Including Working Life Balance

by Justina Ford | Jan 11, 2017 | Business Mindset, Motherhood & Homeschooling | 0 comments

6 Secrets for Women Who Want to Have It All: Including Working Life Balance

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Introduction

This question,“can women have it all?” really puts a lot of pressure on women to believe that we actually are responsible for doing it all or that we have to do it “all”.

It imposes the idea that “all”, is only our responsibility. It removes the men in our lives from the equation.

Let’s ask that another way. Can men really have it all? How did that feel? What effect does that question have on men?

I guess somehow in this society we believe that men already have it all. So we don’t have to ask them that. But this is so far from true. Men struggle with not having a clear idea of what “All” means to them as well.

Questioning if women can have it all also creates a sense of lack. It stirs up the “I’m not enough stories”. We begin to question the choices in our life thinking that we to have something more. When you are doing what you love that counts as having it all.

Here are My 6 secrets to having it all

1. You have to Determine what “All” means to you.

Having it all may mean running your own passion-based business AND having time for your children.

It could also mean being a stay at home mom without the business or job.

Either way determining what makes you happy and not getting caught up with what society thinks you should have is the first step to truly having it all…your way

2. Embrace the idea that It’s ok for you to want what you want.

Get clear on what you really want out of life

There doesn’t have to be this energy of guilt surrounding your desires to grow your business and spend time with your children.

It’s not one or the other it’s really about you embracing your desires and being creative about achieving them

3. Be creative in solving your problems.

We all run into snags sometimes.

Maybe you’ll have to strategize around what hours you can work with wanting to be home when your kids get out of school (remember only if that is an actual desire of yours to be there when they get out of school and not because you feel obligated to).

Maybe you’ll have to talk to your boss about doing some hours from home.

Either way being creative in solving the problems that may be preventing you from doing all that you desire is key!

4.You have to be a master at asking for help: You can’t do it alone.

Actually, I’m begging you not to attempt to do it alone.

I got a taste of being a single parent when my husband got deployed and I got a chance to exercise my super powers of asking for help.

That means asking the family that is nearby, neighbors, friends, church members, and sports coaches for help.

I remember having a 2-day commercial shoot with Target and having to ask my neighbor to take my son to practice 2 days in a row because I wasn’t able to.

I couldn’t have done the commercial shoot and kept my son on the all-star football team without help

5. Believe that you can have it “all” (whatever that means to you)

You must believe that the things you desire in life are achievable.

I remember when I started my first passion based business that required me leaving the home. I used to say yes in faith to the jobs I was requested for.

I didn’t have child care set up yet but I believed that something would come through in order for me to be able to make it.

6. Stop trying to have it “all” and embrace where you’re at.

Do all that you can with what you already have.

You’re all is something that continually changes.

In one of my “all” moments I was doing 1 thing homeschooling my children, no coaching, and makeup business, no writing, no published articles and we were on top of the world.

My all began to change at different stages in my life.

So I’m not chasing it all, I’m chasing embracing who I am and what I believe and living a life that is aligned with my values.

Justina is a Pro MUA and Mindset and Success Coach. You can find her in her Facebook Group The Purposeful Pursuit to a Beautiful You.

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Justina Ford

INTUITIVE BUSINESS COACH AND INNER HEALING PRACTITIONER

Justina holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, a Master’s in Human Service Counseling focused in Business, and additional training in the Emotional Freedom Technique and Splankna Therapy. She is an Amazon #1 International Best-Selling Author, Huffington Post Contributor and Contributing Author of Notes to Younger Women. She also serves as a Commercial Makeup Artist to Professional Photographers, Marketing and Advertising Teams. She is an intuitive business coach and Christian energy healer. She calls herself The Soul-Purpose Alignment Strategist. She helps new and aspiring Christian Coaches and service based Mompreneurs to overcome limiting beliefs surrounding their purpose and their call to create in the marketplace.

Click HERE to schedule a complimentary clarity session with her.

You can also find her in her Facebook Group The Purposeful Pursuit to a Beautiful You

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Lesson Prep Sheets don’t sound very CM…are you sure about that???

by Justina Ford | Aug 28, 2016 | Motherhood & Homeschooling

My last blog post on homeschool organization kind of stirred up a bit of controversy over whether or not Lesson Prep sheets are Charlotte Mason based. But no worries, that’s why I’ve created this blog post in addition to what I wrote on my new homeschool organization set up and how I adapted it to CM. I want to help the readers here understand what I really mean when I say “Lesson Prep”. Within the organization post I discussed how I adapted the crate method by adding in lesson prep sheets to each hanging folder. I know the phrase lesson prep does not sound very Charlotte Mason friendly, however that is the best way that I know how to explain the concept in my own words. Well, let’s dig deeper and find what others have had to say on preparing a lesson or “lesson prep sheets”.

What Others Say About Preparing Lessons

Diane Lockman of the Classical Scholar speaks about providing context. Step one of her narration process is to absorb. She even goes on to say that we should look up any difficult words, locations, timeline, and historical contexts prior to reading the passage with the child.

Sonya Schafer of Simply Charlotte Mason speaks about looking behind and ahead. Step 2 of her narration process:

“This step is probably the one that is omitted most often. Yet it is an important part of the process and can make the difference between success and failure in a narration lesson. Take a few minutes to gain your bearings. Look at how today’s reading connects to what happened last time and prepare your mind for what will be read about today.”

This is exactly what I am doing with Lesson Prep Sheets, preparing the mind for what will be read about today. The only difference is that I did it in advance for about 12 weeks in advance. (I usually prep by the term or my head will start hurting)

In the Charlotte Mason Series, Charlotte mason refers to sharing a few words about what is to be read (vol 1 pg.233) .

Method of Lesson.––In every case the reading should be consecutive from a well-chosen book. Before the reading for the day begins, the teacher should talk a little (and get the children to talk) about the last lesson, with a few words about what is to be read, in order that the children may be animated by (vol. 1 pg 233)expectation; but she should beware of explanation and, especially, of forestalling the narrative.

How can we share with the children a few words about what is to be read if we haven’t pre-read the material. And there’s nothing wrong with having those few words that you will share in a prepared chart.

How I Use the Lesson Prep Sheets with My Children

So we can see from the above sources we should be prepping a lesson. You can make it as simple as you would like. The difference in what I do is actually creating a Lesson Prep Sheet. It’s the preparation prior to starting the lesson. I like to do this in advance instead of waiting right before a reading to do it. I also write this information in a chart and provide it to the child to do independently if they are old enough. I started doing this with my AO yr4 child. I would have it in a chart and readily available for me to explain to my AO Yr3 and younger children.

In the past, I have tried reading the night before or skimming right before a lesson but as I ended up with 3 kids all school age that became harder and we were really missing this step.

The last part of this sentence, “but she should beware of explanation and, especially, of forestalling the narrative.” is why I don’t have my children read the summary prior to formulating their own oral thoughts or written thoughts. The summary is really for myself as a teacher. Shortcut or cheatsheet for me. So yes we should avoid our own explanations but sharing general facts of character names, time frame, places, and locations does not count as giving them my own opinions. It really just gets their juices flowing and prepares them for the lesson.

I usually tell my oldest student (YR5) to look at the chart before reading and I let her refer to the chart while writing her own narration. It helps her remember names, places and dates. It’s mostly helpful for ME to read over the lesson summary. When she’s orally narrating, then I know what to look for and I can tell if she is hitting the key points without having to read the entire chapter for myself.
When she writes a narration, I sometimes have her look over the summary part so she can compare her work and see if she is keeping up with details like she should. I think it is great for them to compare their writing to others.

Hope this helps! If you have anymore questions or concerns. Just comment below on the blog <3

After 6 Years, The Perfect Charlotte Mason Homeschool Organization for AO

by Justina Ford | Aug 24, 2016 | Motherhood & Homeschooling | 4 comments

I’ve been homeschooling for the past 6.5 years and I’ve always been well-meaning to start a blog of some sort but I haven’t quite committed in the way that I had hoped. Life sometimes takes over and the things we say we want to do don’t always happen. Aside from wanting to blog more regularly about our homeschool, I’ve also wanted to start a makeup business. That particular desire has definitely come to pass. Although, I am the kind of person that tends to put a lot my plate, this past year I’ve had some time to reflect over responsibilities, which has freed up some time for me to blog more!

After almost 7 years of homeschooling, I am still a Charlotte Mason homeschooler. I’ve been pretty fortunate to find this method within the first 3 or 4 months of homeschooling. I tend to run into a lot of people who say they’ve never heard of the method. However, with that said staying organized and figuring out a way to juggle three children with this parent-led method has been a bit challenging especially since I’m running my own business.

Well, the awesome thing is that I was doing some research this summer and I ran across an organizational method on Youtube. Kristi showed us 5 methods and I fell in love with method 1. I will try to explain in written form but her video on her channel Raising Clovers was an amazing explanation of how to keep your weekly work in one area and organized for a term at a time. Well, maybe that’s the way I adapted it. I can’t remember directly right this moment if she planned for 12 weeks at a time or had her whole 36 weeks planned out before the school year. She wasn’t even a Charlotte Mason homeschooler, but I found this method was very exciting to do and has given our homeschool a new feel for the year.

SO here goes, what you’ll need for the Crate System:

crate
hanging file folders
Lesson Prep Sheets from the CHEATSHEET yahoo group or create your own.

Adapted to Charlotte Mason

Essentially, the way I’ve adapted this to a Charlotte Mason method is alongside the Ambleside Online Curriculum. If you’ve been using the AO curriculum as your choice to follow a Charlotte Mason method, then you’ll understand what I’m referring to when I say “AO weeks”. So, AO has the weeks neatly organized on what your child will be reading from what books for each week. So for week 25 (week 1 of term 3), I can clearly see that my year 5 daughter has this:

Bible (2 prep lesson sheets)
Bible (OT): 2 Kings 11; 2 Chron. 25, 26 (“The Kings of the Great Prophets”)
Bible (NT): Matt. 18:1-8, 21-36; 19:13-15; Mark 9:30-38; 10:1 (“Farewell to Galilee”)
History (3 prep lesson sheets)
This Country of Ours ch 88. Lincoln – The Battle of Gettysburg
The Story of the World vol 4 by Susan Wise Bauer ch 1, 2
Carry a Big Stick (Teddy Roosevelt) introduction and pgs 25-34
Geography (1 prep lesson sheet)
Halliburton ch 11. The Enchanted Temple
Science (2 prep-lesson sheet)
Christian Liberty Nature Reader 5: ch. 22, The Tools of Animals or, in the 2002 edition, 6. Animal Tools]
Story of Inventions ch 11: Samuel F.B. Morse and the Invention of the Telegraph – Planning the Electric Telegraph (pgs 247-258)
Madam How and Lady Why Ch 12 Homeward Bound from beginning to “once joined on to that low island on our left.” (pg 252-255)
Optional: Physics Lab in A Housewares Store: Pyrex p. 63
Poetry (1 prep lesson sheet)
Poetry of John Greenleaf Whittier and Paul Lawrence Dunbar
Literature (3 prep lesson sheets)
George Washington Carver ch. 1-2
Kim by Rudyard Kipling ch 1
Age of Fable ch 25 Arion
Math (1 prep lesson sheets)
Saxon Math 8/7

So for each subject (except math), I’ve either found a cheat sheet on yahoo groups or I’ve pre-read and created a chart that looks similar to this, which I call a prep-lesson sheet:

The prep-lesson sheet has names, places, dates, and events in a nice little chart. This is the information presented or read by the child prior to reading their lessons (lesson prep). These lesson prep sheets are printed and added into the folder and paper clipped by subject. So week 1 for history, I have 3 pages with the required reading and chart info on a page for each reading.

In the folder is also a blank narration paper behind each “chart/lesson prep” so the child knows the required work due after each reading. Sometimes it may say detailed written narration, drawn narration/oral, short written summary/oral narration. So for the week 1 folder we will have 13 prep-lesson sheets (or cheat sheets) and 13 assignment sheets.

The assignment sheets get turned into a little caddy (image) that I have the left side is for new work turned in. The right side is where I turned the work back into her so she knows I’ve checked it and now she can file it away in her own folder.

(WE’ve been doing somewhat of a summer school/ finish out what was left over from last year during our summer…so I’m a bit behind on filing)

Not only do I put these required charts pages in the folder but she also has a daily schedule so she knows when and where to pull the information for the week. (Note: For CM specific homeschool families, this post does not include grammar, dictation, latin those will be added once I find the workbook we’ll be starting with for Mid September when our school year starts. It also doesn’t include the specials. We usually do picture study on Mondays, composer study on Tuesday, nature study on Wednesday, handicrafts on Thursday and timeline/mapping on fridays so those subjects would be added in weekly)

It may seem like a lot of paper but we are a hands on type of family. Electronic filing doesnt work as much for us. This method promotes:

Independence: The older child can navigate through the folder and see what is necessary for the week
Chunkable pieces: It breaks down the school year in a weekly format.
flexible: because I don’t number my folders just like…..in her video. So if we take off time we can just pick up where we left off at.
Peace of mind….yep that simple I’m organized

I’ve been homeschooling 6.5 years now and this is the most organized I’ve felt in years!!! yay to that. Oh and pay attention to how she rips things out of workbooks for little ones. I know in the CM philosophy we dont use many workbooks but our Horizons math is a workbook and I love the idea of ripping out the pages and throwing in 5 pages per folder. It seems like a lot less work than holding that workbook each day and wondering when you are going to be finished!! I also do this with the littles’ handwriting sheets as well. I also write out their copywork sentences for each week. So again the staple or paperclip will hold 5 copywork pages, 5 handwriting pages, 5 phonics lessons (cool thing is the All About phonics is workbook style for us too. Not so CM’ish i dont think but what we are using and and works wonderfully with this method of organization)

Although we are a CM homeschool we absolutely love fun games and other resources for our children: Here is a list of a few:

Time 4 Learning
Teach My Monster to Read
ABCya
Starfall
ABCmouse
Readingeggs
XtraMath
Khan Academy