Is God asking you to Homeschool?

Do you ever feel like Jonah?

If I really am honest with myself, I know what God is asking me to do.

But like Jonah I run the other way.

I hide myself, escape by hopping aboard the boat of distraction and otherness. As a busy mom (and grandma) I have plenty to keep me distracted from what God is calling me to do.

AND just like the story of Jonah, when I ignore the call of God, chaos ensues. The storm hastens and throws my ship, my family, into a tumult.

Are you feeling this way right now too?

You accepted or even willingly signed up for home education, yet there is this nagging tug to run and hide.

To continue with the Jonah analogy, the sailors asked Jonah to pray to His God to quiet the storm:

“The captain approached him and said, “What are you doing asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps this god will be mindful of us so that we will not perish.” -Jonah 1:6

They threw Jonah overboard as Jonah knew he was the cause of the storm. He immediately recognized the consequences of ignoring his responsibility and calling from God.

But the LORD sent a great fish to swallow Jonah, and he remained in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah prayed to the LORD, his God, from the belly of the fish:

God answered.

He was swallowed by a whale. Then he prayed…

Out of my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me; – Jonah 2:2

Jonah prayed a prayer of thanksgiving.

Like Jonah I pray in thanksgiving as I homeschool my children. I may feel scared, alone, abandoned, and try to run away, but God shelters those who He loves and who He calls, and gives them NEW LIFE.

In this way I try to remember that I am a sinner, I have free will and I am not perfect.

Yet, God calls me.

And He hears my voice in my distress and answers me.

God gave you the children you have in the right time and at the right sibling order. He calls you to do the unthinkable, to manage your home and to be primary teacher to your children.

You know it is a call.

More than that, God is concerned intimately with me. Yes, little ol’ me. He is concerned enough with my care and my happiness. He, however, wants me to humble myself just like he asked the Ninevites.

…the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small,^* put on sackcloth. – Jonah 3:5

The Jonah story ends with another lesson.

Remember how the King and all of Nineveh repent?

When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out. -Jonah 3:10

BUT Jonah is NOT HAPPY!

Instead, he sits under a gourd plant expecting death and destruction to befall the Ninevites?

When nothing happens to the Ninevites Jonah actually grows angry with God for choosing mercy!

Ha!

When will we ever learn? Ah, the Story of Jonah is indeed a cautionary tale for us, for certain!

Stay the course, know you will NOT do it perfectly, you will fail and fall, undoubtedly.

God hears your voice in your distress, loves you and your children infinitely more than you can imagine, and shows mercy when we least expect it!

I am praying with and for all of you as we plunge into this new year.

How do you respond to His call? Please comment below…

I just did a podcast with practical tips for those times when you feel like running and hiding! Here is the link:

Curing Mommy Overwhelm

January 8, 2020January 8, 2020

Curing Mommy Overwhelm

I was so honored to be invited to the Homeschooling Saints Podcast. This was my very first podcast. I was super nervous, but Lisa Mladinich, the show’s host and a fellow homeschooling mom made me so comfortable! It was such a pleasure to talk about this topic which is the number one topic I cover with hundreds of homeschooling moms over these past 20+ years!

This episode will help you get clear on what is critical and how you can put my time-tested tips into action in your own life. Here’s a sneak peek of what you’ll learn…

How playing the comparison game does not work for your unique family (myths, get ready to be busted!).

Why it’s especially important to ground yourself in spirituality, and define with your spouse what educational success looks like.

Educating the whole child to feel a real sense of success by aligning your curriculum to each child’s strengths.

The importance of “Less is More,” stopping the pressure of thinking you “are not enough” or that you will “mess your children up.”

How to celebrate the wins, glorify God, and acknowledge your wins!

The power of “One Goal, Per Child, Per Year.”

My real family examples and suggestions to focus on strengths, including time management tips for teens.

How to honor the dignity of each child, recognize the importance of self-knowledge, and follow the call to holiness.

Before you make yourself a cup of java or tea and put your headphones on, do me (and yourself) a favor to get the most out of this episode. Pull out a notebook, I want you to get clear on something vitally important…

Where are you now? Where do you want to be? What is standing in the way?

Sit with those three simple, but essential, questions and jot down your answers. Because the precursor to curing mommy overwhelm is knowing what your goals are.

Okay, all set?

LISTEN NOW….CLICK ON THE IMAGE

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO LISTEN NOW – CURING MOMMY OVERWHELM

August 10, 2019August 10, 2019

The secret to homeschool success!

Want to know a secret? Sure you do! Drum roll pease…

Homeschooling success comes from setting just one goal per child per year!

Yes, that’s it!

At present, I am in the middle of personally designing curriculums for many of my homeschool, coaching clients.

Feeling overwhelmed by all the umpteen choices you are contemplating right now?

Dare I say, you may even be rethinking homeschooling altogether, or how many courses you can outsource or hand-off. Right??

The thing is, trying to be all things to all your children, for all subjects, is crazy busy and overwhelming! It just is!

That is why, long ago I retrained myself to think small.

Yes, to think, one goal, each year, per child.

Consequentially, if you simply reflect on the past school year accomplishments you will notice a subject or skill, that your child needs help with to feel real success.

Does this mean you forget the rest of the subjects?

NO! The other subjects are subordinate to the one big goal.

You have to first and foremost respect the dignity of each unique child.

Each child has a unique set of strengths and challenges. To foster these, by making them the one goal for the year, lays the foundation to real sustained growth. There is plenty of help to do this too!

Here’s an example:

My daughter was nearing nine and was struggling with reading. She had very real, vision issues that made reading laborious and exhaustive. Naturally, she had strong resistance to her reading lessons that year. Additionally, she had (still has) a vivid imagination. Quite frankly, the simple Dick and Jane type of readers did not hold her interest. The stories she had created in her head, through her imagination, were far more captivating.

The truth is that real success in reading, real enjoyment in reading, lays the foundation for everything else.

That year, I planned her curriculum with one goal; have her feel real success with reading beginner chapter books. Every other subject played second fiddle to this. This subject took priority in everything I choose for her for that year!

I mean everything!

Nothing was added to her curriculum that would curtail her ultimate goal, reading success.

To illustrate; we kept math work to mainly hands-on fun we did no laborious workbooks. I had no worries here, because I knew math skills would come in time. Indeed, at the right time for her to truly master them. Science was accomplished family-style, with weekly read aloud, and fun experiments with her siblings.

I had on hand many games and puzzles to help her strengthen her eye muscles for focusing. We used the library often in search of topics she loved for read aloud time and reading practice.

Fast forward 15+ years to today. She just graduated Christendom College this May with honors, and get this, she is pursuing a career in copyediting!

Really awesome, right!!

I have taught this methodology and practice to hundreds of families too! It works and sets the stage for your child to feel a real sense of success.

I designed some handy reflection worksheets for this process in my popular FREE Planning Guide, call Get Ready. Did you get your copy?

Get Your Copy Now

Share in the comments below, what has been the cornerstone of your homeschool journey.

May 23, 2019May 24, 2019

3 Tips to Overcome the End of Year Struggle

The struggle is REAL.

Do you ever feel as though you are not doing enough for your homeschooled kiddos?

Or you are not sure if what you are currently doing is the right thing?

Do you ask yourself, “Am I ruining my kids for life? Am I setting them up for failure?”

This time of year, which I call “the struggle is real” is rife with second guessing, dwelling on what never got done this year or what still needs to be done. Couple that with summer vacation and end of the school year fast approaching and you have a recipe for disappointment and overwhelm.

Dear homeschool mom, this would happen to me every single year, both in the early days as well as my veteran homeschool days.

Why?

We all take our role as “Parent as Primary Teacher” very seriously.

We constantly give ourselves a non-stop performance review in our heads. In other words, we let this really critical boss tell us we are not doing enough, that we could be doing more and that the kids would be better off in a different situation.

YES, even when our hearts are saying homeschooling is the best education for our precious kiddos!

Here are three tips I use to get that pesky, finger-pointing boss out of my head and begin to follow my heart!

Love always wins.

Jesus the source of LOVE. Replace that critical self-made boss immediately with the image of our Lord Jesus. Visualize Him, and most importantly stop whatever you are doing and be present in His Love. If you can, go to Adoration, even for a quick visit. It literally changes everything.

I could not always get to daily Mass or Adoration when my children were little, so I made a spiritual communion, a desire in my heart to be one with Him. Vinny Flynn in his book 7 Secrets of the Eucharist , in his last chapter, talks so beautifully about this tremendous gift, spiritual communion, Jesus is always available!

Make a List.

Writing things down always brings clarity. Period, end of sentence. I know that it is so tempting to just let those self-defeating thoughts roll around in your head. Better yet it is super tempting to call a friend and complain.

Now don’t get me wrong, it is a good thing to vent your frustrations to get the struggle out of your head. BUT writing down all those thoughts truly helps to put clarity into the big picture.

If you think you did not do enough this year, write down what you think you can reasonably finish in these last few weeks. It instantly makes you get outside your head and feeling productive. Forget the past, it is done and over with. Just move forward. Make a list.

Plan a celebration.

You are amazing and serve your family with your whole heart and soul. Please remember that!!

There is no doubt that even though you may feel your homeschooling came up short, there is without a doubt some wins! Did one of your kids learn to read? Was there a sacrament received by one of your children this year? Did you learn more about one of your children’s interests/strengths?

Celebrate the good stuff that happened this year. There is sooooo much more to homeschooling than accomplishing the academic achievements. It truly is about forming the people in our care in an environment of love and truth. That is something to really celebrate!

Now it’s your turn, what do you do at the end of school year to finish up on the upswing?

Please comment and share, I’d love to hear your suggestions!

March 20, 2019March 20, 2019

Top 3 Tips: Homeschooling when sickness hits!

I bet you can relate to this scene!

You are nursing full time to the sick kiddos in your home, so you get derailed from teaching the kids not sick. Then when the sick ones get better, the healthy ones get sick! This can go on for several weeks, one sick kiddo at a time!

Then you get sick.

What can a homeschool mom do?

You could just be sick and skip school, right?

“Plug-in” the kids with a few documentaries and viola it counts as a school day, right? BUT you have already missed so much time with them…

Or you could do these TOP 3 easy things that actually still get school work done while you are in survival mode.

Over the past 25 years homeschooling my seven kiddos, there were plenty of times that I actually never got sick, call it mom-immunity!! But there were also plenty of times that I too got whatever was running through my family!

I do not live near any of my close relatives and most family is about two hours away. I had to learn early on how to manage without much help!

They say necessity is the mother of invention and I truly believe that! More importantly, I do believe that God’s grace is sufficient. All too often I was way too hard on myself and expected way too much!

Having mom or the family sick brings with it amble opportunities to really focus on the overall important things of life.

Tip #1: Mandatory Quiet time

This tip is especially helpful when you have kiddos all under the age of 8. During this time of my life, I would gather every, single one of us in my bedroom and close the door. Heck, I got my cold from them so we would just plop on my bed in one, giant, sick bundle.

My family LOVES to color and this really was a salvation. I would always keep on hand imaginative, coloring books such as the ones from Dover Publications. This publisher is a fantastic resource because of the enormous wealth of coloring book choices with excellent and informative illustrations. To make it count as homeschooling, I chose coloring books correlated with our current school work in history, science or literature! The company offers free samples, you can just download now. They often have free shipping too. My best bets are the history coloring books, or the nature coloring books, something for everyone at different ages!

Tip #2: Reading aloud

Having sickness in the house, whether it is just the kiddos or includes mom, is the perfect opportunity to have read aloud time take over most of the homeschooling day. Count your sickness as a blessing to get you started in one of the most profound experiences in your child’s development, reading to you or listening to others read aloud! There are so many benefits to reading aloud, from the practical, such as language development, knowledge gained and shared, literacy skills, brain development to the spiritual and so much more!

I did a post: How to Make Read Aloud Time Work, with helpful tips and book recommendations. Read together from the couch or bed! Pick important stories too, that infuse virtues into your homeschool! Love this quote…

“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”
GK Chesterton

I have plenty of book reviews here on the BLOG. And I keep adding more weekly! These are book reviews culled from my 25 years of homeschooling and running our family business choosing the best books!

Tip #3: Play with Games and Toys

Yes, I did say play with games and toys and I mean for it to count as a homeschool day! However, not just any games or toys. I do not mean computer games. There are plenty of them, and free ones too BUT when you are sick or the kids are sick, it is so easy to lose track of time. Even if you set a timer for the kids to limit computer time, survival mode is not the time to monitor their computer usage. The result of which would only cause you to spend time trying to undo the damage of brain fatigue with crabby kids!

It is really important to have on hand games and toys that actually teach important skills, such as spatial relationships, math skills, reasoning, color, matching, sequencing, timelines, communications, creativity, etc. Do you see where I am going with this? No babysitting by using TV and the computer!

Here is a handy list of my best games and toys that count for homeschooling:

Tangrams or Pattern Blocks- spatial relations, color recognition, patterning
Lacing and Tracing Cards – fine motor skills
Puppets – ones they make from a kit or animal and fairy tale figures (for storytelling)
Beading and laces – for patterns, colors, sequencing
Double-sided Geoboards – basic geometry of squares, rectangles, triangles, polygons and symmetry
Puzzles – letter recognition, spatial relations
Scrabble or Hangman – spelling practice
Two-sided counters – practice math facts

BONUS Tip – for your older kiddos

Chances are the older kiddos can manage most of their assigned work themselves for a few days, with no great loss. They most certainly should be able to read all assigned work. They can write down all their questions, or jot the pages from their workbooks that gave them trouble while you were down and out. I often found that without relying on my constant presence they could do a heck more than they realize. All too often they know how to do just the minimum which includes asking mom for the answers. Here is their chance to stretch themselves and you.

Give the big kiddos the chance to shine and be the family hero by asking them to teach their younger sibling a subject, be it math or spelling or something they love and excel in. Teaching younger siblings reinforces already learned concepts and skills with the added benefit that the repetition reinforces and strengthens it.

Be gentle with yourself! Rest, and get better homeschool mom!

What are your survival mode tips? Please comment below! The best tips come from those of us in the trenches!!!

February 5, 2019February 6, 2019

How to Make Read Aloud Time Work

Are you too tired, too busy, or too distracted to make time to read aloud?

You’ve spent all day as teacher, chef, housekeeper, peacemaker, chauffeur, you name it—

There are countless benefits to family read aloud sessions that go well beyond the educational, and these benefits outweigh all your reasons for skipping it!

Infographic on benefits to reading aloud — Image Source:Read Aloud 15 MINUTES

In addition to creating priceless family memories, these read aloud moments also give mom the chance to revisit her favorite childhood books or read the ones you missed the first time around. It is also a fantastic way to wind down your household after a hectic day.

Even once your children begin reading proficiently on their own, family read aloud time still offers wonderful opportunities for the whole family to gather together and simply enjoy each other with great literature.

Need help to begin or keep it up?

If you find that the time you designate for family reading aloud always slips by, here is a helpful hint:

Set a timer for your desired reading time.

I found that 15- 20 minutes before “lights out” is ample time to read a chapter or two. It wasn’t until I placed this desire in my heart that this time became a reality. Once I did, I was amazed how quickly read aloud time became our regular nightly routine. In fact, it was considered a harsh punishment by my kids to skip bedtime read aloud time! They grew to LOVE this special time each and every year, even through the teen years!

Don’t know what books to read, for each age?

Here are my all time favorite booklists! I kept a copy of each ready in hand when I went to the library or requested books on-line. Once you get familiar with favorite authors you can pick up great book bargains at the local thrift store or library book sale. My library keeps a section of used books for sale and I often find great hardcover copies of treasured family favorites.

A Mother’s List of Books by Theresa Fagan – My all time FAVORITE, listed by age with annotations too!
For the Love of Literature by Maureen Wittmann – great chapter on reading aloud with tons of book recommendations.
The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease – great tips and great list especially for reading aloud to children!
Program for Achieving Character Education by Monica Speach – Wonderful literature suggestions listed by age and coordinated to the virtues and much more!
A Landscape with Dragons by Michael O’Brien- back of book has a great list.
Let the Authors Speak by Carolyn Hatcher (plenty of used copies- worth finding if you love history).
Books That Build Character: A Guide to Teaching Your Child Moral Values Through Stories by William Kilpatrick – virtue based categories and also by age.
Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt – classic with beloved books especially for the younger crowd.
Books Children Love by Elizabeth Wilson – her lists contains books by topic, great to coordinate with your children’s interests, all by age!

Get everyone involved!

A wonderful tip to get every member of the family interested and involved in read aloud time is to let each person take turns choosing the books.

Additionally, designate specific nights so each child may take his/her turn in reading aloud. This gives your children an opportunity to practice reading plus it helps them to become effective public speakers.

Hearing books read aloud also fosters better writing skills. According to Andrew Pudewa of the Institute for Excellence in Writing, to become a better writer, you need to draw upon the foundations of the patterns within language.

What better way to strengthen that foundation than by reading aloud, where the nuances and characteristics of language come alive. Reading aloud forces the reader to slow the pace and really process the information, processing the whole picture.

Once children become accomplished readers, many tend to skim or scan through pages of a book as they read silently. They miss so much, but if they read aloud, the content is displayed as complete rather than choppy fragments. Our older boys were really struggling with reading Shakespeare’s plays. This is until they decided to read it aloud to one another. They were astonished at how quickly and clearly they could grasp the concepts and summarize the content simply by hearing it out loud!

And that goes for just about any really good story! Language patterns, dialogue, plot points and characterizations are best understood when you read aloud as you are forced to speak every single word the author wrote in the sequence they wrote it! You will be teaching your kids the beginnings of reading for a deeper understanding!

What are your favorite read aloud time books? Share them in the comments below!

January 9, 2019August 2, 2019

Ready, Set, Go, Homeschool Mom!

I love this saying as it evokes a clear image for me! It is the image of a runner at the starting line of a race. They have been preparing for months to run this race. The runner is eager to begin and give their very best effort to run the race.

In my mind, I can see that this runner is different. She does not run for personal gain but for a higher reward. This reward is priceless. This reward is satisfying on such a deep level that the runner draws strength, her energy and perseverance from the mere thought of obtaining it.

What does this have to do with homeschooling?

I see the runner as a mom who homeschools her children.

I work best visualizing images, making movies in my head of the life I want to lead. Being fed on a steady diet of old fashioned black and white movies from the 30’s and 40’s, I was drawn to the messages told in a story. There was always the hero and his journey towards some good for himself or humanity. I find that the best books I cherish have strong hero stories!

It is no wonder that I was drawn to the ultimate story, the very best hero tale, when I was invited back home to the faith of my birth. This story is the one our Lord has told through His Word and through his Apostles and Saints, handed down through the ages.

This ultimate story is the center of my family’s homeschool journey. It is the energy my family drawns upon to direct each day.

It is all that matters in the end.

A little while ago I wrote a guide called, Get Ready. This handy little guide I developed as a starting point for anyone who wants to begin their family journey towards an authentic and doable Catholic homeschool. In it, I introduced the PRRR method, (a silly acronym, I know). Firstly you start with Prayer, then you go through the next steps of Read, Research, and Reflect. In addition, there are helpful suggestions and worksheets to guide you through this EASY process.

“Get Set, Go!”

Above all, what I learned after 25 years of homeschooling and consulting, is that you “Set” your life first, then layer in school. I know that seems unfamiliar and maybe even confusing at first, but think about it for a minute. The only way to find balance, to have enough time for all your roles, as wife, mom, and teacher is to SET LIFE and fit in school.

To do otherwise is a certain recipe for overwhelm.

Consider this…would you buy a car without thinking of who is going to drive it and be a passenger in it? Would you make dinner by never looking at the ingredients you are adding to the dinner, let alone open the fridge?

In other words, when you choose to homeschool, to do something extraordinary, you have the opportunity to personalize and tailor the education of each and every child in your family.

However, can you possibly teach so many different levels with so many different personalities and learning styles?

It is possible! I have personally witnessed many, many families do this. Ordinary people with an extraordinary desire to challenge the status quo of education. You have already begun, when you decided to take on the primary role of educator.

How? You are a parent.

Two powerful passages come to mind that speak volumes:

Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well suited for education in the virtues. (CCC 2223)

The home is the natural environment for initiating a human being into solidarity and communal responsibilities. Parents should teach children to avoid the compromising and degrading influences which threaten human societies. (CCC 2224)

Relax, over the next few weeks I will be introducing practical techniques that help you SET YOUR LIFE.

So, go ahead and spend time first in getting to know what is in your fridge BEFORE you make dinner….spend time this week getting to really know your kids interests and talents.

Comment below what you “found in your fridge”…

December 30, 2018December 31, 2018

Two Truths in 25 Years of Homeschooling

Yup! that is correct only two!

Actually, there are many more! As I look back not only over 2018 but also over these last 25 years of homeschooling my seven children, TWO very profound truths rise to the top!

Numero uno on the list is: If I don’t write it down it will never happen.

Yup! I know that seems so lame and not very profound BUT I tell you it is essential. I realized some time ago that in order for me to truly embrace my days, months, years with intention, I needed to have the important things written down.

I am not talking about being super organized or having a “set in stone” planner for the week or even the day. What I mean is to actually think about and write down my deeply held beliefs!

AND use verbs because they are actionable, like this:

Give until it hurts and expect no reward – the only thing I can control are my actions.
Pause before speaking, listen to others with patience.
Spend time getting to know another soul on this temporary existence to taste tidbits of heaven.

Putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard is a deliberate act of intention that creates focus and clarity.

So I created for you a handy little WRITING PROMPT sheet for your YEAR IN REVIEW. Just three SIMPLE prompts to guide you in reflection. It is fashioned after one I received from my trusted coach Marie and I am doing it too! Click on this button to get your copy…

Year in Review – Free Writing Sheet

While this can be a great way to review my past year and look ahead for the new year, writing it down is a way to “own” what I do! I find when I take the time to step back and reflect on my kiddos passions and gifts, write down ONE GOAL for each then the result is real lasting success.

You see, this written goal translates to the daily tasks for the child. I become laser focused that their curriculum for the day, month, year all align with this ONE all important GOAL.

And on a very practical level, you know well that even the act of writing down a to-do list or scheduling a visit with friends ONLY actually happens when you write it down!

See it works on so many levels!!!

Okay, now onto SECOND TRUTH, which is the more spiritual and profound truth to share.

I borrow the line from my confirmation saint, St. Therese of the Little Flower:

“Remember that nothing is small in the eyes of God. Do all that you do with love.” – St. Therese

My entire life, as I reflect on it, is truly a miracle set in motion by profound love. You can read MY STORY to learn more details about that journey, but suffice it to say that, God is LOVE, and He loves me very much!

In thanksgiving for this love, I need to remember that everything I do, say or act upon, done with LOVE is my humble gift of love to the Father!

“My grace is enough for you, for My power manifests itself in your weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

What have you learned?

Let me know in the comments below, please share your reflections and insights…

June 5, 2016June 5, 2016

Transformed by “The Hidden Power of Kindness”

Last Mother’s Day I received a lovely necklace from my children that had a hand stamped medal with the inscription “have courage and be kind,” the words and theme from the recent Cinderella movie. The kids know how much kindness means in this world and in our families. They know how I hold it to be preeminent in all their words and actions. Long ago I was introduced to the prolific writer, Fr. Lawrence Lovask. The same priest who wrote the dear little children’s booklets, St. Joseph Picture Books, that we all know and love, wrote with clarity and a mind to the practical for adults too!

kindness-1 Transform yourself — and the world — through kindness! Kindness counts. If you have trouble acting with the consistent kindness our Lord expects, your relationships with God and those you love may be suffering. Probably you just can’t find the time — and can’t ever seem to develop the patience — that you need in order to be consistently kind amid the irritations that afflict you daily. That’s why this book is such a godsend. You’ll learn how to be kinder, even in difficult circumstances.

kindness-boys-on-path

There’s nothing complicated or magical about learning to be kinder; it just takes greater attention to the things that you do and how you do them. The Hidden Power of Kindness shows you how to become more aware of even your most offhand daily actions. You’ll find simple, step-by-step, and spiritually crucial directions for how to overcome the habitual unkindness that creeps — undetected — into the behavior of even the most careful souls. You will grow towards holiness with these beautiful and practical step-by-step instructions for overcoming all forms of unkindness and meanness.

You’ll learn:

Four ways you can become more considerate . . . immediately!

Sympathy: why it’s your spiritual responsibility to show it to others — and five ways you can start doing so.

Three things to do — and three things you must not do — in order to grow kinder quickly.

Four surprising reasons why it’s spiritually dangerous to criticize others.

Three sure-fire remedies to eliminate sinful anger from your life.

Seven ways you can turn to your own spiritual benefit the wrongs that other