Step 1 - You, Not Them
The first step as outlined in Appendix F is "Forget the Kids." This ties into the first of the 7 Keys to great teaching, You, Not them. I have to get the education that I want my kids to get, before I can help them get it. I need to become a great mentor, because like it or not I am my kids first, always, and forever most influential mentor.
Forgetting the kids may sound a little harsh, but is so true, I am becoming sucked into great books, and it is very easy to forget the kids, forget the laundry, forget dinner. Our bodies may crave food, but our minds crave great literature, our souls great music, our eyes beauty.
Between reading and scrapbooking my house is barely staying clean ( mostly because my kids are on that fence between great housekeepers and house destroyers) and my bedroom and laundry is suffering the most. I'd rather read than fold laundry anyday.