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Today we are excited to share a guest post from The Connected Mom's founder, Gennifer Albin!
Gennifer Albin is a recovering academic who realized she could write
books of her own and discovered, delightfully, that people would read
them. She lives in Kansas with her family and writes full-time. Her
debut novel, Crewel, the first in a trilogy, will be published in
October 2012 by FSG/Macmillan.
You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook. She also blogs infrequently at genniferalbin.com and weekly at The League of Extraordinary Writers.
You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook. She also blogs infrequently at genniferalbin.com and weekly at The League of Extraordinary Writers.
For today's guest post Gennifer shares her thoughts on balancing her passion with family life and her aspirations for her children's education. Striving for Balance is, in my opinion, the most important of the eight principles of attachment parenting yet it is often overlooked. Many thanks to Gennifer for sharing what balance looks like for her family.
***
When I
got my book deal, I was faced with a decision: keep squeezing in writing or put
the kids in preschool. It was a big
decision because I’d long flirted with the idea of homeschooling, which is
something I very much admire.
A lot of
factors went into my choice, but really it came down to balance and accepting
my own limitations as a mother. Even
though I loved the idea of homeschool, I knew it wasn’t going to be a good fit
for my personality, and I also knew that trying to meet demanding deadlines of
the publishing world while being a stay-at-home mom would be a challenge.
As luck would have it, I had 3
months of editing and revising with the kids at home to give me a taste of what
life would be like if I chose the first option, and it wasn’t pretty. Personally I saw the increase in television
and take-out and crying as a sign that I wasn’t going to find balance without
help. So I began the great preschool
search and decided very quickly on a Montessori-based program.
As a mother who favors natural
parenting and alternative schooling, Montessori’s focus on the child-centered
learning spoke to me. My children
participate in group and individual activities.
They guide their learning by choosing the topics they are interested in
and studying them at their own pace. My
two year-old delights with her clever Montessori coat trick at gatherings, and
at the end of the day, we come home and have a family life — most of the time.
I also appreciate the sense of familiarity
and attachment, my daughter has developed with her Montessori teacher. Something that is especially beneficial to
her as I now travel quite a bit for book promotion.
It wasn’t easy to choose a place
for my children outside of the home, but we approached it with a sense of
adventure. It was an opportunity to make
new friends and engage with people from different cultures and family
situations. Both of my children are
thriving. I find it easier to disengage
with work at the end of the day and focus on family. And most of the time, I meet my deadlines.
***
- CREWEL/Gennifer Albin
- BEAR HAS A STORY TO TELL/Erin & Phil Stead
- A IS FOR MUSK OX/Erin Cabatingan
- ABE LINCOLN’S DREAM/Lane Smith
- HELLO BABY/Roger Priddy – mirrored board books!
Please complete the following steps to earn up to 10 entries into the contest.
4 comments:
Balance, that is definitely a hard one. We try to get lots of family fun time together, outside of the "weekly grind," but also make time for each parent to be one-on-one with Gwen while the other has some adult time. We also try to have a date day (when we have off work, but Gwen still goes to daycare), or a date night when Nonnie comes to play. Its a constant work in progress, but its working for us.
We try to get in time alone (introverts, every one of us), time one-on-one, and time together as a family. We don't always succeed, but it does help.
We spend time together as a family well as apart doing the things we love like reading and playing games. There's so much to do between work and home responsibilities, but we try to relax and have fun on the weekends.
Thanks for the giveaway! I would say keeping the house clean. When it's messy, everything is out of wack
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