Educate yourself
Most parents understand their responsibility to provide an education-rich environment for their children. Many are less aware of the need to provide an equally stimulating environment for themselves. So many of us equate learning with school that we don't remember to learn after we graduate. We become so busy with children, careers, church service and other pursuits that we neglect our spiritual responsibility to nurture our minds.
It can seem impossible to find even a few more minutes for personal learning. Our days are so busy already. Who has time (or money) to take a class? One of the exciting lessons I've learned from homeschooling my children is that we don't need teachers in order to learn. If you want to get out of the house for a while and take a class, then do. Teachers are helpful and can provide guidance and discipline, but they aren't essential for most paths to knowledge. When you learn to teach yourself, you ensure you can spend your life learning, and you can pass that legacy to your children.
What would you like to learn? Close your eyes and imagine the entire world of knowledge waiting for you. Do you prefer learning practical skills, or academic enrichment? Do you wish you understood the scriptures better? Would you like to be able to recite and understand poetry? Do you long to write a book? Are you tired of sending your children to their father for help with their math homework? Choose something you want to know and write it down. Somehow writing things down makes them more real. Don't say, "I wish I could speak Spanish." Write, "I am going to learn to speak Spanish."
Make a list of all the ways you can achieve this goal. Does your library have books on the subject? Do you know someone who would teach you, perhaps in exchange for a service you can provide? Do your children know how to do this? Perhaps a video is available to show you what to do. Can you found a site on the Internet? Spend a few days exploring your options and writing them down. If you will need some money, figure out how to obtain it and make a budget.
Now choose the materials you want to use and gather them together. Return to your planning sheet. Study the materials you've gathered and write your plan. First you have to choose a time. If you say you are going to learn Spanish, but you never choose a time to do it, you'll never get it done. There will always be so much to do and there will never be an open space when you have the energy to do it. When do you learn best? Schedule your time and write it down. Unless it is an emergency, don't let anything interrupt your study time. If you can't manage to study each day, allow yourself at least three days a week. Choose a back-up day just in case something goes wrong. Don't put appointments on that back-up time. Just neglect something less important if you have to use it. Vow to skip the vacuuming, leave the beds unmade or forgo a television program.
You will probably have to give something up in order to make this time. Look over your schedule and choose something you are willing to give up. You may discover, when you've done without this activity for a while that you no longer have any interest in it. I gave up television to be a writer, and now I'm seldom even tempted to watch it.
You now have the subject, the material, and the time. But how do you teach yourself something? Many books are designed to help you teach yourself. You will need to spend some time finding out how you learn. Since you aren't on a schedule, it won't matter if you make mistakes.
If you'd like to read the great books, choose a book and find a study guide at your bookstore. Read the chapter and the study guide together. When you are finished, imagine yourself telling someone about it. Tell your imaginary friend (or a real one if you have someone who will listen) the story, the symbolism and the values the chapter teaches. If you have teenagers, you might like to read the books they are reading in their literature classes. Invite them to discuss them with you and to share what they learn from their teachers. They will learn faster, and so will you.
If you are studying a language, purchase or borrow tapes and listen to them as you clean house. If you are memorizing something, write it on sticky notes and put them over your sink to practice while you do dishes. I borrowed last year's scripture mastery cards from my children. I set one on the counter and glance over it as I work. I recite aloud as I'm sweeping and cleaning, checking on my progress between steps. I memorize by learning one phrase completely, then adding the second. When I know the second phrase, I recite both together. This year, I have Brazilian Portuguese vocabulary on flashcards I made myself. I carry them in my purse and study them when I find myself waiting.
Learn history and science the same way you learn literature. Read the material over and over and pretend you're telling it to someone. You can even create practice tests for yourself, or ask your children to do it for you. (They may come up with odd or obscure questions, though.)
Teaching yourself something can take as little as fifteen minutes a day and yet it gives you an eternity of enrichment. What you place in your mind will stay with you forever.