I am spoiled. My husband has built me a beautiful bathroom with a wonderful garden tub because he knows how much I cherish my Saturday bubbles! (He even bought me my own rubber ducky!) It's my retreat every Saturday morning. This morning, I sunk into my little piece of heaven with my copy of TEACH magazine and read it cover to cover.
TEACH is a magazine for women who love to read and want to be the best kind of homeschooling Mom and wife they can be. The articles are inspiring, and the gentle tone of the magazine didn't make me feel like I was coming up short. (That's not to say that I don't come up short -- I sure do!) But TEACH guides -- it doesn't push -- and as someone who needs to improve in so many areas, I really appreciate that approach.
When I was a younger homeschool Mom (I have graduated two homeschoolers and have three to go), I found myself getting depressed after the homeschool magazines arrived at my door. The families featured in these magazines seemed so perfect and polished, and I just felt I could never get my family to that level of "perfection." So, in the spirit of self-preservation, I stopped my subscriptions to those magazines back in the '80's because of the feeling I always had of never measuring up. TEACH magazine didn't make me feel this way at all.
Maybe it's my age that makes me appreciate and
accept TEACH magazine's content, but I don't think so. This
magazine has oodles of inspiring short articles by columnists in the
trenchnes. These women are real homeschooling Moms with real
wisdom. There is a gentle spirit about this magazine that is
encouraging and not at all condemning. Each article I read became
my favorite. I honestly couldn't choose just one because they
were all uplifting, encouraging and inspiring. I think the tone
of this magazine is what I love about it most.
And if you don't have time for a long luxurious bubble bath, TEACH is perfect to take with you to the kids' practices or doctor appointmnets because the articles go from page to page -- you don't have to scan to the back of the magazine to look for the endings of them. You can just bookmark where you left off! They are also fairly short articles and stories, so you can easily finish an article in a few minutes and put the magazine down until the next time you have a few minutes to read.
I also love that it's a Christian magazine, but not preachy. And there are also some great practical homemaking ideas included. This issue was the winter issue and it included ideas for cookies and tea parties and crafts that I can't wait to try.
There were points of view written about that made me think, and there were some that made me laugh. Some pointed to areas in my life that I need to work on, and others just plain encouraged me to keep on keeping on.
The only improvement I could possibly see that could be made to this magazine is to have a columnist dedicated to encouraging parents who are rearing and teaching kids with disabilities. (I have twins with autism and another son with bipolar.) However, even ADHD was written about by Jennifer TeGrotenhuis which I appreciated very much. I enjoyed her wisdom regarding boys and how they learn.
I am going to be cutting out some of these articles and taping them up where I can be reminded of their wisdom. There was something in this magazine that applied to each one of my children, and which I had never thought of before. It is, in my opinion, a magazine anointed by God. You can sense the women's relationships with God in what they write and how they give God glory for everything in their homes and schools.
This isn't one of those glossy magazines that looks like it's just an excuse to make money by advertising fancy curriculums. This magazine is a magazine of the heart -- and that's what sets it apart from all the rest.
You can subscribe to TEACH at www.TEACHmagazine.com
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