About Heather Shanks

A Note from the Professor... So nice to have you here! I hope you are finding just the encouragement and information you need for your homeschooling journey. Feel free to grab a cup of coffee and stay for a while. You can channel your inner Professor Mom by signing up for our free monthly newsletter full of homeschooling resources, request the RSS feed for your reader or by following me on Twitter and Facebook. Stay the course... Heather

Daily Planning: Creating Action Lists

Take the dog to the vet.  Plan the church picnic.  Babysit for Susan.  Buy school supplies.  Learn French.  And on and on… If you were to dump your brain onto paper, you could easily have a 10-page, single-spaced, to-do list (scary, but true.)  The reality is that we are tracking bundles of "stuff" for multiple

Life Tracking

How do you keep track of the big and small details of your life? Do you use a traditional to-do list, the post-it method, or maybe it's the "all in my head" philosophy? My four-pronged approach includes my Calendar, Forward Lists, Project List, and Action List.  These four documents sum up my "life tracking" system. 

Homeschool Memoirs: All About You (or me:-)

Hi everybody! Did you every notice that we all love to talk about who we are and what we do until someone asks us to do it?  OK, here it goes… My bio: Heather Shanks, aka Professor Mom, is an author and researcher specializing in education and family life issues. Much of her work centers

Your Year in Preview: Starting the School Year Off Right

It's a time of bittersweet good-byes, fresh starts, and new resolutions.  Could it be New Year's Eve?  No, it's mid-August and time to prepare for the start of another school year.  How is yours going to look? Try this on for size… Every morning, you wake up refreshed after a full night's rest.  You walk into your clean

The Professor is in…

… and she is on a quest to prepare today’s youth for a lifetime of leadership. Welcome! A few years ago, I launched Professor Mom as a homeschooling resource site to give parents and students insight and strategies for learning.  In today’s knowledge-based economy, technical knowledge simply isn’t enough.  Strong leadership skills are critical for

Let’s Hear it for a Sanity Break

Has it been 6 weeks since I have posted? Too long… my baby blog does not like to be left alone, so here I am mulling what has happened.  Does anyone else out there ever find that sometimes backing away from life a bit helps them to prioritize a little better?  That has been the

Service: Small Effort, Meaningful Results

Sometimes, God speaks to me in little whispers.  Sometimes, He is silent.  Right now, though, He is shouting in both ears.  I read an article this morning that briefly mentioned sacrificial living.  Even though that wasn’t the topic of the article, those words stood out big and bold to me.  Sacrifice and service are difficult

How to Live with Life

Two women are walking down the street.  One looks as though she bears the weight of the world on her shoulders.  Her hair is stringy and her expression growly as she walks along in her mismatched sweatsuit with her shoulders slumped.  The two children she is almost dragging with her are fighting between themselves and

Are you Jesus?

This morning, bleary-eyed and rushing around to get everyone ready for Sunday School and Church, I took a moment for a morning email check.  This is an excerpt from an email I received from my in-laws.  In all of the craziness of the morning, I have to share it.  Many of you may have already

“She Speaks” Conference – Proverbs 31 Ministries

For all of you who are looking forward to summer and want to propel yourself forward in time to warmer weather, check out BooMama’s post on the "She Speaks" Conference put on by Proverbs 31 Ministries coming this summer to Concord, North Carolina.  (BooMama herself is on the speaker’s roster!) Here is a blurb from

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