I have been doing TJED (that’s Thomas Jefferson Education, see http://tjed.org) for 5 years now and am loving it. It is so liberating! It is so sweet not to have a slew of homework and backpacks to deal with in the evenings, especially if you have a horde of kids, like I do. I love not having to be a Sergeant Mom Taskmaster, making sure homework is done. I love not being a slave to a government school schedule.

I love being a part of a community school for scholars (ages 12 and up) that like-minded parents and I own, with the goal of creating liber in ourselves and our children. If you want to know what “liber” is, go here http://tjed.org/purchase/audio-downloads/liber-mp3/. 

If you want to know more about Adult and Youth Scholar Projects, go to http://lemimentortraining.com/Liber_Communities.html

I love that my kids get to associate with like-minded youth who come from a family culture similar to mine. I love that this culture encourages kids to study as scholars and prepare for a mission instead of treating the teenage years as a social circus time to play with electronic toys, romance, social networks, and sports.

My oldest child is going off to college this week (that’s fodder for a whole other post, I am feeling so bittersweet). He got accepted into three colleges (BYU, SVU, and GWC, all on scholarship), and is off to go to his first pick, George Wythe College, in Cedar City. Homeschooling works, but it is like anything, you have to work it to make it happen.

TJED homeschooling is the best because it teaches you to work with your children’s developmental phases and personality types, instead of against, and how to set up your whole family culture to accomplish the work and learning you want to do for everyone to be happy. I love being able to play with my littles for school, do housework with them and call it school, and watch the magic unfold as they get older and beg to learn how to read and beg to take hard classes and then get absorbed in books and talk  and write about great ideas.

I know, however, that I have more to do to create even more of the leadership education family culture that I want. Diann Jeppson has the perfect course that I am going to do. It’s the Leadership Education Family Builder course, see http://leadershipeducationfamilybuilder.com.

It helps you create a master educational plan for your family, a vision of the learning experiences you want to have and the places you want to go with your family, a chore system for your family, a list of classics you want your family to digest, how to do “you, not them,” how to inspire and mentor, and so much more. It is regularly $99. It includes mp3 files of each lesson (one introductory, 5 core, and 12 enrichment) and then a workbook to write in, in the form of a PDF.

It used to be called TJED Basic Training but has been revised, updated, and expanded. If you have ever wanted to do it but the cost has deterred you, here’s a great offer. If you have more time than money, this might work for you. Diann has offered for anyone to have the course without paying any money if you will transcribe one of the presentations from the 2010 TJED Forum in exchange. Go here to see the list http://tjedmarketplace.com/forums/slc/2010/overview. Pick the one you want to transcribe and email Diann at diannjeppson at gmail dot com and let her know which one you want to do. You then have a two week turn around time to do it. The following people’s presentations are already taken: Meghan Muyanjas, William DeMille, Spencer and Nicholeen Peck’s The Power of Calm, and Mary Ann Johnson’s The Closet.

Tips for transcribing: use shorthand if you know it, or abbreviations, and then type it all up. Know that it takes LOTS of time, like about 30 minutes for every 5 minutes of the presentation. That’s why I say it will work if you have more time than money.