Meet Carol Topp at a homeschool convention near you!
February 23, 2011
I’ll be speaking at the following homeschool conventions in 2011:
- Mid South Homeschool Convention March 3-5, 2011 in Memphis, TN
Topics:Homeschool Leader: Are You Burnt Out?Micro Business for Teens
- Midwest Homeschool Convention March 31-April 2, 2011 in Cincinnati, OH
Topics:Homeschool Leader: Are You Burnt Out?Micro Business for Teens
- Ultimate Homeschool Expo (online) May 2-6, 2011
Topics:How a Homeschool Co-op Can Bless Your ChildWhat Your Child Can Learn from Starting a Micro BusinessCareer Exploration for Homeschool High School Students
- Schoolhouse Expo (online) May 16-20, 2011.
Topic: Micro Business for Teens
- Home Educators of Virginia, June 9-11, 2011 in Richmond, VA
Topics:Micro Business for Teens: Starting and Running a Micro Business (2 parts)Budget is a Dirty WordHelp! My Homeschool Group is GrowingHow to Teach Your Kids About Managing Money (When You’re Not Doing So Great Yourself)
A budget can bring relief
October 24, 2010
My friends Kristen & Denise at Homeschool Group Leader have been running an interview they did with me as a blog series on leader burn out.
A lot of leaders think, “What?! I hate dealing with the numbers. I am a people person.”
But what those numbers on a budget do is help you plan, sit down and look to the future. That can do a lot to reduce stress.
Price $7.00. Available for immediate download. Read more here.
Are you burned out? Know the symptoms
October 1, 2010
As a guest blogger at The Homeschool Classroom, I wrote a blog entry about leader burnout.
Here’s an excerpt:
It is important to distinguish between temporary “busy-ness” or fatigue and full fledged burn out, which is accumulated strain and stress that affects other areas of your life. After nearly every co-op day, I feel exhausted. One fellow board member takes a nap after co-op, but she is only temporarily fatigued. We joke that we love when co-op starts, but we also love when it ends!
A symptom of burn out would be the loss of the initial enjoyment and anticipation that co-op day should bring. I know that I am tired at the end of a long co-op day because I have invested so much into my students. I really enjoy teaching and I experience a “good” type of fatigue.
To read the entire post, go here: Leader Burnout
Need help avoiding burnout? Read Homeschool Co-ops: How to Start Them , Run Them and Not Burn Out.
Available as an ebook or in print here.
Carol Topp
The benefits of a board to avoid burn out
September 8, 2010
My friends Kristen & Denise at Homeschool Group Leader have been running an interview they did with me as a blog series on leader burn out.
But the most important thing a board does is to help you avoid burning out, because you’re sharing that load. And also, having a board means that you can replace yourself–that no one person is doing it all–if she is, then she is making herself too difficult to replace.
There are lots of times when a leader may have to step down. Maybe because she is burned out, but also it could be that her family moves out of town. We’ve had that happen. Or maybe she becomes ill or someone in the house becomes ill, and she has to step down from her responsibilities for a while. Every group out there and every leader out there ought to be saying, “If one of us had to leave, could we keep going?” Who could step in—always have that in the back of your mind.
A lesson in leadership from Moses
April 4, 2010
The Ten Commandments was on last night. It’s a great film, but it ends too early with the Israelites leaving slavery in Egypt. There are a lot of wonderful stories about their life after Egypt and one in particular is a great lesson in leadership from Moses.
My friends Kristen and Denise from HomeschoolGroupLeader did an interview with me recently about what we as homeschool leaders can learn from Moses.
HGL:
What is the TOP way you’ve discovered that homeschool group leaders can avoid burning out?
Carol:
I think the best way is to learn from other leaders.
We’ve got a great example in the Old Testament of the leader Moses. What Moses failed to do was to delegate responsibility. So, the first way to avoid burnout is to get help.
What Moses was guilty of doing was sitting around all day basically listening to everyone’s complaints and dealing with them all himself. His father-in-law came out there into the desert where Moses was leading the Israelites, saw what he was doing and said, “What you’re doing is not good. You will wear yourself out. The work is too heavy for you. You cannot handle it alone.” He goes on to suggest a plan to Moses of how to delegate responsibility to trusted leaders and then they can entrust it down a level, too.
We should be following that Biblical model of leadership. It’s almost unbibilical for a leader to think, “I have to do this all myself.” That comes from pride. Sometimes it comes from a perfectionist tendency, and sometimes it comes because they can’t get any help. I know, of course, your book helps a lot with motivating members to help, but we also have to make sure that the leader doesn’t have the improper attitude of thinking, “I have to do this all myself or this is the only right way to do it.” That’s probably what Moses thought: “There’s only one way to do it—my way.” And he was corrected in that and we need to follow his example of getting help and delegating responsibility.
(the full interview can be found at http://hgleaderblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/wednesdays-wisdom-lesson-from-moses.html
Are You Burning Out?
February 25, 2010
Kristen and Denise of Homeschool Group Leader recently interviewed me about leader burnout.
They are currently running a series at their blog on burnout with a new topic each Wednesday.
Here is the first portion of the interview:
What a great time we had interviewing author and Homeschool CPA, Carol Topp! She shared a bundle of hand-picked truths from her super-helpful book, Homeschool Co-ops: How to Start Them, Run Them and Not Burn Out. With knowledge and insight, Carol explained the warning signs of leader burn out and how to avoid it.
Do you feel like you might be burning out? Is homeschool group leadership overwhelming you? Have you noticed another leader’s fire seems to be fizzling out? How would you know?
HGL: From your experience, how can a leader know when he or she is burning out?
Carol Topp: It is important to recognize burn-out before it causes damage to you, your family or your homeschool group. Here are some symptoms of burn-out:
* loss of enthusiasm
* negativity
* depression
* health problems
* neglecting your own children
* neglecting your husband
* irritability
* feeling like a failure
* losing joy in serving
If you have 4-5 of any of these symptoms, you are experiencing burn-out.
This simple list can enlighten the path ahead so that leaders can take action and be completely healthy.
Kristen & Denise will make the complete interview available to you as soon as possible. Until then, you can read more of the interview at Homeschool Group Leader blog as they post excerpts from my interview each Wednesday. Soon the complete interview will be available in two reasonably-priced formats—audio cd and word-for-word transcript!
Can’t wait? Need help now?
My book Homeschool Co-ops: How to Start Them, Run Them and Not Burn Out has an entire chapter devoted to burn out. Actually the whole book offers suggestions on how to delegate and avoid burn out. It is available from Amazon.com.
Read a sample chapter here.
Order here.
Kristen and Denise have a terrific book One By One: The Homeschool Group Leader’s Guide to Motivating Your Members. It is an ebook and available for immediate download.
Click Here!