"One of the biggest mistakes homeschoolers make is thinking that Betty Bohemian should use unit studies and Olive Organized should use traditional. NO, says Mary..., Betty needs structure to keep her on task, but has the creativity to spice up and add to a basic framework. On the Other hand, Olive needs help with creativity, but has the self discipline to stay on task." (Loosely Paraphrased from an article Mary Pride wrote years ago)
Today’s article is all about finding out if you are a "Betty Bohemian" Or an "Olive Organized". One of my biggest passions in life is helping women to accept who they were created to be, instead of striving to become what they admire. Let me take just a moment to share my story with you...,
When I began my homeschool journey twelve years ago I came into this community not knowing one person. However, my life has changed a lot since the fall of “1998”. Almost every single one of my “inner circle” of friends are fellow homeschooling moms I’ve met while on this incredible journey. I may not have known many people coming into homeschooling, but I will leave this season with forever friends/sisters that know me better than I sometimes know myself!
My local homeschool community is very precious to me. We have over 2,200 homeschoolers here in our county alone, and my support group serves over 300 families. Through the years as we would plug into park days or participate in co-op’s, I began to notice a distinct difference among moms.
I observed that many of the closest friends were complete opposites in their personalities. These moms would be drawn to each others strength’s in the beginning of the friendship, but as time went on they would either begin to focus on their friends weaknesses or strive to become more like their friend, whom they admired. This would often causes frustration because the more they strived, the less joy they found?
Several years ago I started putting into writing, observations I had made with my own best friend, but this grew to include literally hundreds of moms as I began polling locally and cyberly. As I would share my passion, my story, others were eager to participate and share their thoughts as well. I took note of those who were similar and those who were different. I paid close attention to what each person gained from each relationship and what they struggled with.
One common denominator that didn't seem to make sense to me was when I noticed that many of the creative personalities did better using curriculum that was more laid out and traditional, and that many of the analytical moms were successful using unit studies. It seemed that the creative moms would flourish with big unit studies, and the more organized moms successfully strived in the structure of a traditional program!?
It was about this time that I came upon Mary Pride’s quote above, and a workshop was born!
"One of the biggest mistakes homeschoolers make is thinking that Betty Bohemian should use unit studies and Olive Organized should use traditional. NO, says Mary..., Betty needs structure to keep her on task, but has the creativity to spice up and add to a basic framework. On the Other hand, Olive needs help with creativity, but has the self discipline to stay on task."
Aha! Not only did this answer my question about why organized moms thrived with unit studies and creative moms found favor with traditional programs, but I now had a name for these two distinct personalities I had been observing. Before I knew it my close friend and I were traveling all over the western portion of Florida sharing our “Betty/Olive” workshop.
We watched families laugh as we shared our Betty and Olive stories. We saw those "aha" moments as things would fall into place and begin to make sense. Best friends would elbow each other in laughter, husbands and wives would hold hands, but the real excitement for me was the moms who would come up afterwards with tears in their eyes, to share their personal stories of struggle. The highlight was when we were asked to speak at the “2007” FPEA homeschool convention, in the leaders forum, and and we saw others get excited about who they were, who their husband, best friend or children were!
Years later and I am still growing and learning. What I love about using Time4Learning is that it works for both “Betty’s” and “Olives”. It gives “Betty’s” the structure we need through it’s record keeping and the graphics and lesson plans give “Olives” the creativity that their children desire without making them feel nuts!
Today, I am going to leave you with the litmus test to find out who you are. Please share your results with us via the comments. On Thursday I plan to share the characteristics of Betty and Olive and even a few stories to see if you can relate!
LITMUS TEST:
1- When you are trying to make a decision what do you do “FIRST”? Do you process through conversation or contemplation?
So in other words, when you are trying to make a decision do you pull back to think it through or pick up the phone to talk it through?
2- Do you err on the side of relationships or responsibility?
A good way to know this..., When something spontaneous comes up are you more apt to say, “Yes” or “No”?
Please know that no one always responds a certain way. So your answer should reflect what you generally would do.
Betty Bohemian, processes through conversation and err's on the side of relationships.
Olive Organized, processes through contemplation and err's on the side of responsibility.
Please know that if you test out as a Betty that doesn't mean that you are not responsible or organized. Many Betty's are very much so, but your strength lies more in your interpersonal skills. If you test out as an Olive that doesn't mean you are not relational, it just means that your strength is responsibility. We are going to celebrate each person in the near future. Stay tuned Thursday for more details!
If you tie, then wait till Thursday to see the characteristics of each personality type to make your final decision.
Please note: That this is an unscientific test, but astoundingly accurate as you begin to discover Betty and Olive.
So let us know..., Are you a "Betty Bohemian" or an "Olive Organized"?
Today’s article is all about finding out if you are a "Betty Bohemian" Or an "Olive Organized". One of my biggest passions in life is helping women to accept who they were created to be, instead of striving to become what they admire. Let me take just a moment to share my story with you...,
When I began my homeschool journey twelve years ago I came into this community not knowing one person. However, my life has changed a lot since the fall of “1998”. Almost every single one of my “inner circle” of friends are fellow homeschooling moms I’ve met while on this incredible journey. I may not have known many people coming into homeschooling, but I will leave this season with forever friends/sisters that know me better than I sometimes know myself!
My local homeschool community is very precious to me. We have over 2,200 homeschoolers here in our county alone, and my support group serves over 300 families. Through the years as we would plug into park days or participate in co-op’s, I began to notice a distinct difference among moms.
I observed that many of the closest friends were complete opposites in their personalities. These moms would be drawn to each others strength’s in the beginning of the friendship, but as time went on they would either begin to focus on their friends weaknesses or strive to become more like their friend, whom they admired. This would often causes frustration because the more they strived, the less joy they found?
Several years ago I started putting into writing, observations I had made with my own best friend, but this grew to include literally hundreds of moms as I began polling locally and cyberly. As I would share my passion, my story, others were eager to participate and share their thoughts as well. I took note of those who were similar and those who were different. I paid close attention to what each person gained from each relationship and what they struggled with.
One common denominator that didn't seem to make sense to me was when I noticed that many of the creative personalities did better using curriculum that was more laid out and traditional, and that many of the analytical moms were successful using unit studies. It seemed that the creative moms would flourish with big unit studies, and the more organized moms successfully strived in the structure of a traditional program!?
It was about this time that I came upon Mary Pride’s quote above, and a workshop was born!
"One of the biggest mistakes homeschoolers make is thinking that Betty Bohemian should use unit studies and Olive Organized should use traditional. NO, says Mary..., Betty needs structure to keep her on task, but has the creativity to spice up and add to a basic framework. On the Other hand, Olive needs help with creativity, but has the self discipline to stay on task."
Aha! Not only did this answer my question about why organized moms thrived with unit studies and creative moms found favor with traditional programs, but I now had a name for these two distinct personalities I had been observing. Before I knew it my close friend and I were traveling all over the western portion of Florida sharing our “Betty/Olive” workshop.
We watched families laugh as we shared our Betty and Olive stories. We saw those "aha" moments as things would fall into place and begin to make sense. Best friends would elbow each other in laughter, husbands and wives would hold hands, but the real excitement for me was the moms who would come up afterwards with tears in their eyes, to share their personal stories of struggle. The highlight was when we were asked to speak at the “2007” FPEA homeschool convention, in the leaders forum, and and we saw others get excited about who they were, who their husband, best friend or children were!
Years later and I am still growing and learning. What I love about using Time4Learning is that it works for both “Betty’s” and “Olives”. It gives “Betty’s” the structure we need through it’s record keeping and the graphics and lesson plans give “Olives” the creativity that their children desire without making them feel nuts!
Today, I am going to leave you with the litmus test to find out who you are. Please share your results with us via the comments. On Thursday I plan to share the characteristics of Betty and Olive and even a few stories to see if you can relate!
LITMUS TEST:
1- When you are trying to make a decision what do you do “FIRST”? Do you process through conversation or contemplation?
So in other words, when you are trying to make a decision do you pull back to think it through or pick up the phone to talk it through?
2- Do you err on the side of relationships or responsibility?
A good way to know this..., When something spontaneous comes up are you more apt to say, “Yes” or “No”?
Please know that no one always responds a certain way. So your answer should reflect what you generally would do.
Betty Bohemian, processes through conversation and err's on the side of relationships.
Olive Organized, processes through contemplation and err's on the side of responsibility.
Please know that if you test out as a Betty that doesn't mean that you are not responsible or organized. Many Betty's are very much so, but your strength lies more in your interpersonal skills. If you test out as an Olive that doesn't mean you are not relational, it just means that your strength is responsibility. We are going to celebrate each person in the near future. Stay tuned Thursday for more details!
If you tie, then wait till Thursday to see the characteristics of each personality type to make your final decision.
Please note: That this is an unscientific test, but astoundingly accurate as you begin to discover Betty and Olive.
So let us know..., Are you a "Betty Bohemian" or an "Olive Organized"?
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Hmmm, interesting food for thought!
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