Meet Lisa Whelchel

Lisa Whelchel is known to many for her role as Blair Warner on the NBC hit sitcom, “The Facts of Life.” However, she has branched out far beyond her TV roles as a child star. These days she is a pastor’s wife, homeschooling mom, and in recent years, an author.

Lisa’s first role on TV was a mouseketeer in “The New Mickey Mouse Club.” Other acting roles have been in movies such as “Where the Red Fern Grows, Part Two,” and “The Double McGuffin,” as well as numerous television movies. She also tried her hand at singing, recording an album titled, “All Because of You” which received a Grammy nomination for Best Inspirational Album. Lisa put both her acting and singing talents to good use when she starred in the title role of Peter Pan at Kansas City’s Starlight Theater. When asked if she would allow her children to get involved in show buisiness, Lisa says, “…"No. In my opinion, it is a lose-lose situation. Either the child is very successful at a young age and lacks the maturity to handle the fame, stress, freedom and money, not to mention, where do you go from being a millionaire at twelve? Or, they are not successful and are rejected day after day with the explanation, "You are too short, too fat, too skinny, or just plain, not good enough…But it's too risky to introduce business into the equation.”

Her first book, Creative Correction, has sold over 80,000 copies and received a Gold Medallion nomination in the Family and Parenting Category. Creative Correction was born out of her experiences as a mother desiring to train her son to be a happy, healthy young man who obeys God and his parents. It contains ingenious discipline ideas, such as if a child continues to leave things around the house, put them away, but when he or she asks where it is, say they must find it. Or, if your little one balks at holding your hand while in a parking lot or crossing the street, give him a choice. Remind him, "I can either hold your hand or hold your hair." Independence becomes less appealing on those terms.

In her second book, The Facts of Life and Other Lessons My Father Taught Me, Lisa shares some of the lessons God has given her throughout her life. She writes about topics she calls “the real facts of life”-- what to learn from failure, when it's good to give up, why He sometimes says no, how to spend money, where to go when you're going to blow, and even who to marry. Of this book, she says, “To be honest, I don't consider this book an autobiography in the typical, "this is my whole life story" sense of the word. I've chosen to delete certain parts of my past, others I've mercifully left out to spare you the boredom; and the future, of course, is yet to be written. But there are many stories from my life that I'm thrilled to open up and share with you.”

In her latest book, So You’re Thinking About Homeschooling: Fifteen Families Show How You Can Do It, she introduces you to 15 families who are dealing with the challenges of home education. Lisa also offers guidance on managing your time, teaching beyond your strengths, handling outside responsibilities, facilitating extracurricular activities, coping with learning disabilities, battling boredom, and more.

Lisa, her husband, Steve, and their children, Tucker, Haven, and Clancy, live in Texas. In July of 2002, they returned home from a yearlong tour of America to reinforce what the children learned while homeschooling.

Information from the author’s website. Posted 07/03