Worth Another Read

Every year when we prepare for another year of school, we are seeking God as to what His purpose and plan is for our schooling in the coming year. As we were planning for this year I remembered this post that I had written a couple of years ago. I thought I would repost it as it says perfectly what I have been thinking the last couple of weeks. God....show me..."WHAT IS REALLY IMPORTANT".... to YOU!!

OCTOBER 14, 2009

An Important Question......

As another school year is under way I find myself asking the question that I do every year.
"What's really important?"
Really that's a question that I ask myself all the time....but when it comes to home schooling our children, it holds great weight.
When we decided to home school our children, back in 1995....I would say our #1 goal was to be the primary influence in our childrens lives. We couldn't imagine that God would have given us the gift of children just to send them away for 8 hours a day...5 days a week....10 months of the year. Instead we took the verse from Deuteronomy 11:19 "You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." When we looked at this verse and the context surrounding we realized that raising children was a full time ministry of teaching our children to learn the heart of God and to train them to walk in His ways.
So in 1995 we started schooling Joshua and Jennifer at home in the best way we knew how. We were blessed to have a couple of families in the area who homeschooled as well and were able to learn from them. But still every family is different and every family has to figure out what works best for them. So we bought the books....and dove right in.
I think it took a few years of plowing before we asked the question once again...what is really important. Because as the years went on ....homeschooling became more popular.....so there was more of a market for curriculum......so there were many, many choices. And I will admit I got caught up in the 'the more you spend the better the education' lie.
But when we began to re-evaluate we realized that we had gotten stuck in the 'education trap'. You know...the one that says your children need to sit at a desk doing school 9-3....that you measure their success on the scores of their tests...and that textbooks were the only way to teach school.
Then we were introduced to 'unit studies'. This was a refreshing way to bring all our children learning together as a family. We had a lot of fun with these and they were a great way to learn. We did this for a few years and really enjoyed it. But even with these our focus seemed to get off track really quickly and knowledge became more important than wisdom.
Again.....re-evaluate the question again. "What is really important?" The last few years as we have asked this question over and over our perspective has changed. Maybe it is because we have adult children that we are seeing things in a different light. Maybe it is because we are getting older and uh um....slowing down? But the things that seemed so important to us before just don't seem so important anymore.
So what was the reason God gave us children? What was His desire of the way we spend our time with them? How much time does He want us to spend with them? How much time does He want them to spend away from us? What does He want us to teach them when we are with them? What does He want them to be taught if they are away from us? What will He ask us concerning the education of our children when we stand before Him one day?
Which brings me back to the question again. What's really important? Really this question has nothing to do with education but everything to do with every day life. Book work is such a small part and has become a smaller and smaller part as we are becoming to understand what is really important.
Our goal...our aim is to please our Heavenly Father above all. Our desire is to raise every single 'gift' that He has given us to bring glory to His name. That they might be a reflection of Him and a light to the world around them. (Matthew 5:14) That they would love Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. (Mark 12:30) That they would always live for an audience of One. That they would honor and repect who and what God has created. That whatever they would do they would do it with all their heart for the Lord. (Colossians 3:17)That they would have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22). That they would learn when at all possible to live peaceably with all men (Romans 12:18). That the joy of the Lord would be their strength.(Nehemiah 8:10) That they would do everything without complaining and arguing.(Phil. 2:14) That they would have a heart fully commited to God.(2 Chronicles 16:9). Of course the things we want to teach our children is this and so much more....but these are some of the things that are priority.
What's your goal......in your home.....in your homeschooling......in your family......in your marriage....in your life? It's always good to stand back and re-evaluate and ask "WHAT'S REALLY IMPORTANT?" Have you done this lately? If not I encourage you to do it today.

Homeschooling Series Response to Question

I think I have run out of ideas to post about in this series. So, unless you have other topics you would like me to cover, this will be the last post in this series.

In this post I will attempt to answer Lori Mayo's question.

I would like encouragement and insight to over look all the comments on...
"Where is lil-Jonny with math- etc"? You know when a family has un-saved family and all and are wondering if... "our children" are up-to date with the rest ie grades and all? Do you know what I mean? This type of added pressure!

First off, thanks for the question Lori. I think we have all come face to face with those who are very skeptical of homeschoolers in general. And I agree, there is a lot of pressure out there from friends, strangers and even family members. 

I think the first thing we learned was we had to be confident and firm in our reasons for homeschooling our children. If you don't know why you homeschool, you won't be confident in answering the skepticism that comes your way. 

I used to have a problem telling people that education isn't the only or main reason we are homeschooling because people would gasp and say how horrible we were for not putting our children's education first. I guess back then it was a thing I knew in my head, but it wasn't really in my heart.....and time has made me understand how true this statement is. The main reason we homeschool our children in not so they get a good education. Rather the reason we homeschool, and I mentioned this in previous posts, is so that we can be the primary influence in our children's lives and in doing so, we can deal with character issues that come up during the day. And our goal is that they would develop a love for learning and most importantly that God would be the focus of our lives, not education.

I have alway disliked the stigma that is out there of a child needing to be in a certain grade at a certain age. Who thought this up? For one things there a big difference between individual kids and even between girls and boys and the way they learn. So putting an age on this seems somewhat unfair. The great thing about homeschooling is that if I see my child is having a hard time in the level he is at, or it's too easy, I can either push them forward or hold them back! And I am not into starting my child in school or putting them in the next grade just because they are a certain age....rather I wait until they are ready. In doing "school" this way, we have found that our children come away with a love for learning! An example would be with Nathan this year in school. I started to teach him to read. We got over half way through his book and I could tell he was getting overwhelmed and frustrated. Now the teacher in me would have said, "Push through, keep him going, we have to finish the book"! But instead the homeschooling mom in me said, "Let's give this a break and come back to it in a few days, weeks, or even months, when he is ready. And here is what happened. We took a break and in the last couple of weeks he has been coming to me with books, wanting to read to me. I can almost guarantee this would not have happened if I had pushed him through the book. He would have turned off and maybe even turned out to dislike reading. But now I can see a love for reading and books developing in him. 

Now in saying this, as much as we don't believe it is right to push a child when they are not ready, it is equally wrong to allow a child to give up just because it's "too hard"! Because we all know that in life that there are times when we have to push through and persevere when things get tough. And I believe this attitude can be fed or broken at a very young age, and schoolwork is a great tool to bring this about. So it takes watching your child, knowing their personality and using your judgement if your child is really overwhelmed or just plain lazy about their schoolwork. Often a child who is lazy in their schoolwork will also be characterized by laziness in other areas around the home as well.

As Christians we know that it is not man's measuring stick we are to measure ourselves up to, but rather God's. So we need to know His Word to us and what He asks us to teach our children. There are everyday things in life that God tells me to do and it  may be different than what He tells you. And that's OK! Our children all have different talents that God has given them. So it would be unfair for me to say to you, "This is the WAY to do it." Rather I encourage you to seek out God's will for your family and how He would have you teach your children.  

In saying that I also would say that there are absolute values in teaching our children. One absolute would be that we teach them to love God with all their hearts, soul and mind.
(Deut. 6:7) We believe God gave our children to us to train, disciple and nurture them day in and day out rather than to send them away for hours in a day to be taught by someone else.

Now people will tell me that they can't homeschool for one reason or another. For example, I know that there are some wives who want to homeschool but their husbands do not agree to it. And I believe that the wife should honor her husband in this. (BTW....More often than not,  I find that the husbands do not want to put an extra burden on their wives because they hear how frustrated, overwhelmed and tired the wife is as they walk in the door from work. So sometimes (not always) I think this may be the case of a husband wanting to protect his wife) Another reason people give is, "I don't think I would have enough patience to teach my kids." Well let me tell you, when I wake up in the morning I don't know if I will have enough patience for the day either.  But I see this as an opportunity to grow in Christ and have Him refine me. Honestly, there are times during homeschooling our kids where I feel like I want to pull my hair out!!!! But God gave us our children and I am so thankful that they have, in so many ways, forced me to grow out of my selfish, self-seeking ways. 

Then there is always the argument, "If we don't send our kids to school, who will evangelize to the lost in the schools?" Really???? Is this really what is happening? Every time someone says this to me I think of a situation that I had when I was in high school. A friend and I were witnessing to a girl and over time she accepted the Lord. We were elated!!!! And for a few months we continued to disciple her. But one day we got a note from her in which she said she couldn't be a Christian anymore because it was too hard to be a Christian when her parents weren't. We were crushed, how could this happen. Well many years later I think I know how this happened. God has ordained it that the parents would bring up their children in the ways of the Lord, not peers, not teachers, but parents. So I wonder what would happen if we would put all of the money, time, and resources we put into schools and instead put them into developing relationships with families and reach them together. I know again that some will tell me that they witnessed and converted someone in school and it worked out, and to this I say great! But I think this is the exception rather than the rule.




Anyway, looking back on Lori's question I see that I kind of went on a rabbit trail. Sorry :)
I hope this answered your question Lori!

Home Schooling Series Part 5 ; Lap Books

In some previous posts I mentioned that we were doing a chicken lapbook. I have had a lot of people ask what a lap book is.

A lapbook is the same idea as a mini unit study. It covers a topic and can include all of your subjects except math. There are excellent resources online for lapbooks. For the lapbook we did on chickens I found most of my resources here.

I have done different kinds of unit studies or study centers with our children over the years, but this is the first time I have done a lapbook. It is really my preferred way of teaching and our kids preferred way of learning. The only thing is it takes TIME and EFFORT to put it all together! But I have to say it is well worth it. Just not always realistic. J

Here is how we did our lapbook, the subjects we covered and the things we learned.

We first took duo tang folders (Clear cover ones). Using index dividers (with the tab on the side) we divided our lapbook into 3 sections; Eggs, Chicks and Chickens. We used the front of the first divider to make a cover and we used the dividers to glue our booklets, charts, drawings and diagrams to. And our extra worksheets, we put into the back of the lapbook.

In our lapbook we covered social studies (different breeds and where they originated), science (experiments,charting, observation), language arts (alphabetical order, dictionary skills, grammer, spelling, outlines, research), art (drawing a chicken and coloring) & animal management.

We learned so many things in this lapbook. In our first section, eggs, we learned the parts of an egg and their different functions, how to candle an egg and tell if it is fertilized, how to choose the right eggs for incubation and how to hatch eggs in an incubator. In our section, chicks, we learned about the growth of an embryo, (While candling an egg at 5 days I bumped one and cracked it. We had learned that cracked eggs will probably not grow a healthy chick, because of disease and such, so I decided to open it up and observe what was going on inside. We were amazed to see a tiny little heart beating, what a miracle!), how to care for chicks, what to feed chicks, diseases and sickness in chicks. In our last section, chickens, we learned the different parts of the chicken, the digestive system, different breeds, and the purpose of chickens.

When we were about half way through this lapbook the kids were already excited about the “next one” we were going to do and what the topic would be! I wasn’t aware that there was going to be a “next one” but how can you deny a child who loves learning? So we are now starting a lapbook on sharks!!! Even though this may not be quite as practical, as we don’t plan to raise sharks any time in the near future, it will be fun to learn all about another amazing creature that God made.

Our chicks are hatching as I write, so everyone is pretty excited about that! Everyone is amazed at God's creation. How amazing that exactly at 21 days the eggs started to hatch!!! What a mighty God we serve!!! Now we will put into practice the things that we have learned. We plan to hatch at least another batch or 2 of eggs and grow some for meat and some for laying hens. So really the adventure has just begun :)

So that was our lapbook journey! So what about you. Have you ever done a lapbook with your children? What did you study about?

Homeschooling Series Part 4: Life Learning

One of our favorite mottoes "LIFE IS LEARNING, LEARNING IS LIFE". Learning is so much more than just sitting down and studying some books. It happens all around us, all the time. And our challenge as home schooling parents is to keep an eye out for those opportunities and actually use those moments as teaching moments.

Right now we are hatching some chicken eggs in an incubator. We check the temps of the incubator all day long. We have candled the eggs to see if they are fertile. We have read and studied about incubators, how to pick and hatch eggs, parts of an egg, taking care of chicks.....the list is endless. And we anticipate HATCH DAY!  Our kids will probably remember forever most of the information they have learned about chickens because not only are they very interested, but they will be using putting this info into practice for many years to come. This is a tool that is going to equip them for life skills. And it is also teaching them the awesomeness of our wonderful Creator and the beauty of a new life.

Just in nature alone God has given us things to study, enough to last a life time! Keep a caterpillar and watch it turn into a moth or a butterfly. Keep a fish and study how it moves and swims and grows. Plant some seeds and learn about reproduction and growth of plants. Study about the amazing migration of birds in spring or fall.

If you keep your eyes and ears open and you will find something to study about. Listen to the questions your kids ask you....How does this work? Why does this do that? What does this look like? Kids are always asking questions, and when they do, take this as an opportunity to teach them. Not every question has to take days or weeks to cover. Sometimes it can take minutes! But if your child asks, then they are interested. And when you take the time to teach them the information, they will remember it, because it is something they want to know.

Watch your kids and take note of the things that they have talent for and are interested in and if you are able, provide the tools they need to learn these interests. Now we have to be careful here and not just on a whim buy everything our child needs when they show a little interest in something. I am more talking about things that they have proved that they will follow through with, not just some passing whim. It took years of Megan using our family camera and proving that she really wanted to learn more about photography before we purchased her first camera. Jennifer used our old clippers and dull scissors for many years before we started to buy her better tools for haircutting. Our girls had an older horse for years before we bought them their own horses. Our boys want a banjo and a bass guitar. It will be a little more challenging to know if they will follow through with this. But they do have an older guitar that I will give them lessons on to see if learning an instrument is something they will stick to. They also like to build things and last year we gave them some wood that was lying around to build a tree house. Seeing the great job they did, we will probably provide them with a little better wood on their next project. God has given each of our children a talent(s) and we can use homeschooling to develop those talents! And what joy and satisfaction to know that this will not be information that will just go in one ear and out the other, but it will benefit them for years to come. That is real learning.

So, you ask, does this mean that you see no place for text book work? No, I am not saying that at all. I think that text book work has a time and a place and can be a valuable tool to teach problem solving, persistence and thinking skills. But what I am saying is I believe a major part of learning happens outside text books.

Our purpose to home school is to equip our children for whatever path God has in store for them. And as I mentioned last post, we do not believe that this will be done only through text books. This will be done through life learning.


When we think of teaching our children we think of so much more than just the hours that we sit down and do school with them. It happens all around us all the time whether we like it or not. Our children are always learning. From wee little they learn.

We have 5 daughters. The older three are almost through the school of learning how to run a household. They have learned to cook, bake, do laundry, take care of babies and children, gardening, keep a home clean and comfortable, teach. These are the practical, hands-on things. But more importantly they have learned the heart things, love, joy, patience, peace, self-control, gentleness, grace, forgiveness, kindness, submission & obedience. Knowing that our daughters have learned (and are still learning) these things gives us confidence that they will be well equipped for the path that God has for them. And our youngest 2 daughters will learn the same things, and already have from watching their mama and 3 big sisters!

We have 7 sons. One is already married and is a wonderful husband and daddy. 4 of our boys range in age from 12-7. These four are under serious training right now. Some of the things they are learning are animal management, providing food for the family, creating, fixing, building, cleaning up after themselves, & yard care. Again, practical hands on things but not worth much unless they are also learning these heart things and more…servant hood, leadership, forgiveness, endurance, humility, obedience, thankfulness, perseverance and grace. As much as they have learned in these areas, they are still learning them every day and we know that this training will equip them for the path that God has for them to walk on. And our 2 little guys (2 & 8 ½ ) months are on the beginning of this journey, mostly working on obedience right now!

And this is what we believe a major part of learning is. It’s not all about algebra, calculus, physics, chemistry or fractions. It’s also and most importantly about the issues of the our heart and learning what is important to the heart of God.

Most of our schooling is life training. And to tell you the truth sometimes all the "other stuff" gets in the way. It clouds my vision of what is important to teach our kids in a day. I sometimes brush off those impromptu teaching/character training moments because I am busy with the "text". I get caught up in the ABC's of education rather than the truths of God's Word. I let the world's idea of education and learning dictate the way we do school. I need to keep my focus on God and what He requires of me as we teach our children.

Our goal as we home school is to have children who will never graduate. Because they have developed a love for learning they will continue to want to learn all of their life. That they will always be learning because they are not afraid to ask questions.  And most importantly, that they will always have desire to learn more about God and grow ever closer to Him.

We don't just want to raise children that made it through text book work. We want children that have learned the things that will equip them for life. That they will know how to think things through and solve problems that they encounter.  That they will tackle a challenge (physically or spiritually) head on. That when trials and trouble come their way, they will not crumble, but rather stand firm. That they will be able to get along with all kinds of people with all kinds of personalities and be able to love as Jesus loves. That the fruits of the Spirit will be evident in their lives.

What a wonderful opportunity we have in home schooling our children. What a joy to spend all of our days with them and to be able to teach them life skills, recognize the talents that God has placed in them, being there to answer their questions and teach in these moments of genuine interest, train them in Godly character and most importantly to teach them what God desires of them and to teach them to follow Him all the days of their lives. I love home schooling :)

For the next homeschooling post(s) I would like to talk about what you would like to read about. So if you have a topic/question you would like me to cover, leave a comment and I will be happy to do that in the coming post.

Homeschooling Series Part 3: Bringing School Home or Homeschooling? (CONTINUED)

The last post I talked about our goal of homeschooling rather than just simply bringing school into our home. Now I am going to talk about what this looks like for us, practically.

We have long ago found that the best cirriculum is something that most of us, who are Christians, have in our home....even several of them. Yes, it's the Bible! We have always had the Bible as part of our home schooling, but not to the extent that it is now. Now to us, reading and studying the Bible is THE MOST IMPORTANT part of our schooling. We do not go into our regular subjects in a day without first doing our memory verses and devotions. (An exception would be when the boys get up early they will start on a subject while waiting for me to join them.) The reasoning for this is that we want our children to know that even though knowledge is important, the wisdom of God is the most important thing in our lives. Head knowledge should never replace heart wisdom. And the reason we do it first thing is I found too many times, if we waited until later on in the morning, it would be pushed by the wayside because we ran out of time.

We have done many things over the years for our devotional time. This year the older girls are doing studies on their own like So Much More, Do Hard Things, Christian Character. And with the younger ones I have been going through Created for Work and Boyhood and Beyond. Every week the younger ones memorize a new scripture verse. (the older girls work at this on their own). The boys copy the verse on worksheets that I make here.  And just recently, because I know how much easier it is to memorize a verse and reference to music, I have been putting together a song for each verse. The kids love it, and learn it so much quicker (and I do too!!!) Just a side note here, besides the spiritual benefit, memorizing and copying scriprture verses is a very good way to sharpen memory skills, practice penmanship, spelling and sentence structure. We are also learning the books of the Bible, so we go through that too. (You can find some great songs online to teach this). Now this part of our day may only take a few minutes or it may take much longer. I never want to rush this, laying this foundation in their lives is the most important thing. So we take our time if we need to.

Some of you have asked me in the past what curriculum I am using, and to tell the truth hesitate to do tell you. Why? I guess I know, from experience, how this works. Someone comes, tells you what they are using, you get all excited about it, get it, use it, HATE it!!!! or in some rare cases....LOVE it! But I have come to realize that we are all at different places in our homeschooling. Some of us have babies, toddlers, elementary, high school or all of the above.  And so what is working for me, might not work at all for you. And that's OK, God doesn't make cookie cutter families. Also there is a LOT of stuff out there, and I have by no means been able to try near all of it. But I will list what we use, not to convince you to try it or to change the way you do things....rather just for information sake.

So here is what we using this year for things like Math and Language Arts : Saxon Math, 100 Easy Lessons To Teach Your Child To Read, Spectrum Workbooks (Phonics, Spelling, Reading), Pathway Readers, Editor in Chief, and Calculadder. For our older children we require a missionary biography to be read once every 2 or 3 weeks (depending on their work load at the time) and a book report.

Now let me say something here about text books and curriculum. We are not ones to say school is done for the year when the book is done. Someone said to me years ago, "If you finish a text book, then the writers have failed you because they didn't give you enough material!" I don't judge our year being done on our books being completed. And I don't go from cover to cover. There are times where I skip some. I will not work through a book cover to cover just to "do so". We use text books as a tool, they do not dictate our schedule.

And for Science and Geography for the younger ones we mostly read-out-loud what I call "Educational Books" and these topics vary from ocean life, weather, plants, experiments, countries, inventions, creation, etc. We also have a lot of science related DVD's that we like to watch once in awhile. This year the older girls have done some of the Wonders of Creation Series. And last, but definitely not least (because it's my favorite), over the years we have done some lap books. Even though these are quite labor intensive, the kids have a blast and even learn a lot in the process :)

We start school around 8:30 or  9:00. I do have a schedule of times and subjects for each child. But this is only a guideline. Let's face it, there are just times when a certain subject just takes longer. I am not into cutting off in the middle of teaching a concept just because time is up! Or there are times when a baby needs nursing, toddler need extra attention, or a child needs some one on one. I can't predict what is going to happen in my morning, but a schedule helps me to keep on track. With this many children doing school (7 this year) I can't rely on my memory to cover all the bases!!! I love schedules, but I have learned to not let them run me. Rather I use them as a guide.

So that covers our "book work" part of schooling. Any questions?

But this is only a very small part of what we consider "school" around here. In the next post I am going to talk about the kind of learning that never grows old. I can hardly wait :) So until next time :)

Homeschooling Series Part 3: Bringing School Home or Homeschooling?

Is there a difference between bringing school home and homeschooling? This is a question we began to ask ourselves years ago? And we have come to the conclusion that there is a difference, a big difference.
When we talked about home schooling our children many years ago, we pretty much had the idea that we would just take the format of public school and do it in our home. This way they could still have schooling but we could control what our children learned  plus be the primary influence in their lives.

Then came the time to start school with Joshua and Jennifer.  We got all the material and began our homeschooling journey. Everything was going along quite well.  But after some time we came to the realization that in our enthusiasm of wanting to home school we did the only thing we knew how…..we brought school into our home. And even though we had control over what our children were learning and we were the primary influence in their lives, we felt that there was more to be had from this home schooling experience. And slowly God started to show us what that would look like.
“Why did God give us children?” We knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was to train them and raise them up to be a light to the world and bring glory to Him. But how did this fit into our home schooling?

We knew that we wanted the Bible to be a very important part of our schooling. But that did not mean just reading and learning what the Bible says, but more importantly, being a doer of the Word and not just a hearer only (James 1:22). And to us that meant that a huge and most important part of our schooling would be teaching our children 1. to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. (Matthew 22:37) 2. To love their neighbor as themselves. (Matthew 22:38)

Since we also knew our calling as parents is to train up our children in the way they should go so that when they are old they will not depart from it, (Proverbs 22:6) and to bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4) we realized that in God’s eyes teaching our children was more that just Math, Grammer, Science, Language Arts, Social Studies etc. Rather we are called to instill in them a love for God, build a strong foundation in their walk with Him and encourage them to submit their lives 100% to their Heavenly Father. This is what will  truly matter in the end.

And we soon came to an understanding that all of this wouldn't be accomplished in any curriculum or text book, but rather it was something that would need to become part of our life, all day long, every day of the week, 12 months of the year and every year of our child's life. Yes, there would definitely be a place for Math, Grammer, Science, Language Arts, Social Studies ect......but it would not be PRIORITY.

We believe that when we stand before God one day and give account of all that we have done in our lives, including how we parented our children, God is not going to focus on if we did or didn’t finish a certain Math textbook or Science curriculum etc. Rather we will give account on how obedient we were to Him  and if we taught our children to do likewise.

The more years we have children in our home, the more we understand that this time we have with them is so short. We know that their little hearts and minds will only be ours to train for a little while.  We know that once this period of their lives is over, we will never get it back again. And we know that we don't want to wake up one day and realize that in our busyness, or laziness we lost opportunitites to teach them the most important things of life. That would just be sad.

TO BE CONTINUED..........

Home Schooling Series - Part 2 Am I Qualified?

When people find out we homeschool many times the question comes, " Are you a teacher?" Meaning, have I had formal training that has qualified me to teach our children.

When our children were born we knew that they were gifts from God to us. It didn't take long for us to realize that this parenting thing was a 24/7, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. They were ours to care for, to love, to nurture and to teach the ways of God.

A verse that has been very important to us in our homeschooling journey is taken from
Deuteronomy 11:18-19 "Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." 

We know our children are gifts from God. But when our children were young we started to ask the question, "Why did God give these children to us?" Was it for our joy? Was it to build character in us? Was it to keep us from being idle? Was it to feel the heart of God as we experience the deep love a parent has for their child? Was it to teach them to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength? We believe yes, it was for these reasons and more.

We believe that God gave our children to us to be a parent to them. One who will nurture and teach them the ways of God. One who will train them to love others. One who will be there to discipline them when necessary. One who will teach them life skills.

We believe that we are best able to do this when we spend our days with our children rather than sending them to school every day.  And this is the reason we homeschool.

Even though we believe our children are receiving a very fine education at home and are developing a love for learning plus the life skills they will need in life, this is not our primary reason for homeschooling our children. A good education is not our priority in teaching our children at home. This is a by product. Our reason for homeschooling them is so that we can be the primary influence in their lives. So that we can, day in and day out, teach them to walk with God, love His Word and be a light to the world.

So to answer the question, am I qualified to be a teacher to my children? In the world's eyes.....maybe not? In God's eyes, I am their parent, thus I am qualified.

Homeschooling Series Part 1 Socialization

I haven’t talked a lot about our home schooling journey on this blog but anyone who has met me knows that I am passionate about it. We started home schooling right from the get go. I don’t remember a specific day or our decision to home school. Mark and I both just knew that this is what God was calling our family to. Then I look back at our home schooling start I realize that our thinking of what ‘homeschool’ is has changed a lot since then. Homeschooling to us then was more like bringing school into our home. But now our main priority for homeschooling is equipping our children to love God, follow Him and in doing so being a light to the world. We also see the need of teaching our children the education they need to be able to function in our society. And we also know that God has called us to honor those in authority over us as long as it doesn’t go against how God would have us live. For us that means making an education plan each year and sending in reports twice a year as our government asks us. Not that hard actually.

I would like to break this homeschooling subject into a few posts over the next little while because of the enormity of it. I will try to go through and answer some of the questions that people have asked us over the last few years. And if you have any, leave a comment and I will try to answer them as well.

Question #1 What about socialization?
This is a biggy.
Well let’s start with the definition of socialization: Learning to interact well with others, to be sociable. Guaranteed if someone is going to talk to me about home schooling the question of socialization is going to come up. How are your children going to learn social skills if they aren’t going to a public school? Honestly I guess this question kind of makes me wonder what people think socialization really is. To me learning to socialize would be to learn how to communicate with every age, in every walk of life. So my first question would be, how does public school teach you this? You have 20-30 kids the same age in the same room spending day after day with each other. What do they learn about socialization? They learn how to relate to their peers and their teachers. But what about all the other ages? How does this set up teach public school children how to socialize so much better than home schooled children, as they claim?

From what I have seen, the majority of home schooled kids are well rounded in their socialization. They learn how to relate to many different ages from the toddlers, to children, to adolescents, to teens, to adults, to the elderly. And I don’t think this is because of something that they have been taught to do. I think it is a by-product of the morals that have been instilled in them. The value that is placed on a person no matter what their age, race or religion. The value that it doesn’t matter if you ‘fit in’ but rather loving your neighbor as yourself.

And these are the social skills that I want to teach my children. Social skills that say each person is important to God. Social skills that makes others feel like they matter and that they are worth talking to. From what I have observed our children don’t have a problem socializing. Yes, some of them are shy (we are working on that.) As our children are getting older I am seeing their ability to relate to all ages. And not just to have a polite “Hello, how are you?” conversation, but an engaging conversation. This is important to us as we want people of all ages to enjoy being around our children.

Another part of being social is also being able to listen. How many times have you met someone, a child or otherwise who does nothing but talk about themselves and their life not giving you a chance to get a word in edgewise? Really, is the skill of listening not another part of learning to be social? Do they learn that skill in public school better than home school?

So this is why I really I think that the meaning of socialization is misunderstood. Because the fruit that I have witnessed from many home schooled children (of course there are always exceptions) is that they have no problem interacting or being social with others. In fact, they are usually quite enjoyable to have a conversation with.

And to us, this is a valuable thing. Not because they can fit into society, but rather because they can be a light to the world. After all, that should be is our goal, shouldn’t it?

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt,
so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:6

A Day of Homeschool by Jaden

Hi, this is Jaden.

I know I haven't posted on here yet 

I kept wanting to but my Mama said that I need to go to school to learn how to write first.

SO.....today was the day. I decided to wake up early from my nap and dig right in.

Of course I needed some help from my sweet big brother Zachary. 

First off I tried to get his pencil so I could write. But he kept taking it away and telling me it is too sharp!!

But because I know one of the virtues I need to work on is DILIGENCE, I kept right on trying.

After I tried and tried I came to the conclusion that I was not going to win this war with Zachary.....so I turned to my big sister Megan for help. But all she did was get out that camera. What's with that girl?

Well just because I didn't have a pencil, that didn't mean I couldn't still give Zachary my opinion on things. Who ever knew a few numbers could be so confusing. Even Zachary was having a hard time. Think, Think, Think!





And then I got it.....I finally figured out the answer. I couldn't believe I hadn't figured it out sooner. Now I just had to convince Zach of a couple of things. First, that I knew the answer....second that you can smudge the numbers a lot easier if you add a little drool. I couldn't believe he hadn't learned that yet! What has he been going to school all this time for?

Of course he was so excited that I had taught him so much that he gave me a tight squeeze. I'm thinking he squeezed a little longer than he needed. Sometimes those huggy ones don't know when to stop!





After working real hard for a few minutes, my short nap started to catch up with me and I began to get a little sleepy. Have you ever tried to stare at a writing pencil? Kind of makes you want to nod off. I don't know how these kids do it!

Boy, that sure was an exciting morning. I think I might try it again sometime. Please don't tell my mama though. For some reason she thinks school goes a lot better when I am napping.  Something about me being distracting!!!


So this is Jaden signing out until next time.....

Have a GREAT day!

Homeschool Worksheet Link

This year I found a link to a great site that allows you to print up your own worksheets for free.

So far I have only used their printing and cursive writing worksheets and have really enjoyed them.

To practice their printing and cursive writing I have the kids write out scripture verses. With these
worksheets you can put in your own sentences and print them out...tracing....printing...writing....
big....small..... basically whatever you want. So when I want to print up a verse, I go to Bible Gateway and copy the verses I want them to write out and then paste them on the WorkSheet Works site and then print them out. Simple....fast. I like it. Here's a sample.

And here's the kids doing some Christmas coloring that was also printed off the internet.

The recent snow has helped to get everyone thinking more about Christmas.

Weird how it seems Canadians seem to need snow before they really get into the Christmas mood.

I am wondering how it works for ya'll who don't get snow.

What gets you in the Christmas mood?