Homeschooling for His Glory

Parenting is hard. Anyone who has or is raising kids will tell you this. There is no way around making it easier, it is just what it is. No matter the age your kids are a , there are challenges to being a parent. That said, learning to deal with kids and raise them the best way possible, can definitely be helpful and make the whole process less stressful as well as more purposeful. This is where this resource I was given the opportunity to review comes in. I was not familiar with it until it came up for review, but I must say it is a good one. Parenting Made Practical offers parenting resources to help parents navigate those parenting waters and challenges. Its goal is to equip parents with tools to help children become responsible adults. They offer a wide array of books and DVDs.  I chose to review the Taming the Lecture Bug and Getting your Kids to Think video download. There is lots to say about the video I watched. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it very helpful. S...

It happened again. The boys are fighting in the bedroom over what audiobook to listen to tonight as they settle into bed. . .  This happens almost every night.. .  Let me give you the background. . . . I have a rising teen (11 year old) and a 9 year old. They love each other to death but they have two completely opposing personalities. One is like me, outgoing, loud and very energetic. The other one is quiet, pensive and introvert to the core. They play well together (mostly) until someone does not get what they want, or until someone feels that he is being cheated or manipulated.  This is my life with my adorable 2 boys. What is a mom to do? Call for reinforcement: the husband. After some talking, one thing emerged: it is all about selfishness . At the heart of every issues usually lies the desire to be made right by us. We do not want to be the one to give in, we do not want to be abused. Both my boys claimed themselves as being advocate of justice and fairness, b...

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In the past couple of weeks I have come across a few encouraging, challenging and interesting reads. Here is my selection for you this week: 6 Homeschooling Misconception Erased: " The next morning every reason I had to avoid homeschooling stared me in the face. So did my kids. They were eager to learn on their own terms." What Makes a Gifted Child : " Being gifted means a student has     that enable them to think on their own without help. Many people have good memory, the ability to interpret ideas and data, are creative, are practical, and interested in many things, but this does not make them gifted alone." Saying No to Social Media For Our kids : "Our children need our protection, wisdom and discipline.   I think a lot of parents cave into social media for their kids because "everyone else is doing it". And let's face it - it keeps the big kids quiet and occupied if they can stare at their phones and be connected 24/7." Pa...

There are plenty of parenting books out there, but he is a rundown of the ones I have tremendously enjoyed and found helpful, plus being biblically sound: 1. Bible 2. S hepherding a Child's Heart  and Instructing a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp 3.   Everyday Talk by John A. Younts 4. Don't let me Count to Three Ginger Plowman 5. Grace Based Parenting Tim Kimmel 6. P arenting is Heart Work (all the others in the series) by Scott Turansky and Johann Miller 7. The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson 8. T each Them Diligently by Lou Priolo 9. A Mother's Heart by Jean Fleming 10. The Faithful Parent by Martha Peace (I have not read this one but it is on my list of book that I have to get my hands on; I have really appreciated Martha Peace' s books so I am convinced that it is a must read)

This wek at the Homeschooling Village we are talking about discipline . I do not have a set of specific rules in our homeschool, but discipline and correction are certainly an intregal part of our homeschool. There are certain things I expect of the boys, and they know it (although maybe I should write them down and review them everyday);  and when I see that they are not cooperating and acting ritghly I stop and correct. I love the concept of correcting and disciplining in "the milieu". I do have house rules (which I adapted from the Duggar's house rules), that contains things like loving God first, then others, then yourself and things like no hitting etc.... But I find school time is a great time to emphasize those character traits that we need to develop. Often time privileges are taken away as consequences. Here is a the list of attitudes and behaviours that get corrected: Not working hard -dilligence Whining and complaining: loving work sloppiness - doing your...

A few months back, I wrote a post about why parenting was such hard work, Basically what I said, was that it is hard work because it is heart work and we cannot change hearts. We do have to persevere in pointing our kids to Christ , whose concern is to change  hearts. It demands perseverance, repeated discipline and instructions. It is plainly laborious. Today I would like to expand on these thoughts. I find that even though we know all these things, it still gets quite frustrating to train our kids in godliness and character. They often time just do n't get it , or so it seems. We do not see rapid improvements. It seems to be the same ,day in and day out, often times. And that can be rather discouraging at best or irritating at worst. The fact is, c hristian discipleship and training is not about immediate results, but long term results. We are not in the business of changing surface behaviours (although it will be affected), but affecting hearts for eternity .That often mean...

In attempting to shepherd and instruct our children's heart we need to know what it is we are addressing or seeking to teach or correct,  and have the biblical evidences to drive it home from God's Word. To that effect I thought I would share this great list of c haracter qualities definitions , that I came across a few weeks ago. Definitely worth a print. Have a great day,

Thanks to a comment from a kind soul on my blog, I have implemented a new memorizing system at our house. Everydody seems to enjoy it, except for Joho, but that's normal for him. The system comes from Simply Charlotte Mason and you can find it described here . It is very easy to set up and implement. The only work involved is actually writing all the verses out, and getting the cards and the box. She does have a list of suggested verses, which is very good, but I chose to memorize the verses from our devotionals first. We are using 2 at the moment with which I am really pleased: Teach Them to Your Children By Sarah Wean / The Vision Forum, Inc This is a very interesting books with engaging, real to life stories that illustrates important character traits  and Bible truths such as diligence, obedience, faithfulness, kindness, God's protection and many more. Each stories is ended with a verse. Good for any elementary age. The Big Book Of Questions and Answers By Sinclair Ferguso...

One of the value of homeschooling (and one for which I am personnaly homeschooling) is the great opportunity  to teach our kids character value. And this, not out of the blue but in context. As one author I read said, we need to teach our children "in the milieu", meaning in context. The verse in Deuteronomy 6:6-9 makes it clear ". . . when you sit in your house, when you lie down and when you rise up . . ." and the verse continues on. We learn best when the teaching fits life's situation and happenings as it happens. One thing that I have done to aid me in this process, is to make up my own poster of character traits and their definitions. I also made up posters of  verses relating to them. These posters are on our hallway  and in the kid's bedroom. When I discipline them or correct a behavoir, I try to refer to the poster, reminding them what such and such attitude is and also of the verse. Often times, since my son reads, I send him to read it and tell me...