BJU Press Blog

Sharon

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About Sharon

Sharon has an MS in Elementary Education and spent 19 years teaching BJU Press curriculum before joining the staff at BJU Press. As a homeschool mom of two boys, she enjoyed the flexibility of the homeschool lifestyle and spent a lot of time teaching other moms how to customize their homeschool to suit the needs of their family. Today, both of her boys have completed their educations and are working full-time.

All Things New with New Year’s Traditions

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new year's traditions
January 1 is a great time for a fresh start and some New Year’s traditions. When my boys were young, we looked forward to doing as many new things as possible on New Year’s Day. We’d go to new places, use new things, find new things to do, and eat new foods. If you’re wanting to create exciting New Year’s traditions for your little ones, here are some ways you can make all things new for them!

Wear Something New

We’d start the day by wearing something new. Typically this was pajamas, shirts, or sweaters that we got for Christmas. Sometimes it was a new accessory like jewelry, a watch, a scarf, or mittens. Even if it was something we’d worn after Christmas, it was still new enough for New Year’s Day.

Go New Places

My family has always enjoyed taking a scenic drive. For New Year’s Day, we would plan a special outing that would take us somewhere we hadn’t been before or on a road we had never explored. We’d take a bridge to explore the other side of a river or drive to a new town in the area. Along the way, we would look for new shops or restaurants that we hadn’t visited before. We tried to find a new place for lunch or for a snack. In our area of Pennsylvania, there were lots of little mom-and-pop diners along the way, but we found that these were often closed for the holiday, so you might want to do a little research before you go. You could always pack a picnic or new treat to enjoy in the car.

Use New Recipes

Because restaurants were often closed, I decided to look for new foods and recipes for us to enjoy at home. Sometimes I’d make a new muffin recipe for breakfast or find a new dessert to make for dinner. I would also look for new varieties of candy, chips, or other snacks that I could save for us to enjoy on New Year’s Day. For dinner, we would have a traditional New Year’s meal. In Pennsylvania, we always had pork roast and sauerkraut, but in South Carolina, where we live now, black-eyed peas, greens, and cornbread are more traditional. For your own New Year’s traditions, you could try traditional foods from different countries or regions, such as vasilopita (a Greek cake) or sausage and lentil stew from Italy.

Do Something New

If my boys got new things to play with for Christmas, we would break those out after dinner. New puzzles, games, or Lego® sets are fun for the whole family to do together. You could also start a new read-aloud, or have each of your kids pick out a new book to read at bedtime.

Start a New Theme for Bible Time

The highlight of New Year’s Day was our family devotions. My husband would choose a new theme for the new year. Sometimes it was a new goal we’d work on together, like kind speech, loving others, or Scripture memory. Other times it was a new attribute of Christ that we’d focus on. Then we’d learn a new verse and a new hymn to go with our theme. While we wouldn’t necessarily keep to that topic each day of the year, we talked about the theme regularly so we’d grow in that area.

A new year is a great opportunity to renew, energize, and get a fresh start! How else could you encourage all things new for your kids for the new year?

Taking Homeschool Flexibility to the Next Level

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homeschool flexibility like a slinky
When I homeschooled my two boys, we were able to take full advantage of the flexibility homeschooling offered. Creative scheduling allowed me to take into account my boys’ different personalities and adjust to the needs of our family. Our schedule didn’t always allow for the length of a typical school day. One of the boys liked to get up early in the morning and tackle his work, while the other wanted to do his work later. And neither of the boys liked having full open days with no work to do. So we adopted a schedule that suited everyone.

Six-Day Homeschool Schedule with a Twist

In the early years, daily lesson times revolved around the needs of my schedule, but as the boys got older, we didn’t have set times for any of their subjects. That way they could arrange their responsibilities within the time they had available. Most days we doubled up on at least one subject so that we could finish five days of work in four. Then our Friday would be a field trip day—whether we were going to a museum or visiting the park. We especially liked this schedule the fall because it meant we had plenty of good field trip opportunities. Any work that we weren’t able to finish through the week, we would do on Saturday. Doing that every week, we had the flexibility to take an extended break for Christmas and still finish our required school days by the end of April .

Keeping the Schedule During the Summer

During the school year, we only did subjects with 180 days of work during the school day, leaving the 90-day subjects for the summer. So, in the lower grades, we would do history and science during the summer. In the upper grades, we’d do literature. I also added in other learning activities such as math games, keyboarding, and foreign language practice as well as recreational reading time. That gave my boys a couple of hours of work each day, which kept them busy, but wasn’t overwhelming to them. With that set up, we were also able to count some of their textbook reading toward the library’s summer reading program.

In the end, our homeschool schedule was a little unusual, but it worked for us. I was able to capitalize on homeschool flexibility so that both of my boys’ learning needs were met in the best way possible.

Life Skills Come from Life

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teaching life skills
As a mom, I wanted to prepare my two boys to be fully capable adults and help them show love for others. As they were growing up, I found that life skills—though, at the time, I didn’t think of them as life skills—were the best way to get my boys where they needed to be. Cleaning, organizing, cooking, handling finances—these are all key in helping children show love. And I learned early on that the best way to teach life skills was by keeping my boys involved.

Enabling children to help when they’re young

Little kids love being involved, and they love helping. I may have been blessed with two boys who enjoyed being involved, but I also tried to encourage that love. Whenever my husband or I was cleaning, my boys would want to help out. But at first, there were a lot of things they couldn’t manage. Our adult dishes were heavy and easily chipped, the vacuum was large and heavy, and our broom was far too tall for a little kid to hold.

Instead of waiting until they were older, I just got more kid-friendly things. I traded out my big plates for light ones that the boys could carry, and I got the cheapest, lightest vacuum I could find. I even got little brooms and dust pans they could use to sweep up their crumbs after meals. They didn’t always do a good job, but they were learning motor skills and coordination—and they were helping Mom.

Teaching new life skills as they come up

I have boys. Boys eat—a lot! And, since we homeschooled, they thought they could eat pretty much whenever they wanted. They loved helping out in the kitchen, and since they enjoyed eating, I taught them how to cook. So when it was time to eat, and I was making one thing, they could make whatever they wanted for themselves. And today, they both really enjoy cooking all kinds of things.

As they grew older, they showed interest in watching their dad do taxes each spring. He would explain what he was doing and how he did it. Now that they both have jobs of their own, they know what to do, and my husband can advise them.

All these things that kids should learn as they grow up are a part of life. We didn’t have to spend class hours teaching life skills. Since my boys were actively involved in our lives, we had the opportunity to teach them new skills as they came up. And today, I hope they can see that cooking, cleaning, and other life skills are a ministry. My sons can show love to my husband and me by helping around the house. When they get married and have families of their own, they’ll be able to show love to their wives by taking on additional chores. But it all starts when they’re little and they just want to put the dishes away, saying, “I help, Mommy!”