homeschool

Life Skills Come from Life

September 18, 2018 by Sharon

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!”

Your Commitment to Homeschooling

September 6, 2018 by Jenna

The start of a new homeschool year is a lot like New Year’s Day. As you’re setting your goals for the upcoming homeschool year, do you want them to be like those New Year’s resolutions that only last for a week or two? Of course not! Most of those New Year’s resolutions we make are goals we know we probably should set, but have very little reason to follow through on—like exercising regularly or eating right. We can’t commit to those goals because we don’t always believe in why we’re doing them. In contrast, your homeschool goals ought to be rooted in your commitment to homeschooling. If you can explain why you’re homeschooling, then sticking to the goals you set this year will become much easier.

Call a Family Meeting

Sit the whole family down to document the reasons you’ve decided to homeschool. If your children are old enough to contribute, then they should have the opportunity to share their opinions and add their own reasons. Make a list of reasons that will spell out your commitment to homeschooling. You might find several reasons for not participating in the school system, but negatives are hard to act on. If your reason is based on a negative, try to state it in a positive form. For example, if you feel that the school environment is a bad influence on your children, then your reason for homeschooling is to give them good role models or to help them become spiritually mature.

Look over your list. Mark out overlapping reasons. Maybe cross out a few that aren’t as important as the others. Condense it to five or fewer reasons that you really believe in.

Put Your Commitment on Display

In order to keep your commitment to homeschooling in front of your eyes, put the list of reasons on display where you’ll see them a lot. You can put them under a magnet on your refrigerator. Maybe you can print them out on nice paper in a curly font and have them matted and framed to hang in that one bare spot on the wall in your living room. Or, more fun, you can turn them into an art project for each child to hang in his or her room.

Set Your Goals

Once you’ve laid out your commitment to homeschooling clearly, the goals will be easier to choose and easier to focus on. Goals that flow naturally from your reasons for homeschooling will make the most sense to work toward.

Homeschooling takes a lot of hard work and planning. Even though you know you’re not going to quit or give up on it, you can easily be tempted to cut corners or not give each day your best. Your commitment to homeschooling keeps you on track as you’re weathering hard days as well as when you’re enjoying times of smooth sailing.

Time Flies, So Make It Count

September 4, 2018 by Guest Writer

Recently my husband and I had a conversation that went something like this:

“Can you believe it’s almost time to start school again?”

“No, it seems like we just ordered last year’s materials!”

You can probably relate; and like us, you realize just how quickly the weeks, months, and years are speeding by. The time we still have left with our children at home will be over before we know it; and a good question to ask is, “Are we making the most of the opportunities we have with our children?” Ephesians 5:16 exhorts us to be “redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” The beginning phrase can also be translated as “making the best use of the time.” God wants us as parents to make the best use of the time He has given us with our children. How can we do that?

Time In School

As homeschoolers, we have chosen the role of teacher. Therefore, we have to make sure that our children are getting the most out of their education. This means taking time to assess our children’s academic growth. Are they developing critical thinking skills? Do they know how to accurately apply logic and reasoning in solving problems? Are they forming solid studying habits? Just getting them to complete their assignments and take their tests isn’t enough to redeem the time.

Outside School

In a world where parents and kids are busy with their own separate pursuits, it’s especially important to do family activities. As homeschoolers, we are obviously with our children a lot, but it’s crucial to make family time outside of school. Take walks, play board games, go bowling, throw a Frisbee®, catch fireflies—the list could go on and on. It’s not about doing huge exciting things; it’s about enjoying simple moments with our children, making memories, and drawing closer to each other.

Round the Clock

But the greatest way we can redeem the time is by reading and discussing God’s Word and praying together. Not just at breakfast or bedtime but throughout the day as various circumstances arise. Every success and every failure is an opportunity to teach our children about God and His Word. Deuteronomy 6:7 admonishes us to teach our children His Word when we’re sitting at home, when we’re going places, when we go to bed, and when we get up in the morning—in short, every chance we get! That means we as parents have to constantly keep our minds on eternal spiritual matters so we’ll be ready to engage our children in God-centered conversations. This doesn’t come easily. We have to put a lot of thought and effort into it, but isn’t it worth it? Time is flying, so let’s make the most of it!

• • • • •

Jennifer is a pastor’s wife and mom of two young girls and loves homeschooling them. During her own twelve years of being homeschooled, Jennifer developed a passion for reading and writing. She earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and relishes writing during her free time.

Reasons to Take a Spontaneous Field Trip

August 30, 2018 by Megan

One day near the end of last summer, I sat looking at my Reading 3 Teacher Edition in preparation for the coming school year. One story near the beginning of the book caught my attention—”Alex the Drummer Boy.” It’s a historical fiction piece set in Cowpens, South Carolina, during the Revolutionary War. As I looked more closely at the piece, an idea began to take shape in my mind—we should take a field trip to Cowpens.

Was I crazy? The site was a little over an hour away, and my window of opportunity was small since we would be reading the selection in a couple of weeks. But it was a perfect educational opportunity. A visit to the historical site would not only provide valuable background information for reading the story, it would also build excitement for the upcoming lessons.

We made the trip a few days later, and we were so glad we did. You can read more about our experience in the post Learning Activities That Come Alive.

As a homeschooler, I love having the flexibility to enhance my curriculum with in-the-moment learning experiences like spontaneous field trips. If I had been teaching in a classroom, that trip to Cowpens probably wouldn’t have happened. But since I was a homeschool mom, I could take advantage of the opportunity the curriculum presented me.

Field trips are never easy, even when they are somewhat unplanned. But here are a couple reasons why they’re worth the effort.

A Field Trip Fuels Interest in Learning

There’s nothing like hands-on experiences to whet a child’s appetite for learning. When we returned home from Cowpens, my daughter suddenly couldn’t get enough of Revolutionary War history. She checked out historical fiction and nonfiction books at the library. I saw her play-acting battles and trying to fashion her own Revolutionary War uniforms. She was excited and ready to learn.

A Field Trip Boosts Comprehension

Sometimes field trips can also help students better comprehend what they’re learning. This week, my second-grade daughter and I are going to read a story in reading about non-furry pets. She has never seen a hermit crab, so before we read it, I’m planning to take her on a quick trip to a local pet store to observe a real one in action. Seeing one up-close will help her better understand the point of the story.

Taking spontaneous field trips has become a way for me to incorporate real-life learning into our homeschool, and it has been a fun way for our family to bond while learning. Have you ever taken a spur-of-the-moment field trip? Tell us about it in a comment!

The Standard for Thoughtful Readers

August 23, 2018 by BJU Press Writer

As a Christian, you know that there’s no such thing as reading for mindless entertainment. Books teach in ways that we often don’t understand. And as a Christian parent, you want your children to be taking in valuable lessons from the books they read. Your children’s ability to carefully evaluate everything they take in is a key part of their growth toward biblical maturity. This careful evaluation implies truly wrestling with the books they read. If your children can become thoughtful readers, then you know that they will be well equipped as adults in a world full of misdirection. So how do you encourage your children to be thoughtful readers? By building a familiarity with the only Book that truly matters.

The Foundation for Thoughtful Readers

Every thoughtful reader should approach other books on the basis of a constant and continuous study of the Book. The only reliable standard for the believer is Scripture itself. When the writers of Scripture penned God-breathed words, they wrote widely—of eternity past to eternity future, of battles and births, obedience and obstinacy. They wrote accounts of real people, recorded parables that came from the lips of our Savior, and produced the most beautiful literature known to man. And there is not a higher standard against which to evaluate a story.

Features of That Foundation

When Christ used the vehicle of story, He set the stage for contemplation that leads to biblical understanding. The same should be true of any worthy book. We can learn so much from these scriptural examples. There are good role models and bad ones as well as good actions and bad—but all for our instruction. Some stories clearly spell out the theme, while others require the reader to evaluate and draw a conclusion. Although the length and delivery of these stories differ, the resolution of the problem of sin—the central conflict—is true to the Book as it must be in lesser books as well.

The stories from the Old Testament include exciting plots, peopled by actual characters not unlike people we may know. There is sin, providing literary conflict, that sets each story in action; and before the conflict reaches a resolution (within varying timelines), the story addresses the sin.

The parables of the New Testament demonstrate our Lord’s creativity as He crafted each word picture or narrative to grab the attention of the listeners. Sometimes He told the story along with the lesson we should learn. Sometimes He spoke in metaphors that required the listener to read between the lines, as some may say. Other times He told the story but waited to give the explanation to certain listeners at another time. As these parables unfold, we see that some seeds flourished, and some withered and died; some wedding guests were welcomed, and some were turned away; some servants were faithful, and some were not.

Foundational Examples

In one account Jonah receives a command, runs the other way, and begins to experience the consequences in the space of three short verses. His whole story is a narrative told in only four chapters, woven into the fabric of the Old Testament. In another instance a longer story tells about Joseph, ill-treated by his brothers and sold into slavery. Long years pass as Joseph comes to manhood and becomes the instrument of God used to deliver his family. His brother Reuben’s guilt begins at the pit and ends in a palace many years later, recorded over several chapters in Genesis.

Biblical narratives demonstrate variety and creativity, and they offer many different topics to interest a range of readers. There is all of this and more in the inspired Word, the Book that is the guide for believers in all things. And all of these concepts can direct your children’s thinking in all their readings.