"Your greatest contribution to the Kingdom of God may not be something you do, but someone you raise." ~Andy Stanley

August 17, 2015

In honor of the first day of school

I've been home schooling our kids for 17 years now and I'm on the homestretch! Whoo-hoo!
-Our youngest starts 11th grade next week!
(insert shameless plug here, for Hubby to take me on a cruise after Andrew graduates!) ;)

The other day,  I found a stack of some of my favorite quotes about parenting and homeschooling that encouraged me when my kids were little and became rather near and dear to my heart on this journey:

 "Right is right even if no one is doing it! Wrong is always wrong even if everyone is doing it." 

"Boys and girls must have time to invent episodes, carry on adventures, live heroic lives, lay sieges and carry forts, even if the fortress be an old armchair, and in these affairs elders must neither meddle nor make."  ~Charlotte Mason  1907

"I give my children their best theological education by seeking to really know and love God in my own life and then living my life out before my children." ~Sally Clarkson

"People ought to exercise everyday...yet more than a third of the our children don't get an hour's worth of exercise in a week. How about parents playing a games with their children in the backyard for 30 minutes or an hour? It would be good fort he parent, and its's good for the family." ~ Former President George W. Busch

"Trust God with the design of our children and allow them to be who God made them to be. By accepting them we affirm God's excellent design. Don't expect a monkey to act like a butterfly or a buffalo to behave like a mouse." ~Sally Clarkson

"Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children." ~ Charles Swindoll

"What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the Word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow." ~Martin Luther

"When you love and obey Jesus, you will have joy. When  you have joy in our heart, you will be filled with the Spirit of God. When the Spirit of God fills  your household, you will have absolutely no trouble being a relaxed, joyful, and enthusiastic homeschooling mom!" ~Mary Hood

"Make a habit of saying out loud, many times a day, 'I am so thankful for my sweet little girl. I want to praise God He gave me a fine son like you. Thank God He has blessed us with a daddy who takes care of us. God has made such a beautiful day, let's run outside and say 'thank you' to God. Let's thank God for all the different kinds of food He's given us.' Let your life be made up of thankfulness, your mind full of appreciation, your words crowded with praise, your countenance beaming with joy...Your children will hunger and thirst to walk with your Savior." ~Debi Pearl

"Don't our children need to learn how to cook, clean, sew, grocery shop, care for others, plan a household budget, pay bills, work on the car, make home repairs, garden, mow the lawn, and so on? I used to feel guilty if I took time from academics to teach my children some of these skills. I thought I was depriving them of a good education, but in reality a well-rounded education encompasses real-life skills. I was apprehensive about training them in these less academic areas because I had nothing tangible, such as written piece of work , to show that I was indeed instructing my child. If my child spent forty-five minutes on a math page, I then had proof that education was taking place. But if my children spent two hours planning and preparing a meal, there was nothing tangible to represent this as education, although many skills are necessary to perform this task....
Have your older child plan the family meals for a week. You can record this as Dietary Planning. Do your children like to draw, make art projects, paper crafts and so on? Log theses as Creative Expression or Art. Do your children clip coupons and help you grocery shop? This is Food Budget Analysis and Planning. Do  your children fold laundry, sweep floors, clean tables, dust, make beds, vacuum, clean bathrooms, practice an instrument, play ball, ride bikes, skate..if the answer is 'yes' to any of these then you can devise a category to log these educational experiences...If they sit and around and watch TV or play video games, then your logbook may be nearly blank, but if they are involved in real-life activities, even on a day when schoolwork isn't implemented, you should be able to just about fill a page with the educational activities of each of your children..." ~Valerie Bendt

For those of you home educating older students, please visit this post where Sally Clarkson quotes what a CEO is looking for in a college graduate and this article called "How My Mother Homschooled Me without Screwing up My Life" -Good stuff!!! : )

~Becky

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