Written by Kris Bales of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

There are so many things I want to tell you in this little space I have with you.

They may seem random, but as I ponder what your heart may be longing to hear as you embark on a new homeschooling year (if you haven’t already), I realize that the random tidbits may be more cohesive and less insignificant than they seem at first glance.

[Read more…]

Written by Caitlin Fitzpatrick Curely of My Little Poppies

My oldest son is a compassionate, funny, creative, wonderful little human.

He’s also a World Class Worrier.

At 8-years-old, he should be spending his summer running through sprinklers and climbing trees and eating his weight in watermelon. He should be making mud pies and catching fireflies and having cannonball contests.

And he is doing all of those things, but he’s also worrying.

Worry is tricky like that. It can pop up, out of nowhere, on a beautiful day.

Worry can derail a summer.

No one is immune to worry. It is a natural part of the human experience, a crucial part of the fight-or-flight response. Worry protects us.

But it certainly doesn’t feel that way for some of us. Some of us worry more.

I am one of those people. I can remember being his age and laying awake on a hot summer night, scared out of my mind, unable to fall asleep.

So is it any wonder that now, thirty years later, I have a child who does the same? That apple does not fall far.

I wish I could make his worries magically disappear. I wish I could erase them from his mind so that he can get back to being eight and awesome.

Unfortunately, worry doesn’t work that way. You cannot snap your fingers and make it go away, but you can learn to manage it.

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Written by Jamie C. Martin of Simple Homeschool

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” ~ 1 John 4:18

You guys? It’s scary out there. We need only a glance at the day’s headlines for a reminder.

As parents raising children in these uncertain times, what should we do?

The way I see it, we only have two choices: raise our kids to fear the world, or…raise them to love it.

Fearing this world comes naturally in our hyper-connected society; it’s the default mode set out to take over our family’s thoughts. But it isn’t the only option.

If we want to cultivate a love for God’s world in our homes instead, we must act with intention first, so we don’t react with fear later.

We must infuse our children’s lives with purposeful meaning.

Now, today.

We must speak beauty and truth into their young spirits again and again, giving them something to cling to when fear tries to set up permanent residence in their minds.

Thankfully, the power of story can help us shield our kids from the world’s distractions and heaviness. Here’s how.
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Written by Kari Patterson of Sacred Mundane.

Sometimes it’s like I sabotage myself. Have you ever been there? It’s like,

“Oh let’s see: I’m super tired and grumpy today, we’ve had a full week and we’re all a bit on edge this morning. Why don’t we go ahead and set the day on fire by doing our state achievement practice tests today?!

Even though I’ve never given you a bubble test before, I think I’ll just throw it at you with zero preparation and expect you to do well, even though you have Asperger’s and are incredibly intolerant to change or surprises or new situations. Sure, great idea!”

What in the name of all that is good made me think this was a reasonable idea?

With unfounded optimism I glanced over the test and smiled — it was all stuff he knew, so I figured he was more than prepared.

What he wasn’t prepared for is test-taking.  [Read more…]

Written by Jamie C. Martin of Simple Homeschool

Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high
Take a look, it’s in a book, a Reading Rainbow”

Some stories are decades in the making. This is one of them.

It starts the summer of 1985–the year I rode my bike every weekday morning to Mary C. Williams Elementary School in my hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina.

I spent hours on a beanbag in the shady corner of the mid-grade novel shelves, curled up with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Pippi Longstocking. When the library closed at noon, I pedaled home again in time for back-to-back episodes of Reading Rainbow.

I look back on that summer as one of my happiest. I turned into a lifelong reader.

On the outside, it wasn’t a given that I’d become one. We didn’t have tons of books at home, and like many latchkey kids I watched a lot of television. But my mom took me to the library every third Monday, God bless her.

And with one flip of the dial I found LeVar Burton on PBS, always eager to read-aloud to me.
[Read more…]