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The Basics of Learning and Homeschooling E-course

Dear Readers,

I have written an e-course for new homeschoolers and for those who just feel like things are not going well with their homeschool – maybe you even feel like throwing in the towel. Don’t do it! Homeschooling is SO worth it.

Or you might just wish you could get some training in Education and figure out why this is so hard.

It doesn’t have to be hard. It can be enjoyable if you understand some basic concepts about Learning and apply them to your Homeschooling.

This e-course called “The Basics of Learning and Homeschooling” will teach you basic ideas about learning theory and how to apply them to your children. There’s much more in this course, like how to choose curriculum, how to help children with learning differences, preserving relationships in your family, especially your marriage, and building a strong family culture.

Check it out here:

https://changed-by-love.teachable.com/p/the-basics-of-homeschooling/

You will become more confident about your teaching and fearless about your homeschooling.

If you know someone else who would benefit from this course, please forward this link to them! Thank you!

I also wrote this book that has similar content:

https://amzn.to/3hEtZMw

How to Use Some Charlotte Mason Methods Without Using the Full-on Charlotte Mason Approach

 

 

1. Start with Living Books

Find some good book lists that contain Classics (because they have stood the test of time), historical fiction, biographies, autobiographies

This is what living books are according to Simply Charlotte Mason:

“Living books are usually written by one person who has a passion for the subject and writes in conversational or narrative style. The books pull you into the subject and involve your emotions, so it’s easy to remember the events and facts. Living books make the subject “come alive.” ”

Some good book lists are found at Read-Aloud Revival, a website for parents who like to read aloud to their children: Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt; Read for the Heart by Sarah Clarkson; Books Children Love by Elizabeth Wilson; and All Through the Ages by Christine Miller. The Sonlight catalog also lists wonderful books as readers and read-alouds that are grouped by grade level and periods of history.

Take your book list with you to the library. Or if you would rather have your own library, you can buy them. If you are studying a certain period in history, find books that have stories that take place during that time. If you are looking for a particular science topic, find a book about it. Or find a book that is told in narrative or story form that explains that topic. There are even living books for math and language arts. Just keep in mind the definition of living books, and you will find wonderful books that will captivate the interest of your children and yourself.

2. Add some narration.

As you are reading to your children or listening to an audiobook together, have one of them tell back what happened in the last chapter. This is narration, a telling back in one’s own words.

I do this in a sneaky way by reading a chapter or two one day. Then the next time we pick up the book to read, I ask one of the children to get us back into the story by reminding us what happened last. This works out very well. The kids usually remember much more than I do. This shows that they were listening. It helps them to remember it even better. And it prepares us for the next part of the story. In the Charlotte Mason method, there are more rules, and you can have older children do written narrations, but I have found my little sneaky method to be natural, easy, and fun for my children.

For more ideas of how to add Charlotte Mason elements to your homeschool, get my Charlotte Mason Lite printable here.

Get it here!

Music for Your Soul

Nurturing the Spiritual Development of Your Children

 

Nurturing the Spiritual Development of Your Children

Start with yourself

You can’t give someone else what you don’t have yourself.

Get as close as you can to God. Spend time with Him without distractions. Wait in His presence. Talk to Him, but make sure you listen to Him, too. Ask Him what He wants to say to you. Listen to Mark Virkler about how to hear God’s voice. He has videos on YouTube about this. He teaches how to do 2-way journaling. Write your thoughts to God, and then write what you hear God saying to you. He also has some excellent books about this.

https://amzn.to/3ziShSP

https://amzn.to/3znHyX6

 

 

Do the necessary heart work

Ask the Lord to show you what lies you believe about yourself. You may have had a traumatic experience in your childhood, or you may have developed wrong beliefs based on immature understanding of what happened to you. Children often blame themselves for things that happen in their families. They often blame themselves for their parents’ arguments or divorce.

Identify a lie that you believe and when you started to believe that lie. Ask Jesus to go with you into that painful memory. Try to see where Jesus was while that was happening to you and how He felt about it. Ask Him to tell you the truth about you to replace the lie you believed. Go to Someone Believes in You to learn more about this from Theresa Griffith.

Pay attention to what God is saying to you through signs and messages in numbers and repeated words or phrases. When you hear a particular verse or message repeated in many different places over a period of a few hours or days, it might be God trying to tell you something.

Make heart connections with your children 

 

 

Get to know your children

Spend time with them. Do things with your individual children. Think of something that your child would like to do or a place they would like to go. Take them out on a date. Take them out for ice cream, just you and your one child. If you have several children, you might need to do some creative scheduling.

Figure out their love language.

There are 5 love languages that have been identified by Dr. Gary Chapman. You can read his book called “The 5 Love Languages of Children” to find out how to identify your child’s love language.

Does she like hugs? Her love language might be “touch”. Does he respond well to your attaboys and compliments? Maybe his love language is “words of affirmation”. Find out what makes your child feel loved and then interact often with them using that language.

https://amzn.to/3BpON2B

Pray with them.

Ask them what they would like to pray about and pray with them. Take their concerns seriously. Tell them that Jesus cares about everything that they care about. He wants to answer their prayers, and He will answer them. If we pray according to His will, we will have it. Help them to understand that we must find out His will so that we know that He will answer our prayers. Teach them how to listen to God so they can know His will.

Pray over them.

Lay hands on your children and pray for them. They will see you modeling prayer, and they will feel your love and care for them. Pray for their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. Pray for the things they have told you they were concerned about. Pray for their walk with God. Ask God to release them into the destiny that He has for them.

Share with them what you are hearing from God. Tell them how you heard God speak to you. Pay attention to their dreams and desires. Ask them what God is saying to them or showing them.

Read the book by Shawn Bolz called “Growing Up with God”. Two of my children asked Jesus into their hearts after reading this book together! It also teaches them how to hear God.

https://amzn.to/3iPuLGz

Have videos about Bible stories available for them to watch. Use children’s Bibles like “The Jesus Storybook Bible”, “Jesus Calling Bible Storybook”.

https://amzn.to/3eCTbSf

https://amzn.to/3BuQ7kG

Pray together as a family

This one can be tricky. We want to make sure this is a pleasant experience for all. We need to make sure that the children don’t feel pressured or coerced into praying, or they won’t want to do it. But we should definitely present the opportunity for each of the children to pray out loud.

Pray for the family’s needs. Pray about situations that you and your children are concerned about. Pray about relationships in the family. And pray for the people you love. Praying together is powerful. It’s another opportunity for you to model prayer for your children, and it’s a chance to show them that you really believe in the power of prayer. Praying together with others multiplies our prayer power, and I believe there is an extra dimension of power when families unite in prayer.

Keep track of answers to prayer, and make sure to tell your kids about them.

Rehearse the wonderful things that God has done for your family and the many answers to prayer that you have seen over the years.

Another thing you might want to do is start a family journal that anyone in the family can write in. Put it in a prominent place, and tell your husband and kids that they are welcome to write anything they want in it (within reason, of course). Tell them to record answers to prayer and things that the family has enjoyed together.

We can give our children a good, solid spiritual foundation and plant lots of good seeds. It is up to each child to choose their path, but we can give them a good start. If they stray for a while, we can always pray according to the scripture in Proverbs 22:6

And trust God to lead them into their prophetic destiny.