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You CAN Homeschool High School!

Some people think of homeschooling as something that is only for young children, and then at some point you need to put them in “school”.

I disagree. I think the best thing we can do for our kids is to homeschool them all the way through high school.
If you desire to keep that warm, close relationship that you’ve been building with your teen instead of sending him or her away just because you’re afraid you can’t do a good job of covering the high school years, I’ve got good news for you. It’s not hard to homeschool high school. By the time they’re in high school, they can do everything independently. All you have to do is find out what they’re interested in and let them major in that. You can find curriculum for the basic subjects like English, Math, Science, and Social Studies and let them work through it on their own.
Just think about what high school was like for you. Did the teachers really teach you by their lectures, or did you learn by reading the books? Or did you really learn at all? Or did you just do whatever you had to do to pass the tests and make good grades.
Homeschooling your child through high school is your best chance to let them learn what they really need to learn in life. And to keep them from losing all of the values and ideals you worked so hard to instill in them. To me, putting them in school is tantamount to undoing all the work you did up to that point. That’s how I feel about it.
So to help you feel more confident about homeschooling them through high school, I’ll give you a few tips.
  1. Making a transcript is not hard. I have made transcripts for many people. I have a template I use that makes it very easy.
  2. You don’t even have to keep grades in the different subjects unless you want to. I estimate grades for the transcript based on the student’s effort and their interest in the subject. The grades given by teachers in schools are often subjective and don’t always reflect the level of knowledge of the student. You may need to think differently about grades and how important they really are. Give your student a grade that reflects how well they learned the subject, not how well they did on tests.
  3. Let your teen help plan what they want to study. Give them the chance to take the reins and make their education their own. This is their education, not yours. All you need to do is facilitate. Help them get whatever supplies, courses, or opportunities they need to dig deeper into the things that they are interested in and may want to do as a future career. You can even help them with hobbies they enjoy and give them time to enjoy them.
  4. There are ways to get your kids into sports if they are great athletes, and it means a lot to them. There are some schools that allow homeschoolers to play, some Christian schools. You just have to research and find a way to make it happen. It may not be easy, but God will guide you and help you find everything you need for your children.
  5. They can get a job, and their employers will love them, because they are available at times other students are not available to work.
  6. You can find a group that has a nice graduation ceremony if that’s important to you. Again, just research and find out what’s available in your area.
  7. And you can get a nice diploma for your student. I like to use Homeschooldiploma.com. I have used them many times, and their diplomas look very professional and authentic. You don’t need to feel like you aren’t qualified to give your child a diploma. You are more qualified than the teachers who would have barely known your child and could only assess them based on a few hours in their class. You know your child. You know the time and effort they put into their studies. You know their interests and their hopes and dreams. You are the most qualified to pronounce that they are ready to move on to the next stage of life. 
        So I hope this helps you to feel better about your ability to homeschool your child all the way through high school. It may take more work to find some of the things that schools provide, but, in the end, it will be a much better experience for you and for your child.

Here’s the Transcript I like to use. 

If you have any questions, email me and I would be glad to help you! penneymaried@yahoo.com – Use the subject heading “Homeschooling High School”

June Newsletter from Safe Haven Homeschooling

Hello Safe Haven Family,

I hope this season is going well for you and your family. Are you busy with weddings, picnics, graduations, and gardening?

I looked at the Almanac and saw that there are some fun days that we can celebrate in June besides the main ones that may not be something we would want to celebrate, if you get my drift.

Just for fun you could celebrate:June 1: Say Something Nice Day
June 3: Chimborazo Day
June 6: National Yo-Yo Day
June 8: Upsy Daisy Day
June 21: Go Skateboarding Day
June 30: Asteroid Day

I had never heard of Chimborazo Day, but here’s what it is:
Chimborazo Day is celebrated on June 3rd every year to honor the highest point on Earth, Chimborazo mountain, located in the Cordillera Occidental range of the Andes in Ecuador. The mountain measures 20,000 feet, which is less than Mount Everest, which is more than 29,000 feet. It is also a day for hiking enthusiasts to hit the closest trail.

So you could go hiking on June 3 and say that you’re celebrating Chimborazo Day. Just for fun!

National Upsy Daisy Day is a sweet one.
National Upsy Daisy Day is celebrated on June 8 every year to encourage people to face the day positively and wake up each morning feeling grateful, glorious, and gleeful. It was created in 2003 by Stephanie West Allen to remind people that every day is a gift and it is important to start our day with a good attitude and a smile on our faces.

These are much better things to celebrate than what the culture is telling us we are supposed to celebrate in June. Of course, Flag Day is good. And Summer Solstice is nice since it’s the day with the most hours of daylight. We don’t have to go along with the woke holidays that the media tries to push on us.

My family went to a circus in our little town of Farmersville. We really enjoyed it! Those circus performers are in great shape!

No, this is not a picture of the circus performers! It’s my family.

Have you noticed that I haven’t said anything about current events yet in this newsletter? I thought I would give you a break from the serious stuff.
——–😇😇😇———–

Okay, break’s over!

Well, there’s some good news. The Durham Report finally came out! It’s full of evidence that the Clinton campaign and all of the Russia, Russia, Russia conspirators made up the whole thing to interfere with an election and to try to unseat a sitting President.

And Marjorie Taylor Green is going to impeach them all!

Have you thought about what the word “conspiracy” means? It means “a secret plan for accomplishing evil or unlawful ends”. Is there anything in that definition that says a conspiracy is automatically FALSE?  No, there isn’t. In fact, there are evil people that have been conspiring together all throughout history. It’s not a theory. It’s a proven fact.

This transgender movement is a conspiracy between some people who have been planning this for years. This is part of their plan for depopulation. Protect your children as much as you can from all of the propaganda. It is insidious. It’s treacherous. It’s everywhere!

One thing you can do to help shield your kids is to affirm their identity in Christ. Tell them they are fearfully and wonderfully made, and that God made them just the way they are. Read Psalm 139:13-18 from The Passion Translation to your children.

I’m about to boycott the library. I can’t believe the flood of “pride” books and activities they are promoting. Here again is that flood of dissipation! It makes me sad (and MAD) because the library used to be one of my favorite places to go.

These terrible things that are happening in our nation and around the world are all related and come from those conspiracy folks – the ones who have truly been conspiring to carry out evil plans. The prostitution, pornography, human trafficking, child trafficking, pedophilia, transgender, and homosexual agenda are all linked. Their next goal is to decriminalize pedophilia. All are a perversion of God’s gift of sexuality. And all are meant to keep people from living the life God has called them to.

The enemy has captured a lot of victims through these methods. It’s time for us to take these victims back for the Kingdom.

1. We can decree and declare that those who have been taken into this bondage are delivered and set free.
2. Pray for individuals that you know who are in bondage to pornography to be delivered.
3. Pray for a spirit of repentance over this nation and the world.
4. Pray for the children who have been kidnapped and forced into slavery. Pray for their escape and their rescue.

Well, I couldn’t keep from talking about this issue since it’s in all of our faces every day. I pray that you and your families will be protected from this evil agenda. I have friends who have been affected by it, and it’s heartbreaking. Let’s all pray for our children and the children of the world.

Let’s not allow this younger generation to be lost to the woke agenda and the absolutely twisted view of right and wrong. Homeschool your kids or find the best possible alternative to public school. It won’t guarantee that your kids will escape this crazy world’s entrapment, but it increases their odds.

Speaking of which…

~~~~~~~~~~~~Homeschool Corner~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sign up for the waitlist for The Intentional Homeschool Planning Conference 2023!

Jessica Anderson is the founder and host of this conference. This is the third year we’ve done this conference, and this will be the best one yet!

This year’s conference is focused on providing parents and students with a Christ-centered approach to homeschooling that emphasizes the importance of identity and purpose. We believe that by unlocking their potential through a personalized homeschooling plan, students can thrive academically and spiritually.

I have been privileged to help Jessica with these conferences, and I can tell you that Jessica has a pure heart and a burning desire to help homeschool families and children. We both want to bless the homeschool community and to bring the best speakers and the best experience for those who are committed to homeschooling their children all the way through high school.

You don’t want to miss The Intentional Homeschool Planning Conference if you are planning to homeschool all the way to graduation (and beyond)! You will learn the nuts and bolts of homeschooling high school and be encouraged, inspired, and fired up to carry on with this homeschool adventure and to finish well. We can give our children the best possible education with God’s help and His wisdom.

Come and catch the spirit and enthusiasm of homeschool experts who will pass on their knowledge and settle your doubts and fears about homeschooling high school.

Come and join us for an exciting time of learning and fellowship!

And now let’s talk about BOOKS!

A Book Club, that is!

Another great opportunity for learning and fellowship is our Christian Mom’s Book Club. We have such a good time discussing some great books about homeschooling, parenting, and discipleship. We have even been blessed to have some of the authors come and visit us when we talk about their books! Keep yourself refreshed and motivated by joining us for our Christian Mom’s Book Club.

Mom’s Book Club

And here’s a freebie for you! My Copywork Journal that gives you a place to keep your child’s copywork and also provides some ideas for finding good selections to copy!

Thanks for reading! Have a Blessed June and a Glorious Summer!

If you have any prayer requests, hit reply and let me know.

If you have any questions, hit reply and I’ll give you more details about the conference or the book club or whatever else.

Don’t forget to check out my books on Amazon and my curriculum on Teachers Pay Teachers!

Love,

Penney Douglas, B.S. in Ed.
Safe Haven Homeschooling

Changed By Love – my personal blog
linktr.ee/penneydouglas
Homeschool Books I’ve written – on Amazon (other books I’ve written too!)
Homeschool Curriculum I’ve written – on Teachers Pay Teachers
Homeschooling Can Be Fun Facebook Group

Copyright © 2023 Safe Haven Homeschooling, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website.

The Best is Yet to Come!

Dear Safe Haven Family,

How is your faith doing? Is it growing or shrinking? Check your faith level, and report back to me. (Just kidding). These times are testing our faith, but that’s good. How can our faith grow unless we use it? Our faith is getting stronger as we’re working it just like our muscles get stronger as we work them.

Our faith pleases God. The Bible tells us that it’s impossible to please God without faith. The Lord showed me that our faith is precious to Him. When we trust Him, we show Him that we really love Him.

I recently watched a video by JP Sears called “I Changed My Mind about God and Here’s Why”. In it he tells about how the whole plandemic and the things that happened around it caused him to become more Christian without even trying!

I think that has happened for a lot of people. I see more people praying when disaster strikes, even newscasters on mainstream media. And there just seems to be an atmosphere in the public square of accepted belief in God and prayer. Things seem so bleak in the natural that many people are turning their hearts to spiritual things.

I’m sure the revivals are making an impact, too.

At the same time, the assault on our youth is escalating exponentially. They are stealing the innocence of our children. Drag Queen Story Hours are happening everywhere. I can’t understand parents who would take their child to something like that. And some people are talking about starting Gender Affirming Care that entails hormone therapy and cutting off body parts for children under 16.

Watch a video about people who are detransitioning after the nightmare of trying to live a false life.

And here’s a video about a Navy Seal who transitioned to a woman, then regretted it, and has detransitioned back to a man.

A Swedish study found that “Death for sex-reassigned persons was higher than for controls of same birth sex, particularly death from suicide. They also had increased risk for suicide attempts and psychiatric inpatient care.”

And child trafficking is being exposed by a whistleblower who was working for the government.

In spite of these trends, I still believe that the best is yet to come. One reason I believe this is that these terrible things are being exposed, and people are standing up against them. Many of these atrocities have been happening for decades, but they were hidden. Now they are being exposed to the light, and we know that light defeats darkness.

We are all going through a test of faith. Unfortunately, many have fallen to the enemy and have believed the media, Hollywood, the schools, and the government. They handed over their freedom and pushed others to do the same. But there are also many that have been awakened.  Many have realized that this planet needs God. We all need Him. We need Him to help us recognize the truth from lies.

We need His healing power and signs and wonders and miracles. We need His protection. We need the comfort and hope that He gives us through His Holy Spirit. And we need to know that He loves us and is with us through all of this. He has a plan to deliver us from the evil governments that have been running almost every nation. And He is carrying out His plan through people. It is very covert. They don’t reveal what they’re up to, because they don’t want the enemy to know their plans.

They are working to take back all of the mountains of influence – government, arts and entertainment, media, education, family, religion, and business. You see all the shake-ups among the banks? Why is that happening? Because these heroes are taking the dirty money away from them, which they have been gaining by usury and extortion for decades or centuries. You see the exposure of child trafficking? It has been happening all over the world for a long time. Why are we just now hearing about it? Because it is being dealt with – by our military and others who are involved in rescuing children.

You hear about Hunter’s laptop? That is exposing the illegal and immoral activities our highest “elected” officials have been involved in for a long, long time. Don’t forget Anthony Weiner’s laptop. It exposes the elites that he worked closely with. (I won’t mention her name here.) The criminal acts of the FBI, the DOJ, and the CIA are being uncovered. There are some good people who work at these agencies, and some of them are whistle blowers, but the ones at the top are corrupt.

Many of the emergencies and disasters that have happened or seem likely to happen soon are caused by the cabal panicking and fighting to protect their assets or find other ways to make more money. They also find new ways to destroy our lives any chance they get. They consider us chattel – property. They think they are better than us. So their goal is to kill most of us, so they can have everything to themselves. Look up the Georgia Guidestones and read about their plan to reduce the population of the world to 500 million. Just think of how many people they would have to kill!

That’s why they treated patients the way they did during the plandemic. They used a protocol in every hospital that caused many deaths and would not allow doctors to use any other treatments like ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine. They knew that these medicines work and are safe, but they told everyone the opposite. But it’s all coming out now. Many countries and industries are taking down the mandates and giving people their jobs back with back pay. The FDA says the monovalent Moderna and Pfizer covid vaccines are no longer authorized in the US.

And if you want to hear proof that there really is a plan in operation to take the world back from the evil rulers, listen to Derek Johnson lay it all out for you.

So be of good cheer! I’m not kidding when I say “The best is yet to come”. I have faith, and I have proof. I see signs that the systems that have kept us in bondage are being dismantled before our eyes. And don’t worry about the failure of the fiat dollar. We are getting a new currency soon that is gold-backed.

God is with us. And God wins!

~~~~~~~~~~~Homeschool Corner~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What is copywork and why should we use it in our homeschool?

In a nutshell, copywork is just copying written text. But it is a really good way to give your children practice in writing and interacting with great literature. There are so many benefits of using copywork in your homeschooling. Handwriting practice is just one of them. They also learn grammar rules, syntax of composition, vocabulary, spelling, and the beauty of written words. Copywork allows the reader time to digest the thoughts, ideas, and words of great authors and of Scripture. It causes them to pay attention to words and to focus on details. The more they interact with great writing, the more they will start to think the same way and write the same way. The very act of writing something helps us to remember it better. So copywork is a very good practice to include in your Language Arts program.

I made a journal that you can use to keep your child’s copywork all together in one place. I included some writing prompts and guidance for what kind of writing to choose to copy.

You can get my FREE Copywork Journal at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Read my blog post about “The Benefits of Copywork”.

Here are some free notebook pages for copywork from a site that I really like.
If you are looking for a God-centered Mom’s Book Club for moms who desire support, prayer, and building friendships, look no further!

This unique Christian Mom’s Book Club is entirely focused on equipping you to have the tools you need so you can continue to grow in your relationship with Christ and be intentional with your life.

We will help you take action to implement a task/strategy that you learned in each book and share it with the group so you can receive feedback and we can cheer you on.

Join us here at Christian Moms Book Club

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sign up for the waitlist today for the Intentional Homeschool Planning Conference so you can gain early access to registration and receive updates as they become available. Stay tuned, as I’ll be sharing more about this exciting event in the coming weeks!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And, as always, please consider joining us at our Intentional Homeschool Planning Community where you will get coaching, support, encouragement, and fellowship with homeschool moms who are in the trenches with you and love to share this homeschool life together.

Thanks for reading!

Any questions or prayer requests, hit reply and let me know.

Love,
Penney Douglas
Safe Haven Homeschooling

Changed By Love Blog
linktr.ee/penneydouglas
Amazon Books by Penney
Curriculum by Penney -Narration Journals and other Journals
E-course – The Basics of Learning and Homeschooling

Copyright © 2023 Safe Haven Homeschooling, All rights reserved.

The Benefits of Copywork

What is Copywork?

 

Have you ever heard of copywork? If you have been around anyone who uses the Charlotte Mason approach, you have probably at least heard the term. But do you know what it is? In a nutshell, copywork is copying written text. That sounds simple and obvious, doesn’t it? What is the big deal about copywork?

Well, copywork helps with “handwriting, spelling, punctuation, grammar, vocabulary, great ideas seeping into growing minds, reading skill and comprehension, and even thought leadership.  Your leadership, guiding your child’s thought life through carefully chosen verses and quotes in copywork.”

Are you surprised that it helps with so many things? I was. I didn’t think that any good could come from it the first time I heard about it. I had an aversion to any kind of copying. I just saw it as busywork. But as I heard others describing all of the benefits of copywork, I began to understand the concept. Now I’m a true believer in the benefits of copywork.

Now that you’re convinced that copywork is important and beneficial 😉, how do we do copywork?

We can find good things for our kids to copy that will instill good values and character traits. Things like Scripture or passages from great literature or quotes from great people. You can have your children copy poetry. They can copy lists of famous inventors or favorite dinosaurs.

When we copy written words, especially of great writers or from inspirational literature, our thinking is inspired, and we learn it on a deeper level. It helps with memorization too.

It also helps with building our vocabulary, spelling skills, handwriting, grammar, and information retention.

Here are some of the benefits of using copywork in your homeschool:

1. A Focus on the Mechanical Skills of Handwriting

Children can practice writing without having to come up with original content.

2. Gently Teaches Grammar

By copying great writing children learn the natural flow of language. They start to grasp the syntax of composition. They learn about capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.

3. Builds Vocabulary

By giving your students quality sentences, quotes, living books, and poetry that contain rich vocabulary, you will be challenging them to learn the meanings of and to broaden their use of various words.

4. Grows the Skill of Spelling

Every time you write a word correctly, you are improving your spelling. Doing copywork for spelling strengthens our neural pathways through the repetition of writing.

5. Builds the Habit of Attention

When your kids write words (copy them) they have to pay attention to each letter. They begin to realize and understand how words are put together. They learn the phonics and grammar rules intuitively and without having to go through and memorize a boring list of rules.

Developing the habit of attention will benefit them for the rest of their lives. 
6. Exposure to Literary Geniuses

Copywork allows us to build relations with great works of literature and the talented authors who wrote them. It gives them experience with significant concepts, deep ideas, and the beauty of written words.

Copywork, the act of writing those words, allows the reader time to digest the thoughts, ideas, and words of these great authors.

As Charlotte Mason said:

Thought breeds thought. Children familiar with great thoughts take as naturally to thinking for themselves as the well-nourished body takes to growing; and we must bear in mind that growth, physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, is the sole end of education.

She also said that ideas are mind food. The mind lives and grows and is nourished upon ideas.

Put your children in touch with great thinkers and great authors.

Another great Charlotte Mason quote that can help us choose good books to read aloud to our own children and to read for themselves, and to use for copywork is:

The children’s lessons should provide material for their mental growth, should exercise the several powers of their minds, should furnish them with fruitful ideas, and should afford them knowledge, really valuable for its own sake, accurate and interesting, of the kind that the child may recall as a man with profit and pleasure.

7. Short, Effective, and Concise Lessons

Charlotte Mason advocated using short lessons to keep children from getting exasperated with lessons and to easily keep their attention. Copywork is a simple task that can be accomplished within 10-15 minutes and yields good results in the areas of handwriting, grammar, spelling, vocabulary, and literacy.

8. Information Retention

When we write things down we remember them better. The brain-to-writing connection that we get from copywork helps us to remember the meaningful things that we choose to jot down.

And one more quote from Charlotte Mason that I find so inspiring:

To introduce children to literature is to install them in a very rich and glorious kingdom, to bring a continual holiday to their doors, to lay before them a feast exquisitely served. But they must learn to know literature by being familiar with it from the very first. A child’s intercourse must always be with good books, the best that we can find.

To make the most of copywork, we should provide our children with high quality literature, quotes, and inspirational materials that will build their character as well as their Language Arts skills.

Here are some good quotes about how copywork can be a blessing to your homeschool.

“Children should transcribe favourite passages. ––A certain sense of possession and delight may be added to this exercise if children are allowed to choose for transcription their favorite verse in one poem or another…   But a book of their own, made up of their own chosen verses, should give them pleasure.”  ~ Charlotte Mason (1842-1923)

“Its purpose is to improve the child’s handwriting, expose them to noble thoughts, good sentence structure, rich vocabulary and introduce basic punctuation and capitalization rules. Even grammar is incidentally taught but this is just an added benefit and not the purpose for copywork.” Linda Johnson, Charlotte Mason Help

This site Practical Pages is a great place to get some good copywork and other notebooking pages.

Another good source is homeschoolcopywork.com

I really like to use Character Handwriting, too. I prefer teaching my kids Italic handwriting, so I use the Italic version of these Character copywork books. But they also have workbooks in D’Nealian and Zaner-Bloser.

And I have put together a Copywork Journal that you can get HERE for free at TeachersPayTeachers.com

Functional Family Schooling

 

Family is the building block of society

It starts at home.
What starts at home?
Everything in a person’s life!

There are SO many things that children learn at home from their parents and from living in a family.

Children learn at home how to:

– treat people well
– love unconditionally
– forgive
– walk in love
– walk in truth
– walk in the Spirit.

They learn proper ways to handle conflict.

They learn:
– respect
– honor
– obedience
– trust
– unselfishness
– servanthood
– leadership
– independence
– self-control
– sharing
– loving others more than themselves
– taking care of those who are younger or weaker and teaching them
– working together as a team
– how to make the family successful and a pleasant place to dwell together in unity and mutual respect and love.

After providing our children with this knowledge and skillset, we send them out into society prepared and equipped and ready to bring benefit and add value everywhere they go. They shine the light of Jesus and preach the Gospel – in word and in deed.

This is how we set them up for a successful Christian life.

In a homeschooling context, what do we teach and how do we go about planting these values in the hearts of our children?

There are many important avenues for teaching these kinds of ideas and values.

Some of these are tying heart strings, building the family that you want, teaching how to do relationships the right way, and prophetic parenting.

Let’s start with tying heart strings. How do we draw our children close to us? We must do the obvious things like spending time with them and encouraging them and treating them with love and respect. But we also need to share our experiences with them and let them see that we are human and understand how they feel. Of course, we have to make sure that they are at an age and developmental level that is appropriate for whatever topic we are addressing. For instance, if we want to teach our child about compassion, we might share a story of a time we forgave someone for something that was very hard to forgive and reached out in an act of kindness. But if they are too young to understand, we should save that topic for a later date when they are developmentally able to understand that level of forgiveness and compassion.

When it comes to correction and discipline, we should make sure that we have deposited enough love, warmth and affirmation along the way. Then when they need correction it is easier for them to receive it from us without feeling condescended to or rejected. They need to feel like they are understood and that we are not asking anything of them that they are not capable of. We need to make sure they see us as a loving parent who wants what is best for them and not a harsh ruler on a power trip. And that shapes their fundamental beliefs about authority and its true purpose. And the upside is we keep the connection and preserve a good relationship with the child.

The heartstrings get cut when we react toward our children in anger, frustration, or irritation. When we react out of negative emotions, such as frustration, we cause them to fear us. Correction becomes something to avoid, which can lead to dishonesty and hiding. Yelling and snapping at them is never beneficial in any way. If we do lose our temper, we need to go to the child and apologize. We are setting an example for them in everything we do. And we should be teaching them how to preserve connection with other people even in times of conflict.

Build the family that you want. Read, research, and raise your children in the ways of the Lord. Read good books about the importance of family and how to raise a godly family. Set the tone and the ground rules in your home for a pleasant, safe, and fun experience for everyone in your family. If you want to build a Christian family, then do the Christian disciplines alongside your children. Pray together as a family. Read the Bible and discuss it together. Go to church together or worship together at home. Do service activities together as a family. Practice hospitality and invite guests for meals, and have the children help with preparation, serving, and entertaining the guests. If other values are important to you, build those into your routines, your family culture, and the conversation in your home. Your family will have their own unique culture. Talk about it with your children and emphasize that they belong to a family that has specific values and goals, and that each person is important and needed. Help them to feel proud of being a part of this amazing family that God has put them into.

Teach them how to build good relationships. The skills for building good relationships are learned at home. Our children learn to share, compromise, negotiate, forgive, apologize, and redirect attention through their interactions with siblings and with their parents. In homeschool families, we don’t send our children out to figure out on their own how to deal with bullying or other immature and harmful behaviors that are inevitable among groups of children. Help them choose good friends and help them through conflicts and disagreements that arise in those relationships, too.

We can also practice prophetic parenting. When you pray for your children, ask God to show you what He wants you to say to them and how He wants you to guide them into His path for their lives. Ask the Lord for words of wisdom, words of knowledge, and actual prophetic words to speak over their lives and to speak to them so that they can experience for themselves God speaking to them. This will help you to be sure that you are giving them good guidance, and it will encourage them to ask God to speak to them personally.

Homeschooling is more than giving our children an academic education at home. It’s more than making sure that we provide the best curriculum and materials and learning experiences for them. If we do it right, we will teach them character, integrity, honesty, and consideration for others. We will help them to become well-rounded people who will become excellent friends, spouses, leaders, and citizens.  Familyschooling is more likely to produce these results. So many important skills and values are learned through a strong family that is committed to loving each other and learning together how to handle adversity and leaning on each other when they need help. Strong families build strong people. And strong people build strong communities. And strong communities build a strong society. Your family is that important. Make it a priority to steward it well.