What is our recipe for home school survival??????  We start our day off with God’s Word, pray, and a devotional.  Sometimes the boys journal or just take in the God’s word, but we  start off the day with His ways.

However, several other things have been  essential ingredients to our home school..

1)  short lessons  ~ Plant seeds

2) read lots of books out loud ~ especially books on character.

3)  start building a home library.  Your local library might have annual sales.  I got over 80 books for less than 20.00.  All education type ~ history, science, nature, and some electives of interest.

4)  Have Daddy hold the kiddos accountable and tell him one thing that they learned that day or show him  one peice of work.

5)  Write down a list with 2 columns of the things that you want your children to learn.  One column is the necessities to live a Godly and adequate life and the other ones are items or subjects that  you feel would benefit them if they knew, but not mandatory to be equip to serve the Lord.  For example,  writing a letter, balancing a check book, character traits, multiplication would go under Necessities.  The second list would compile things like knowing the 50 states/capitals, diagramming sentences, calculus, and maybe reading music or learning ASL.  Now, of course, each families lists are going to be different.  Then concentrate first on the necessities and maybe just touch on the others.  If you child shows an interest in that area ~ than expand, but if not just touch on the subject well enough so they aren’t dumb in it.

6)  All children are created different and unique.  Get the grade level thing out of your head.  Who cares?  Believe me, it has taken me 4 years to grasp this!

7)  and last but not least ~ Please remember why you are home schooling.  You might need to write it down or post it on the refrigerator or even on your  kiddos forehead.  But, if the Lord has called you to this much needed important ministry than trust in Him and allow Him to guide your home school not the secular world.  Yes, I know this is a toughie!!!!!

I only speak from my struggles and the things that I have learned over the last 4 years, by any means I am not an expert.  But, I do know that I can’t teach my children every thing in this world, but I can teach them the gift of learning and to love the Lord.  Our main goal in educating our children is to glorify Him and train them to be equip to serve the Lord for the plan he has for each one of our 5 boys.

To peak into others recipe for home school success, visit The Principle Discovery.