Tag: bible

Caught More Than Taught

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I would probably be a teacher even if I didn’t homeschool.  I love the research of finding out new ways to learn and finding out how to get a subject across to a child that doesn’t seem to get it in the usual way.  Before I was a homeschool Mom, I was an elementary school teacher in the public school system.  I always knew that I would homeschool my kids but I also knew I would teach until the time came for me to teach my own children.

All that to say, character training is particular love of mine to find materials that will help my kids in their journey of practicing the fruits of the Spirit.  I use many different materials depending on what I see my kids walking through but I have also been learning from the Lord that even though its good to teach character training, I also need to live it.  Things can sometimes be caught more than taught.  This is encouraging to me because if my kids don’t seem to be getting what we are trying to teach them about the fruits of the Spirit, I know there’s hope that they will get it someday.  Perhaps the best way some of my kids will get their character training will be through watching me.  This is a hopeful and scary thought at the same time.  I desire them to only see and follow the “good” traits and ignore the times when I am not even close to demonstrating the fruits of the Spirit.  I think God has grace for those times when we mess up and I have gone to my kids and asked their forgiveness sometimes.  I was reading a homeschool “how-to” book recently and I was inspired by a poem that the author included in one of the chapters.  I thought I would share it with you.

I Caught Your Faith

I saw you stand bravely for years

But saw no trace of senseless tears

I saw you stand calmly through stress

But caught no glimpse of bitterness

I saw you stand prayerful in grief but saw no trace of unbelief

Though you spoke well of Jesus Christ

I caught your faith, watching your life

Anonymous

Be encouraged that even if you think you aren’t teaching the right thing or maybe your kids don’t seem to be getting the “character” training like you desire, they are watching your life and actions.  You have great influence in your children’s lives and God has chosen you to raise these warriors.  You are doing an amazing job!

Blessings

Top 10 Favorite Discipleship Books for Kids

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Walking out the journey of loving God and loving people is our ultimate goal with our children.  We want to help grow the different talents and dreams that God has given each of our kids.  So, part of my homeschooling curriculum to have the kids have a “growth” book.  This is usually some kind of discipleship book or inspirational book that helps them grow in their walk with God.  Here are a few of my favorites….

  1. Eyes to See and Ears to Hear by Jennifer Toledo

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This is a book that teaches kids how to hear and interact with Jesus.  Its a great tool for parents to use with their kids.  It also has testimonies of other kids and their walk with God.  Jennifer Toledo is the founder of Global Children’s Movement.  They change kids lives all over the world.  If you ever get a chance to hear her or read her materials, its amazing what God is doing through her and her family.

2. Can you Hear Me? by Brad Jersak

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This is another favorite book of mine that teaches kids how to interact with Jesus and how he sees them.  One of my favorite features of this book is that in the back of the book there is a section for parents how they can teach their kids to hear the voice of God and the different ways God wants to talk  to them.  Brad Jersak also wrote and adult version that is also excellent.

3.  Apologia-What We Believe Series Volume 1-4 by John Hay and David Webb

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This is an excellent discipleship series for you to walk through with your kids.  It has a lot of depth to the information, so we read just a few pages at a time during our Bible time.  We are currently on “Who is my Neighbor?” which is Volume 3.  I have enjoyed how in this particular volume they have introduced the main world religions through a biblical perspective.  For example they introduced us to a family from India that believes in the Hindu religion.  As we get to know the family, the book explains the belief system of the Hindu religion.  Then at the end of the chapter, it has the kids discuss the differences between the Hindu religion and Christianity.  This has facilitated some thought provoking discussions with my kids.

4. Answers for Kids Volumes 1-4 by Ken Ham

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These 4 small hard back books are an amazing resource for all those “Why?” kids that live in our homes.  The creative format has each page start with an actual question from a child and then the author proceeds to answer that question according to the Bible.  We have loved to include this in our Bible time by reading just one question a day.  I believe answering some of the “Why?” questions that our kids have about the Bible helps build their faith.

5. Here Comes Heaven by Bill Johnson

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I appreciate the understandable way that this book explains who kids are in Christ and how to walk out their journey with God.  It also has a journal feature at back of each chapter which allows kids to think about what the chapter was talking about.  Its a phenomenal discipleship book that helps kids go deeper with God.

6. The Day the World Went Wacky by Janine Suter

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This is a delightful book about creation and the beginning of the world.  The illustrations are hilarious and it uses poetic form in the writing so kids remember the story.  This book is written for elementary age kids, but my older kids have really enjoyed it too.  Even though its written in a story form, the book explains many answers to kids on how God made the world and how sin entered into the world.  There are two other books in the series, “Noah’s Floating Animal Park” and “The Not So Super Skyscraper” which is about the Tower of Babel.  I am hoping that this author writes more books because she has a talent of explaining  biblical principles through amazing story telling.

7.  A is for Adam by Ken Ham and Mally Ham

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The is an excellent early elementary introduction to Apologetics.  The book takes you through the alphabet and walks you through creation and the provision that Jesus gave with the sacrifice of his life.  Some features that I thought were helpful is the commentary for parents in the back of the book for each page and the student activities that they can choose to do with their children.  The book also has coloring pages in the back that you can photocopy for the little ones that want to color the different alphabet pages you read.

8. Discover for Yourself- Inductive Bible Studies for Kids by Kay Arthur

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If you want your children to go deeper in the Word of God then these books are for you.  Kay Arthur does an amazing job of leading kids to go deeper in the word.  Each inductive bible study that she has written focuses on a certain passage of scripture, a character in the bible or a biblical concept.  They are written for upper elementary and older.

9.  Battlefield of the Mind for Kids by Joyce Meyer

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We teach our kids that they do not fight against flesh and blood but that their true enemy is Satan.  Sometimes the greatest battle our kids have is what they think of themselves and what they think is their part in the world.  Battlefield of the mind for kids is a great resource for kids to read and help them to start thinking differently.  We have even used it with our teenager and it helped him think about things a little differently.

10.  Lamplighter Books- Building Christ-Like Character

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This is one of my favorite publishing companies for character building books.  The books are older stories that teach certain lessons about life by focusing on a character’s problems and how they solve them with God.  Our favorite so far is “Sir Malcom and the Missing Prince” which is an amazing story about a selfish prince who learns how to be unselfish and loving.  The prince learns to be a great king, he must learn to serve and love the people around him. I usually do these books as read aloud books because they sometimes have a more challenging vocabulary because of the year that they were written in.  Any of the lamplighter books are worth your investment of time spent reading them and money spent buying them.

Speak to the Treasure

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Graham Cooke is probably one of my favorite speakers to listen to.  His wisdom that he shares is always encouraging to me in my walk with God.  He has this saying “Speak to the treasure and people will get rid of their own garbage.”  I believe all children have their moments when its more difficult to “speak to the treasure” in them.  But I know that God wants me to speak to who my kids are and not just how they are behaving.  When my kids choose to do things like lying, there are consequences for their actions, but I also have learned to use that opportunity to speak to who they are.    Each child is unique and different in how God made them.  You know your child best and can ask God to reveal to you the different talents and gifts that your children have.  We have had conversations with some of our children who are struggling with lying and talk about how God has made them to be truth tellers.

Another conversation that we have had with one of our sons was about how God has am amazing destiny for his life and wants to use him in adventurous ways.  This causes the enemy to want to mess with him.  We talked about the armor of God and how we don’t fight against flesh and blood but against Satan.  We can make the enemy grow weary with trying to take our peace.  God has made our son a warrior and given him the Holy Spirit to fight the enemy and not let him have any foothold in his life.  We are definitely not perfect at always speaking to the treasure in our children but when we remember to speak to who God says they are, we have seen a difference in their decisions and behavior.

Trust

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As a homeschooler I can sometimes be worried about if I am teaching the right things or fearing that I am not getting enough done in a day.  In our family life, we have gone through different storms that have caused me to worry or fear.  God has been walking with me on a journey of having peace in the midst of a storm and trust in Him.

During our “Bible” time yesterday with the kids I was reading Hebrews chapter 4 and 5.  It talked about trusting God even when things seem like they are not going well.  I am sure you have those times when you are teaching your kids and God uses that opportunity to speak to your heart.  I was sharing with the kids that when we worry or fear in our lives, we are not trusting God.  God desires to have us never worry or fear and to live in peace no matter what is happening around us.  I heard a speaker once give a great picture of what having peace in the storm might look like.  He was describing how there is a place in the Spirit where you can make the enemy grow tired because he can’t seem to move you from your place of peace.  We do not fight against flesh and blood but our true battle for peace is with Satan.  I want to make the enemy grow weary from trying to take my peace.

I remember a couple of years ago with my daughter in Children’s Hospital and having to trust God for a miracle.  I remember having this peace that I couldn’t explain.  People asked me how I was able to not go crazy with worry or how I made it through that time.  I couldn’t explain why, but I had an amazing peace that God was going to take care of everything.  He did take care of everything and my daughter is a walking miracle.  I am still on a journey of having peace.  I want to trust God at all times no matter the results or no matter what I am walking through in life.  It is a process but I am learning to enjoy the adventure of it.

You are an amazing educator for your children.  No one can teach or educate them the way you do.  You know your child best.  God desires for you to live without worry or fear.  I love that we can give those things to Him and do not have to take them back.

Cocoa Fridays

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Developing a relationship with Jesus Christ is the most important gift that I want my children to learn and receive from their experience of being homeschooled.  The different important subjects like Math, Reading, Writing and other various subjects are tools that they will need to fulfill the adventure that they will be walking out with God but the key to enjoying and experiencing the ultimate adventure is to have them develop a relationship with Jesus Christ.

I, of course, cannot make this happen in their lives.  Each of my children has their own journey to God that they get to walk out. But I do believe as parents we are called to disciple our children and encourage them in the things of God.  You are the ultimate teacher, mentor and prayer warrior for your child.  No one knows or loves your child like you do.  I believe God desires to give us creative ideas on different ways to disciple our children.

We try to have Bible time daily.  If I don’t get anything else done in homeschooling but Bible time, I have viewed my day as a success.  I used to have the kids sit and listen quietly while we read the Bible and different various character training books.  This worked but the attention span of my kids were lost quite quickly.  Out of my 5 children, I only have one kid who is an auditory learner.  He was getting the most out of our time because it was geared toward his learning style.  I needed creative ideas to reach all the kids during our Bible time.  I wanted it to be an enjoyable time for everybody and an opportunity to facilitate discussions.

I ended up making some simple changes that have helped our Bible time be more effective.  One of the fun things that my kids look forward to is “Cocoa Fridays”.  This was a really simple change but it was something the kids still enjoy today.  On Fridays, we serve hot cocoa during our Bible time.  On Friday, they will pester me, asking me if its “Cocoa Friday” time yet.  Another small change that made even a bigger impact on our Bible time was allowing the kids that wanted to, to draw or paint or color during out Bible time.  As long as they were able to still focus on the lesson, they could be creative in whatever they felt like doing.  This helped a couple of my kids actually be more focused and retain much more than they used to.  I am the type of learner that I have to listen and not do anything else during a lesson or I won’t get what the teacher is trying to teach.  I am realizing as I work with all my children, how creative God is in making all kinds of different learners and the opportunity I have as a homeschooler to teach in many different ways.  God is brilliant and He can give us all the creative ideas we will ever need to teach and encourage our children.