CHM 152: A Homeschool Power Boost for 2024 (Part 1)

Hi. I'm Dimitria, your host, a veteran homeschool mom of two wonderful daughters, one in college, one in high school. I'm also a wife, a songwriter, a podcaster, and a child of the King, and I'm super happy to be your host. To find out more about what I do for homeschool moms, you can check out my website at christianhomeschool Moms dot com. So on today's show, I went to say, first of all, Happy New Year, Happy twenty twenty four. This is my first episode of the year, and I just thought I would use this episode to give you a boost for an upcoming year for your homeschooling. So this is consider this your homeschool power boost for the year. I've spent the last twelve years encouraging homeschool moms on this podcast, and I intend to continue doing so as the Lord continues to give me grace to do this work. I appreciate the opportunity to be behind the microphone to minister to you because I am encouraged in my own homeschool journey as I'm speaking to you. So this is not a one way street here. We are both being encouraged on this show. And so I'm really very very grateful for you being part of the show in some way, whether you're a listener who listens to a few once in a while, or you're an avid listener you download all of the podcasts and listen to every single one, or maybe you found me on Instagram and listen to maybe one or two of them and decided to visit the blog and the YouTube channel as well, which is Mom's Est, and you've found some resources that helped you. I'm just glad either way that you're finding the help that you need in your homeschool journey. Feeling spiritually equipped to homeschool your kids involves nurturing a sense of purpose, patience, and connection. So I'm going to give you some suggestions on this show to help you feel spiritually grounded in your homeschool journey. I hope that you've had a wonderful holiday season and that all went well for you and your family, and I hope that you had time to reflect on your homeschool so far for the year when you listened hopefully to the last episode and we're able to journal your thoughts and reflect on twenty twenty three and how that went for you. And hopefully we are all able to take these journaling exercises into the upcoming year or into this year of twenty twenty four to see some differences and to feel more confident about what we're doing with our children. This truly is a calling. If you're a mom of faith, this is definitely a ministry in addition to all that you're doing with your kids to help them learn the practical subjects that they're learning with math and English and science and geography. Those are all important, but at the end of the day, they're also receiving a spiritual connection with you as a parent, and you are passing down some important, valuable lessons to your children, and those lessons are helping them to feel grounded in their relationship with you and in how they see God and how they see themselves in the world. And so your faith can be transferred to your children in that way as you raise them up in an environment that supports nurturing their souls and nurturing them in the faith. So remember that you are a minister when you have children, and you're a Christian mama. You are ministering to your kids every single day. Your ministry is both practical and it is spiritual. So the first suggestion that I have for you in helping you to feel more spiritually grounded in your journey this year is to remember your purpose. Remember your purpose for homeschooling. I want you to begin by reflecting on your spiritual values and the purpose behind choosing to homeschool. Consider how your faith and your beliefs aligned with the education that you want to provide for your children. It doesn't have to be a perfect plan, but just have that in mind what you want to be doing and how you want to portray your faith with your family. And then just remember that knowing your purpose can give you a sense of direction and motivation. You're going to feel a lot more excited about homeschooling your kids if you have a purpose for which you are doing so that it's not just because you want to try something and see how it works, or because all the families in your neighborhood are homeschooling and so you're just going to try it out. There's a lot of reasons you might want to dabble into homeschooling for a season. Maybe there are health issues in the family, or maybe you're moving. There could be a number of issues. While homeschooling is a logical, practical choice for you, but at the end of the day, you want to have a very solid purpose that keeps you grounded and keeps you going for the time that you need to So, whether that's months to come or years to come, you want to be grounded in your purpose for why you're doing it. For me, the road has been long. I've changed my mind about homeschooling at least once a year over the past years. So I'm not going to sit here and pretend like it's been so easy for me. It has not been easy. But I'm still here and God has worked all of this out for me and our family. Right now, as we are homeschooling our tenth grade daughter and it's just her and us, and our oldest is in college, so it's just the one child that we're homeschooling. And she's sixteen now, and she has a whole different set of things that she needs in her life that she didn't need five years ago, and so life is really really different. And I've had to think back on my purpose, the purpose that I had for homeschooling five years ago, three years ago, is it the same as today? And I've come to the conclusion that although the way we're homeschooling is different, and although the methods we use are different, although my motivations for homeschooling are a bit different now than they were before, my purpose remains the same. It remains the same, and that is to raise up my daughter in a way that best positions her to be successful and to launch her into the next phase of life with confidence. That's my main purpose, and surrounding that purpose is the foundational idea that I want her to be grounded in every way, and that includes in her faith, and so as I parent her as a teenager, I'm helping her to hopefully be able to be empowered to make choices that are going to be best for herself as she becomes an adult, and that she will think twice about before making decisions because she wants to not only do what's right for herself, but to honor God with her decisions. And so in raising a child in that way, I have to be very intentional and remember my purpose for why I've chosen the homeschooling path over all these years, when I could have very easily chosen to go work a corporate job, and we would have been a lot better off financially had I done that. But I'm great every single day that I made this decision, and my family is grateful. It was hard. We went through the school of hard knocks every single year for seventeen years. But it has been worth the cuts, the scrapes and all the hardness of it. And it's not so hard anymore, you know, as she's gotten older and now I'm only homeschooling the one. With time, it gets easier and as they get older, things change and so it's not hard like it used to be. And granted there were days that homeschooling was fun. I did have a season of fun homeschooling. That was when my kids were probably four and nine years old and maybe lasted for two or three years. But everything after that was harder, and it got harder and harder, and I think it was my hardest the year that my eldest daughter was a senior, So that was twenty twenty. That was my hardest year of homeschooling. And I kind of fell off the rocker after that because it was such a hard year and I had to come back from that and recalibrate because we had moved, and we had a lot of family changes in our lives in addition to her graduating, and we were getting my eldest daughter off ready to go off to college. So all of the emotional upheavals and ups and downs of the family dynamics beginning to really change. As you're starting to let your children go and leave the nest, it's hard, and so homeschooling that year just was not an easy year for us. And I almost quit that year and the year after let's see what happened COVID and so during the pandemic. It was a year that grounded me right back to homeschooling just because of the way things were in the world. And after that, we took it one year at a time with my youngest daughter to make a decision about what we were doing, and I opened up my world to all the possibilities, and I told her, if you want to go to private school, it's fine. If you want to go to public school, we'll see how that works. Not so sure about it, but if that's what you really want, we'll try to make the best decision based on what choices we have available in our area. And definitely Mama is over here doing this research to see what's good for you and what's not good for you. So that that's the conclusion we came to, is that I would open up the opportunity for us to pursue something different should that be what my daughter wanted to do, because I did not want to confine her to homeschooling as an only child if that was not her desire. So I kind of opened up the door for her in that area, and she was okay with virtual school for two years, but after that she said, no, I need to get out and go to school a little bit. So we chose a private school. And through all of us, I've had to remember my purpose in homeschooling, because after she did private school for a couple of months, we found for the second semester a new way to homeschool her through this school. So now she's in a hybrid homeschool through her private school. And it's just really been a blessing to run into this opportunity in this way. So remember your purpose, Why are you choosing to homeschool? And when the times get tough, are you going to stick with it? Are you going to hang in there? You have to think about your purpose. The second thing I want to encourage you to do is to add prayer and scripture into your daily routine. You'll want to incorporate spiritual practices into your everyday routine as a Christian. That is a spiritual discipline that we should already be doing and having in place in our lives. Regardless of whether your children are going to school every day or you're homeschooling them. Spiritual practices are important for raising kids because you, mama, need all of the groundedness that you can get in your life so that you can pass down those blessings in that piece that you're going to experience through time with God down to your children. So having the spiritual disciplines of prayer, meditating on the Word of God, reading the Bible, those are extremely important for your life as a mother, as a Christian mom. So start your day with moments of reflection. You don't want to hit the ground running without taking some time to reflect on the blessings that God has given you, whether it was a good night's sleep or if you didn't sleep good. You can start by thanking God that you believe him for the day ahead, that He's going to strengthen you that day, and so always start with Thanksgiving and just use those moments of reflection to help you center your spirit and set a positive tone for your homeschooling and for your parenting in general. So for me, that is daily Bible reading, and since twenty twenty four came in, I've been a lot more intentional about it, just because I have that space in my morning now that I dedicate to spending time with God. And so some of you know after listening to a few of my last episodes, that I started a job last semester working at my daughter's school, and so my schedule was so rigid that there wasn't a lot of time to do the things that I had done before, and so I had to be really creative about spending time with God and when I would have my Bible time, when I would have my devotionals, and how exactly I would incorporate that. And during that time is when my husband and I decided to pray together every single morning to help strengthen me for the day ahead, because it was going to be a long day at work. And so it was a blessing to have that discipline implemented into my daily life and into his life. It also brought us together even closer as a couple, and it's been something that I wish we had been doing every single morning for the past twenty two years of our marriage. We've married a long time. For all the time we've been married, we pray together, but not at the same time every morning, and so this was just a different thing for us that we tried, and it was nice because it's something that we looked forward to doing and connecting in that way, and it just helped us both to feel like we could take charge of the day because the spirit of God was with us and we felt just protected. Right. And so when you start the day speaking to God, you know, come together with your partner if you can, to talk about God, to pray together, and then by yourself to pray. And now since twenty twenty four has come in, not only do I pray in the morning a little bit more than I used to, but I also am spending more time reading the Bible. So I have been enjoying the Bible Recap, which is an online community that you can listen to scripture every morning, going through Genesis to Revelation. And so I'm currently in the Book of Genesis and just finished up job and I'm just really enjoying that. I will leave a link in the show notes for Bible recap in case this is something that you've been thinking about doing. But it's just been a great way to incorporate the Bible. And my husband and I have also been going through the Book of Proverbs together, one proverb a day for a month, and so that plus sending my daughter off to school every single morning, but first praying for her has been life changing. So it does wonders for your kids when you pray over them before you send them away, whether you're sending them to a co op or to a homeschool pod, or if you're dropping them off somewhere and you're not going to be with them that day. Just to pray over your kids before they leave the house, before you send them away is going to put some structure and some protection over their day. Another tip I have for you is create a sacred learning space. Do you have a designated space in your home for learning? And if not, no worries because most people don't, and you know a lot of us just have homeschools in any place in space that we can find in our homes, and that's fine. That's what I did for many years. But if you do have a space, it's nice if you can dedicate it by decorating it with meaningful scripture or symbols and inspirational quotes that align with your spiritual beliefs. And what this space can do is serve as a reminder of your spiritual foundation. Now we don't have this so much in our home anymore, just because my kids are older. But when my kids were young, we had a dedicated room for a couple of years in one of our houses, but then once we moved into our new space. In our new house, our designated space then became our kitchen or our dining room table for the family meetings, and the kids use their own bedrooms to do their work all throughout the house as they got older. And then we moved again, and so in our new house. Before my oldest daughter graduated, we met at the kitchen table for our family meeting. That's where we would gather to read passages of scripture. But then they would go back to their own rooms. And now that she's away at college, my youngest daughter and I meet in the family room with their dads sometimes and we'll gather to read scripture and we'll watch something together that is Bible related, just because it's part of our foundation and our per So we might watch The Chosen, which, by the way, that's coming out in the theaters in February, I believe, So just a reminder for those of you who are really into The Chosen and would like to go see it. That's something we would do and catch up on any homework question she might have from school. That is our designated area. That's our living room. So find the space that's good for you and just keep it a sacred space for learning together. My next tip for you is to integrate faith into the curriculum. So looking for ways to integrate your faith into the subjects that you teach is a great way to infuse your faith into what you're teaching your kids, because again, just setting that foundation for what they're going to be learning is important. That not everything has to be about theology, faith or Christianity in order for it to be taught to your kids and for you to have a Christian home and a homeschool that is faith based. So that said, I just think it's important to find other ways to pass down your faith to your kids. So, although I don't totally disagree with all Christian curriculum, I do have very keen eyes to what's important for my family and what's not. So if I find curriculum that, even if it's Christian and it's labeled, you know, faith based curriculum, I may very much be turned off by it, just flipping through the pages and noticing things that really are not in alignment with who we are as a faith based family. So do your due diligence as a mom, and as your family decides on what's best for your children. Just seek God and allow the Holy Spirit to guide you with your curriculum choices. But one thing that I think is important is just for you to be very conversational about your faith with your kids, and to explore those educational materials and resources that align with your values, but also to share stories and parables and events that have spiritual significance as though you were talking about something as common as what you're going to buy at the grocery stores. So when you're talking about what Moses did and what Elijah did and the parables that Jesus spoke, it becomes very familiar to your kids because it's like Mom told me about Jesus's parable and now we're going to go to the grocery store. It's part of the fabric of your everyday life, and your kids are not expecting these two totally different topics, like first we're talking about what's on the menu, and next this is a very special, devoted, dedicated time only just speaking about God. And yes, those times are important as well, but when you integrate faith conversations into your everyday life, it becomes a natural part of your child's view of faith and how they fit into faith and how faith fits into them, and they're able to just feel like it's part of their lifestyle. There are, granted, some things that you're going to have to set aside time to talk about. When it's deeper theology and questions that takes some time to answer, then yes, those times need to be taken quite seriously and you may have to separate that time. And so in our family, we do have a separate Bible overview from going to school every day and having a hybrid at home time with us. So she was taking Bible, she's now taking Bible at home with us, and we're having her take a couple of her other classes at home as well, but rather than taking her Bible classes at school, we thought it would be great to bring it home because we wanted to do this ourselves so that we could facilitate that part of our faith studies. The reason is because it's personal to us, it's sacred, and we want to teach our own kids the Word of God and we want to be a really really big part of that. So if that's your heart and that's what you want to do, then by all means, homeschooling is going to be a great foundation. It's fertile ground for you because you have the time in your day. You have that space in your day where you can start to build upon your child's knowledge of the Lord, and you can be very creative about how you introduce your children to God because you have the time. But when you give that to someone else to do it, which it find that they have Sunday school teachers. It's fine that they have Bible teachers at church and youth group leaders, but they need to be learning the foundations of Bible with people that understand the Bible and hopefully as a mom and dad of faith, you are learning about the Word of God yourself, and that you are maturing in the things of God, and you're able to pass their faith and the knowledge that you currently have onto your kids. So I have a few more tips to give you that We're going to wait until a part two for another episode to get the second part of this homeschool power boost for the year, because I think it's really important to be encouraged for your year and to feel like you can do all things through Christ, who strengthens you. And if you've been called to do this, then you can do it. If you feel like this is what you're supposed to be doing for this season, then by all means, do it with all of your heart, mind and strength. Do it with everything within you, and do your best because you only have these moments, and so do the best you can with these moments and take it up a notch this year and see what God will do, and that He'll meet you halfway and help you to do all the things that you want to with your kids. So I'm praying for you that you feel encouraged, that you feel blessed, and that you feel motivated for the year ahead. In just these few tips, and that you'll continue to remember your purpose for homeschooling, that you're going to add that prayer and scripture into your daily routine as a Christian woman, That you'll create a sacred learning space if possible, that you'll create that within your home or find places that are just your meeting points for your kids that they know that's your spot to learn together, to grow together. And it's a spiritual thing that you're doing with your kids. So remember that everything you do, from math to Bible is all spiritual because you are doing a great work in the Kingdom of God by raising your kids and by homeschooling them. Integrating faith into your curriculum is something that you have to ask for divine guidance about how to do that. And it's not, in my opinion, just some random selections of materials, but sometimes you have to put a little more thought into it because not everything is going to work out just right. You have to pick and choose according to what will work for your family, and you don't always know what will work until you try things and figure out that they don't work, So ask for guidance. Ask also people who have used the curriculum before and get as much research done as possible before you go purchasing and putting a lot of money into things. But the Lord will guide you and lead you into the right type of curriculum for your family. And remember that you have the power to teach your children the Word of God and to teach them Bible. And please don't be afraid of that. I know that some people might feel intimidated of teaching Bible to your kids because you don't feel like a theologian. You don't feel like you have all your i's dotted and your tea's crossed when it comes to the Bible, and you don't want to mess things up or teach something the wrong way. And I completely understand that we all feel that way because none of us are perfect, and no one completely understands God, no one completely understands the Bible. But we all have some understanding of the Bible who are pursuing God. And so with the understanding that you do have, don't worry about messing it up. Continue to learn and grow and put yourself under good teaching, good Bible teachers and your pastor, and submit yourself to a network of people like at your church, for example, that's going to help mature you in the things of God. But don't worry about being perfect or having all of the answers. Just teach what you know to be true, what the spirit inside of you, which is the Holy Spirit, confirms to be true, and you will know it because it's also backed up in the Bible. So make sure you're doing your research. That's what you teach your children, So don't worry about getting it wrong. Ask have mentors in your life, but teach your children the Word of God, and be confident and empowered that you can do this. You don't need someone else to do all the teaching. You do some of that teaching at home. That is your foundation, That is your fertile ground. That is your home, and you're the mom. They don't hear it from mom, it might not feel as real to them. So it's so good when mom says, yes, this is the word of God, and this is what I live by, and this is what I'm teaching you to do as well. I'll recommend an episode for you where I talked about that before. I'm in an interview with Lynn Plater and we talked about gaining confidence in teaching children the Bible. It's this very topic that I think will help you to if you're having issues in that area, that will help you to get a little bit more courage. And that's episode one forty two. And we also talked about raising our kids with deep faith roots and that was with Christy Thomas episode one forty eight. So one of my goals on this podcast is definitely to help you feel empowered to do the work that God has caused you to do with your kids. You only get your kids one time, and if they're in your home and you are a Christian and you love the Lord, and you've chosen a homeschool, what greater opportunity to pass on the Word of God and your beliefs and your values and the spirituality of what's happening in your home. What better way to do that than through homeschooling. Of course, your kids can be in school and still receive benefits from mom and dad being believers and being taught the Word. I was taught the Word from my parents, and I was in public school all my life, So it's not about homeschooling so much. But what I'm saying is that when you do home school, you have a very big, big, big advantage, and you have time that parents whose kids are in school all day every day don't have time. For example, when your kids get older and if they should decide to go off to school, then you don't have that same time anymore. I don't have that time anymore like I used to. So that's why I'm so grateful for all the years that I did have with my kids at home now that they're not at home anymore with me, and it just makes me feel grateful. And also I feel at ease sending my daughter to school and having my eldest in college because I know I've done what I was supposed to do my husband and I and so whatever choices my daughters make from here on out as they get older and leave the nest, then that's between them and God. But I know I did what I was supposed to do, and I'm still doing what I need to do. And so I want you to feel confident in that you are doing your part as a woman of God, and you are a woman of God. Remind yourself of that every day, even when you're not feeling like you're the person that you want to be. Don't worry about that. It's not about how you're behaving in the moment, and it's not about how you feel. It's about who you are. It's your identity, and so keep that in mind as you raise your kids, that you are worthy. You're a child of God, You're a woman of God. You are called by God to do a work of God, and you're raising children of God. And that's all I have for you today. Thank you so much for listening on this episode. I'm so grateful. Once again, I keep saying that, but I really truly am. I am overwhelmed with gratitude because I know that every day that I have a chance to spread the good news in whatever way I can is a day that God blessed me with. And so I'm taking the reins on my days and I'm saying thank you God for every single moment. I have a bit more passion now about the work that I'm doing, and I don't know if you can tell, but I am more dedicated at this point. I feel like than I even was back in twenty twelve. And I just think it's because when you're getting close to the tell end of your own journey with something, you either start to fizzle out and lose interest and lose strength to do the work, which I have gone through that recently, or you start to really gear up, get super passionate and just feel that you need to go out with the bank at least that you're going to finish the work and you're going to finish strong. And that is where I am right now in my life. It's how I feel that I want to finish strong, and I want to help you to finish whatever year that happens to be for you, I want you to finish strong. Also, visit me at christianhomeschool Moms dot com. Check out my course called the Homeschool Boss Mama Goal Planner at Christianhomeschool Moms dot Teachable dot com until the end of January. It will stay on sale for only the ten dollars. I did have a few of you sign up and become students, thank you so much. I received notification of that this week, so I do have a few students as of twenty twenty four, and I appreciate your doing that. So this course is going to help you get unstuck in your planning. It's going to help you with curriculum choices, your homeschool philosophy and basically teaches you how to run your homeschool like a CEO or a boss mama. And it's an audio course no more than an hour. You're going to get a workbook with all the worksheets you need to help you plan out your goals. It helps you to figure out the standards that you need for your homeschool and recognizing your individual and family based contributions according to God's Kingdom, what skills and talents do you each have, And then it helps you to create a family mission statement, to create academic goals for your kids, how to manage your time, create a family schedule, and how to choose that curriculum based on your teaching style and your kids learning styles. So we talk about all that with routines and practical tools to help you. There are a total of nine modules, plus a prayer for homeschool Moms that I pray over you at the end of the course. That course, until the end of January is on sale for nine dollars and ninety nine cents, so you can head on over to Christian Homeschool Moms dot teachable dot com to purchase it and then course after January, the price will go back up, but for now, I just want to make sure that I give everybody a chance who wants this planner to get your hands on it, and hopefully it will bless you. That's all half for now. I'll be back with part two probably the next two weeks. If you know someone who wants to have a conversation about homeschooling with me here on the show, whether it be interview style or conversation style, let me know. I'm up for homeschool conversations this year, so you don't have to necessarily look at it as an interview. If you don't have a product or service to sell, that is absolutely fine. We're not looking to sell items here. We're looking to talk about homeschooling and how you're able to homeschool your kids. I want to see the different ways that we're homeschooling out here, the different flavors and methods by which we teach our children. So leave me a message christianhomeschool moms dot com. There's a contact button and you can reach out to me there and I will be sure to email you back. That's all for now, Thank you for listening, and have e Homeschooling b