CHM158:Faith and Family: Homeschooling with a Christian Purpose with Lee Ann Mancini

Hi, everybody, Welcome to the Christian Homeschool Mom's podcast. I have a wonderful guest today. Her name is lee Ann Mansini, and she is the founder of Raising Christian Kids, which is a nonprofit organization that she'll tell us more about. She's also the author of Raising Kids to Follow Christ, Instilling a lifelong trust in God. And she also hosts a podcast, and she has a couple of other things that we're going to talk about, including a Netflix series. So it's going to be a fabulous show today and I can't wait to dig into this information we're going to talk about concerning raising our kids for the Lord. Welcome to the show, LeAnn, Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here. I'm so glad you're here. I love the work you're doing. I love everything that I've been reading your book. So I'm just still really processing all the good nuggets in your book about raising kids. And I'm excited about it because in today's society, when parents are looking for information to help us to raise our kids in the ways of the Lord, it's not easy to find it. Like information that's just that kind of information that we can take and run with it practical, and so that's what I love about what you offer. So I just want to get started with you just sharing who you are, like, who is Leanne? What do you like to do, what makes your life happy? Tell us all about yourself and your family. Well, Leanne was raised by a single mom many years ago, but she was a mom who loved the Lord. And there was a big, huge picture of Jesus on our wall. We had family pictures. They were littler ones, but Jesus was big, front and the center. And I was taught how to love the Lord from a very young age. And I don't remember a day where I accepted an into my heart because he had always been into my heart, always hasn't been in my heart. But I'm a mother now of two grown children and a professor at Salthford, a Bible college and theological seminary. But I haven't been teaching recently for a while now because God had put me on another mission, and that's to help parents raise their children so they stop walking away from their faith. I'm giving them tools and techniques and resources to help support parents raising their children in this ever increasing evil anti Christian culture. Yeah, so would you say this is your driving passion for developing these families, helping them to develop kids in these biblical foundations. What drives you to do this? Yeah, I believe God called me on this mission. I had written three stories for my children and when they were little, many years ago, because I couldn't find stories that taught my children how to live out the Biblical principles I was trying to instill in them in real life situations that they faced. I found a lot of Bible stories and fruits of the spirit. So I wrote these three of these stories. My kids loved them, and I shelved them thinking I'd take them out for my grandkids. But load a long story short, God called me to write the books, the children's books. We have seven Sea Kids books. I have seven Sea Kids books, and then they were made into an animation series that's on right now Media Pure Flicks, Answers, TV, and Minno, and they're very biblically based series. They're Disney like in quality, the books and the animation series. My illustrator for the books worked for Disney and Warner Brothers, and the head animator for the animation series also worked for Disney. He did Mulan and so they're very colorful, very entertaining, but extremely biblical. You'll have the parent in the video say, well, you know, Corey, the apostle, Paul said, and then she'll repeat the Bible verse. So the children see how to live out God's word in real life situations that they face. I love that. And since we're on video, for those of you listening on audio, you can come over to YouTube and watch as well. But I'd love for you to hold up one of the books so we can see how the cover looks. And that is a servant like Jesus. And all the books are extremely colorful, as you can see that beautiful. Yeah. And the characters they pray to Jesus, they give thanks or they ask for help. And the stories teach children how to be kind and accepting of others, teaching them how to be like Christ. And we have a hidden Christian symbol on each page, like a Where's waldo for the kids to find. So it makes it fun. You know, after you read the story, they go back and they look for the symbols and so attractive. Yeah, And what's really unique and you're gonna love this is all my books are on this free app called novel Effect with an e. Now, novel Effect is an app you can download to your smart device. So you take your phone, you click on my book, then you start reading the book in your hand. You have to physically have the book, but the phone does the sound effects to each page you're reading. Oh, that's so cool. So it's really cute. For example, in my book I'm Not Afraid, it takes place in an amusement park where Susie's afraid to write a roller coasters. Well, while you're reading the book, you hear the roller coasters in the background, you hear the balloon popping game, and it really encourages the children to want to read the book because they want to trigger the sound effects exactly. They want to hear the sound effects and that just makes it feel free. D Yeah, and you know they have a lot of your classics on they're also like good Night, Moon, Love You Forever. They have hundreds of books on that app, and it's novel Effect with a knee. Okay, I'm glad you shared that. I mean that's amazing. Yeah, like all the things that we have today to bring our books to life, but I love that we have biblically based books for children that you've written and with the sound effects and it just all the fun things. And so we're going to talk more about raising our kids for the Lord in a moment, but I want to take a little detour to what you've written for adults to help us in parenting our kids. So could you hold up your book Raising Sure it's to follow Christ. Yes, So that book is I was just telling you a few moments ago how I could not put it down because it does have a lot of nuggets like mine is. I've got highlights all over because a lot of what you're talking about in the book, it's like teachings. It's like little mini teachings for parents to help us. So what inspired you to write this book for parents? About five years ago? I was alarmed at the statistics at that time of how many of our children were walking away from their faith from Christian homes. At that time, it was forty percent of middle schoolers and sixty five percent of high schoolers and students going to college. And I was like, Lord, what is going on? And I felt called because I'm a professor and I love to research, and I felt comed the Lord to you know, find out what's going on? What can we do about it? And so I started researching the Brightest Minds in Children's spirituality. I've read over two hundred and fifty parenting books. I've you know, looked in the archives of of parenting books from way way back in the eighteen hundreds, nineteen hundred and anything that I could get my hands on that talked about parenting children to have a belief in God and a faith in the Lord. And I condensed this information into this book. A lot of the information. That's why you said there's little nuggets everywhere, because there was. It was a lot of your parenting books will tell you need to do this, and you should do that, and I'll give you examples, but they don't tell you how to. This book is about how to. So anyway, I felt the Lord giving me all this information, and then I felt them say have a podcast, so on twenty get this information out. So in twenty nineteen I started Raising Christian Kids podcast and I started sharing the information and started even doing more research. In fact, I have a month of apologetics that people can go listen to Jay Warner Wallace, Natasha Crane, ken Ham, Greg Colchel to find out how we can teach our children how how to effectively defend their faith in a loving manner. And then I have another month of disciplining, because disciplining is important. If you can't, you can't teach a child who's that disciplined. Well, absolutely, so I started sharing all this on the podcast, and then I felt the Lord calling me to write a book. And what's really alarming right now is that the recent statistics show, and this is from Barner Research and the Arizona Christian University, seventy percent of children between the ages of thirteen and fourteen they don't believe Satan exists. This next statistic is startling. Eighty four percent of thirteen to fourteen year olds from Christian's family don't believe we are born into sin and need a savior. Ninety percent don't believe in absolute moral truth. They believe your truth is your truth relativism. And what is even more shocking, or I don't know if it could be any more shocking than that, but the Christian pastors of children children's Christian pastors fifty percent believe that there is that Jesus possibly send on earth in his human form. These are pastors and yeah, and fifty three percent believe that it's possible for reincarnation. So when I read these statistics, I cried. In fact, George Barnes says in his book, where the precipice of irreversible destruction? So we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work. That is it's eye opening and it's shocking because when you say it in terms of a statistic a number, it's so concrete that you can't you can't argue with the fact that our society has shifted drastically and seems like a short period of time. If we're at these numbers today, we've got work to do with our children and the next generations to come. So that's why I think it's so important what you're doing, because every one of us who has something to contribute to raising our kids in the ways of the Lord, we need to do it. This is the time, this is the season, and whatever God is putting on our hearts to do, we've got to do it. And I love that you're just moving forward with what God tells you to do. The podcast, the books, everything that He gives you the opportunity to do. You're saying yes. And so I love that, and I was reading so I have so much I want to share, But one of the things I read in your book is that we are our children's first teachers. That really stood out to me. I've always believed that, but for parents who don't homeschool. Parents who do homeschool kind of understand that idea of teaching. But for those who don't homeschool, what does that mean that we are the teachers, the first teachers of our children. Well, first, I'd like to say that over eighty percent of our children attend the public school system. You know, there's a lot of single moms or a lot of parents that can't afford to homeschool or to send their kids to private Christian school. But we are their first, most impactful teachers that can anchor their lives here and now for in Christ for all eternity. And it starts very early. And as I say this, I want the parents to understand that it's never too late either. There's things we can do later. But what helps us is when you start early. What does that look like? Well, you know, Psalm seventy six says teach even to the children yet to be born, and eighteen weeks in the womb. The baby can hear sounds, they can hear children singing at the nursery or daycare center Christian daycare center of Jesus loves me this I know, you know, volunteer. They need help anyway. And when you have an infant and they're screaming because they're hungry, and you know, you give them the bottle and all of a sudden they're cooing because their needs are getting met, their bellies are getting full. Simply say Johnny, Jesus loves Johnny. Jesus loves you. You're connecting the name of Jesus with their needs being met. Wow. I talk about a baby who's six months old looking in a mirror and he's laughing. You simply say Johnny, Jesus loves Johnny. Johnny is so handsome, heating God created Johnny. You're connecting his happy emotions with the name of Jesus. And then the last example for young ones I'll give you because there's so many is you know, instead of saying let's take a nap, say let's take a sabbath's rest. Now they don't understand the true meaning of sabbath, but you're building vocabulary and a category in their mind for the word Sabbath that has something to do with rest. Now I call this preparing the soil from the womb to age three and then from four to seven. When you're teaching them the true meaning of Sabbath, you're planting seeds into rich soil to grow deep roots. These are the things that families can do at home. We teach our children. By the time they're five years old, ninety percent of their brain is fully formed. That's why young ones can learn two languages. So teach them everything according to Deuteronomy, which is the Shemah, chapter six four through nine. When you rise up, when you walk along the path, and when you lie down, impress these things upon your children. Impress means to mold, to mark, to place a biblical doctrine within their hearts and minds. That's why we're their first most impactful teachers. We teach them how to speak, we teach them how to walk. Did you know that twenty I think it was twenty one percent of our twenty one percent of our DNA, the DNA that determines what eye color and hair color, we have, one percent is spiritual. The scientists have proven this I was shocked when I read that I did not. Isn't that amazing? And there's so much we can do. We just have to do it inorganically, day by day, moment by moment, lovingly and in a fun way. Yeah, yeah, you know, like you said, we're called for such a time as this, right, Well, I love what you just said about lovingly and in a fun way. So that leads me to ask about the importance of our words as parents, and not just what we say, because like you said, we are their first teachers. So what we're saying makes the difference goes a long way, but how we say it, So can you kind of speak on the how of how we speak to our kids? Absolutely, I say, always be careful not to label your child the loan or the shy one, because that becomes a self fulfilled prophecy if they hear it enough, that's what they become. Your words are to be edifined, not only for your children, but also for people around you. Your children hear you speaking about other people, and two other people, we're to act like Christ and all we do. Yes, So you speak words that are loving, kind, full of grace, extending grace when they misbehave or do something wrong. There's just everything positive. Take every thought captive for Christ. And the experts have stated that you never know when a child will grasp a biblical concept, So don't hold back. Say sin, salvation, redemption, resurrection, whatever the word is, use it and explain it as best as you can for their age, and as they get older you can go into a deeper explanation. But words are important and they have meaning, and pray those words out loud. Yes, I also say, you know, and you've read the book. When children are memorizing Bible verses, make sure they understand each word in that Bible verse. Honor your father and your mother. Do they know what honor means? You know, it's so important. I like the one phrase I put in. One little girl says, and forgive us our trash, forgive us our trashes. We forgive those who put trash in our baskets instead of trespassing trash. So you have to remember, help them to memorize the words properly, but to know each meaning of each Bible verse that they're memorizing. So that's the importance of biblical literacy at a young age, where we really can teach them when they're young. We don't have to wait until they're a certain age before we start to explain concepts to It's what you just said, like, start now, and let make sure we know that they know what they're reading and what they're memorizing. So that also means that we parents have to be reading and studying the bio. Yes, that is so important. We can't teach what we don't possess exactly exactly, I can't model it either, right. Well, okay, so I wanted to go back real quick about so I thought about virtues because when my daughter, my youngest daughter now sixteen, when she was four, I remember doing and it's on YouTube. I have a little video of like the Fruit of the Spirit, and so we had this Fruit of the Spirit game and we were always memorizing and reading and singing about the fruit of the spirit. And so those are some virtues. But can you share with us about ways we can some practical ways we can instill those virtues in our kids. Absolutely, the best way first of all is to model those virtues. You know, be honest, be truthful, be kind, be all of the fruits of the spirit. Those are those are virtues. And also remind your children when you when you get an opportunity h point out something that they did well and say, you know, Johnny, you were very kind. Kindness is a virtue, you know. Second, Peter tells us to supplement our faith with virtue. So we want our children to understand the characteristics of God are virtuous. We can act like that, and we can teach our children to do the same. And in the book I have I forget how many virtues, but I have the I have the explanation of the virtue that you can explain to your children. We have the Bible story that shows how to live out the virtue. And then I have Bible verses to remember to memorize regarding the virtue. But virtues are very important. And then I have the stones. You know, I talk about the stones. Now a stone. What we talk about is gemstones, Okay, represent Now they represent they have no power, they represent a certain virtue. So I say, just take little rocks, white rocks, paint them the color of the gemstones, take an you know, four x six card, write the name of the gemstone and the virtue, and have your child carried for the day and practice that virtue. It's a little stone in their pocket. You know, the Bible's full of stones, but stones represent many things. Make sure your child knows that the stone has no power. But you know, especially there's so many things. You can play virtue game for the day where the family picks a virtue for that day, and every time someone exhibits that virtue, they get a point on the chart, you know, and whoever gets the most points that night gets to pick out where they're going to go up to dinner or whatever you choose. Make it fun. We can make this so much fun. God's word is fun. It's alive. It's not dull and just memorization, that's paraslical laws, it's not any of that, right, and especially when we're working with kids, we have to be careful that we don't get legalistic and you know, boring with this stuff, because this is the word of God, this is good, this is life, and you know, we don't have to do things the way maybe we were raised or how things were fifty years ago, eighty years We can. We can make it fun and make it come alive for our kids today. So that's important. I love that you are an advocate for fun. Plus the Bible. I love that, you know, I didn't do half of this stuff in my book when I was raising my kids because I didn't know. So I'd like to also tell parents don't feel guilty, because that's a tool the devil to hold you back from doing what you need to do right, you know, and it's never too late. Irwin Luser tells about the story of the seeds and the Egyptian tombs. They were four thousand year old seeds, and they took them out of these Egyptian tombs, and they watered them and planted them and gave them sunshine and they grew. You know, God says he's able to restore the locusts have eaten, and his word never returns void. So there's a lot of things you can do with teenagers too. If you haven't done this stuff early on, that's perfect that you've you've kind of segued right into what I wanted to ask you next. So for parents who have gotten to the stage of life where now we're you know, realizing, Okay, maybe we should do this different or that different, or maybe we have grown adult kids who maybe we should have felt like we should have raised differently, like if we miss the mark, you know that kind of thing. Those questions come up, So what is your what How would you speak to that For parents who are feeling remorseful that they didn't do what they wish they had done. Yeah, first of all, I would take away the guilt and just ask the Lord. Pray to him to give you opportunities to talk to your adult children if they're not living in your home, ask him for opportunities to show them how you are living out God's word. And sit down with your adult children, have an honest conversation with them and apologize. Say, you know, I want to say, I'm sorry I didn't do these things I wish I did, but it's not too late for you. It's never too late. And have a talk with them. Now with teenagers, they're still underneath your roof, I say, have a family meeting. Everybody sits down, and you say, look, we haven't been doing the things we should be doing as a Christian family, and we're looking out in this world and we're seeing what is happening, and we don't want you to get swallowed up by all this evil. So we're going to write a family mission statement, and we're going to put in this mission statement. We're going to have you work with us to put in the mission statement that you know what we're going to do as a family to honor God, to love each other, and to serve others. And then you can also draw up a contract for obedience and disobedience and what the stipulations are. And when you have your teenagers involved in that, they're more likely to adhere to those stipulations because they've been a part of drawing up this contract. And then just remember kids don't have rights. I mean, they have rights to food, clothing, shelter, but the computer, the cell phone, the car keys, you know, those are not rights. Those are privileges, right and you will see how fast they turn around when those privileges are taken away for disobedience. And you know, there's the one thing I want to talk about real quick is the cell phone. Okay, it is killing our children. And there's a new cell phone out there called True Me t r O. I. I highly recommend this cell phone. It grows with your children. So if your children need to have a cell phone where they call just you, mom and dad, that's the only number they have on the phone. And it looks like a regular cell phone. Wow. Then you can add Graham and Grandpa or as they get older, a friend. Then you can add apps that are vetted by the company, so they can do Google, you know, research, not Google, but researching all kinds of information that they need. And what they found was the teenagers when they took the phones away from those teenagers and give them, gave them the took their iPhones and whatever phones and gave them this true me phone. The teenagers were very upset with the parents. How could you do this? But they came back and they thanked their parents because they realized when the other teens were saying, hey, look at this new app, this new thing on TikTok and maybe it's something they felt uncomfortable with, all they had to say was, look, I can't my phone. My phone parents give me doesn't allow me to do that. So it got the peer pressure off of them to comply to look cool because they just couldn't because after all, that gave them the excuse to say, I don't have access to that anyway. So yeah, yeah, and you're right, cell phones it's an issue. It's an issue, and it kind of rewires the brain of our kids. Yes, it does. Yeah, it's not a good thing. So I'm glad you said that. I didn't even know that existed truly, so I'm gonna have to leave it for that. And did you know I just found out today I live in Florida. Our governor signed into law that thirteen thirteen Wait, yeah, thirteen and under cannot have the cell phone apps, all those apps, they can't have them on their cell phones. And it's fourteen to fifteen have to get parntal permission. Now, I don't know how they're going to police that, but it's a step in the right direction. Okay. And this is for Florida only so far, is it? Yep? Yeah? Wow? Okay. So changes are happening, and we things need to be changed. But as parents, I'm glad that we have their rights in our home to set the pace and the atmosphere for what happens in our families. And I love what you mentioned about having a contract and having a just some guidelines that are teens especially, they love to be involved in that. So if they can help figure out what the rules are, they're more likely to comply. And then with the adult children you said, you know, just just talk to them, just apologize, just have a conversation. It's they're adults and live out what you believe. You know, I forgot to mention that when your teens, if they get upset because why are we doing this, well, it's not because I'm the boss and you're the child. You give them real three reasons they cannot push back on. You said, because I have to be a to God, how I raise you, because I love you, and because I want to keep you safe. That's plain as day and simple. They can't argue with that. Hopefully they won't. Hopefully they won't. Well, I'm excited about all that you're doing. You have a lot of products, your books, you have a podcast, you have a right Now media series. So can you just share with us all that you're doing to support parents and children. Yes. Well, our latest edition is our Scripture Bear. And before I say anything, I just want everyone to know that all the proceeds from my book, my author proceeds, the proceeds I get from the sales of my children's book and the animation series that's in Scripture Bear, our our new edition, and you see he's so cute. All the proceeds goes towards our nonprofit. They're donated to the nonprofit Raising Christian Kids. And what we do is we work closely with churches to identify families in need that can't afford to buy a Bible, a parenting book, a study guide, a children's book, a teddy bear like this that plays eight Bible versus, and we give the resources to these families for free. You know, Pew Research has indicated that sixty six percent of Christian families make less than thirty thousand dollars a year. They can barely afford food and a roof and clothing, you know, let alone a sixteen dollars parenting book or a Bible study. So well, all the proceeds goes towards our nonprofit, Raising Christian Kids. But our scripture bear is our news edition. He's really cute. You know. Every child wants to have a teddy bear, so why not have one that plays eight Bible verses that they can they can remember, you know, memorize. But I'll play one right now. See if you can hear this? And for me, I look oh on God and the word well think me boom by verse. Were you able to hear them? Yes? That was yes, and I play eight Bible verses and so every time you press the hand, you press play hands or the ears, and it's a different place. Eight yeah, eight different Bible verses. Honor your father and your mother, Exodus twenty twelve, and I forget the rest of them. There's eight of them though that they're really cute, easy verses for little ones to memorize, but important verses. I just want to say for those listening by audio, you have to come to the YouTube and check it out because they are beautiful, plush, just the cutest bear ever. So just come by and look at that. That is so beautiful. And then what else do you have? Oh? Just you know the My Children's book and you have seven of them, right, seven of those and twenty six animated episodes on that non art on right now media now, Cure Flicks, okay, Cure Flicks and Answers TV, which is Answers and Genesis ken Ham, you know, the Arc Encounter the Creation Museum. They have a new streaming channel, so our animation series is on there as well. You can you can you can. I think it's like two ninety nine or something. An episode I don't remember, right, but it's not. It's very affordable. Okay. And you know, we really shouldn't have our children two years and under in front of any screen. It delays their speech. It's not good for their brain. But if you have to take a break, mom, because I know how it is, twelve minutes of Sea Kids is where you want to go because the children love it. It's very colorful and they pray to Jesus and the parents use they incorporate the Bible versus so the kids learn how to live out right. And that's everything that parents are trying to do anyway, instilling the Word of God in our kids. And when we need to take those breaks, we have something like your animation that helps to fill in the gaps for us. So the name of the animation is C Kids Sea A I ds US CQ. Yeah, underwater world, very colorful, love it, love it, love it. Okay. So I'm so happy to have you here. Okay. Tell us how we can purchase your products. Purchase your products? How to listen to your podcast? Where do we go? Well, it's on all major platforms, but you can also go to Raising Christiankids dot com and that way you can look at you can review a list of all the podcast episodes. Say you're looking for something under disciplining, you just type in discipline and the podcast episodes will pop up. I did a lot of research. I haven't done as many solo podcasts as I originally did, which I plan on going back. But I've had a lot of authors on the show. I've had a lot of expert authors on the show also. But you can search anything in the search bar and find what we have on the website. And we have another section called Tips from the Experts, So they're fifteen minute videos of experts sharing their printal advice for you. For example, Edward Graham, who is Billy Graham's grandson, talks about how we shouldn't feel guilty if we mess up as parents because there is no perfect parent except for God. And he talks about how to leave a legacy. Who better talk about legacy than Edward Graham exactly, you know. So we have a lot on the and we have over twenty some free resources that parents can download and print out for free good and we have biblical curriculum. We have biblical curriculum for the Seven Books and the Sea Kids series that's reproducible. So we just have a lot to offer for parents. That is a lot of resources, So parents listening, we have a place to go to find materials to support us in homeschooling our kids and raising them for the Lord. We have books, we have the podcast, we have the material for homeschooling, and it's just all there on your website. So that's wonderful. Do you have any last words you want to say on our show today to encourage parents? Yes, I just pray, you know, I pray every day for parents. I know it's so hard right now to be a parent in the times we're living in, right And don't worry about the laundry and the dishes, because you know, a child's worldview starts to form me leave it fifteen months and it's solidified by age thirteen, so you have that small window to really teach them. And if I could just say, one time, my niece came to my house and she was upset. She said, I don't know what to do. Auntleen, her two and a half year old and her six month old baby was with her, and she said, I kind of want to go back to work. I missed work and we could use extra money, and I took her hand, and I took her over to a portrait hanging on the wall of my little ones, and I said, Beth, do you know where they are. I haven't seen these two little ones in so long. I would give anything to have them sit on my lap again, and to give me a kiss on the cheek and to feel their little hands in my hand. I would give anything to have one more day. And she realized, you know how important this time was because it goes by too fast. So I would just say to your parents, you know that I'm praying for you. You know, enjoy this time, do all you can to be the very best parents can be, and just give thanks to the Lord that he chose you to be your child Senior. That's so good, that's so good. We appreciate you. Thank you so much for your grace infused words today, giving us the courage we need to keep doing what we need to do. And if we haven't begun, it's not too late. These are all words of encouragement for us. And I just thank you so much for being with us today. Leanne, Thank you. I appreciate you having me on your show, and God bless you as well. Thank you God, bless you,