Piney Woods Homeschool

Dh and I talked through, tonight, our plans for Easter week this year.  We completely agree that our goal is for the children to understand the need for a redemptive sacrifice and the extraordinarily loving response to that need.  Here's our rough draft plan for this week: Sunday Matthew 21:1-11 Genesis 3:1-15 Monday Matthew 21:12-17  Genesis 22:1-14 Tuesday Matthew 26:1-16 Exodus 12:1-13  Wednesday Matthew 26:17-46 Isaiah 53:1-3 Thursday Matthew 26: 47-75 Isaiah 53:4-6 Friday Matthew 27:1-31 Matthew 27:32-56 Saturday Matthew 27: 57-66 Isaiah 53:7-9 Sunday Matthew 28:1-15 1 Corinthians 15:20-26 Later Ephesians 2:1-10 Colossians 1:11-23 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 Romans 3:21-26

I've been reminded recently, on several occasions, of how important is parents' role as the gatekeeper for the education of our children. We simply cannot turn our children over to someone else to be cared for or taught without paying close attention and intervening when needed. So often, I think, we assume that since no other parents object then there must not be anything about which to be concerned. I know that in some areas that was my assumption. For Christians, this is even more imperative since God's instructions in the New Testament regarding children continually warn us not to interfere with their development, not to hinder them, not to cause them to stumble. When we allow others to present them with incorrect theology and biblical interpretation, casual views of God and holy things, or instructions about personal matters that rightly should be handled by parents, I believe we are presenting them with a stumbling block.   Even when we ourselves...

I hate housework, but I do like a tidy and orderly house.  Not that I really ever have achieved that, but the ideal seems lovely. . .  I cannot possibly keep up with all the housework and homeschool, nor do I want to.  And I want to be sure my children know how to manage their own homes in the future.  So we share the work, just as we share the money . Several years ago I thought about the cleaning tasks that really needed doing on a daily or weekly basis.  I wrote each one out on a notecard, trying to break down large tasks into smaller steps.  (Instead of "clean the refrigerator" I wrote "clean one refrigerator shelf," for instance.)  I made a big pile of these.  I let my oldest (who was at the time the only child doing this type of chore) select the required number of chores from the stack.  She could choose whatever she wanted--I tried to define the chores to be of about equal importance and difficulty (although I've had to refine my de...