December is perhaps my favorite month of the year—at least, it was when I was a kid. Christmas break meant no school—which meant all the time in the world to binge on video games, build elaborate forts with my brothers, and listen to A Very Special Christmas a thousand times on repeat. There's no end to the nostalgia the Christmas season brings, but very few of my memories have anything to do with Jesus. I want my kids to love the Christmas season—except with a gospel-focus. To do that, there are 3 mistakes I plan to avoid this year and every year following. Mistake #1: The Hurried Holiday There's nothing ...Read More
My Wife is a World-Changer (or, Why Homemaking Isn’t for Sissies)
My wife is an amazing wife, mother, homeschool teacher, and homemaker—but there are days I can tell she feels a bit cooped up. She's a bright, creative woman with many ambitions, and I know there are days she feels like she could go for some more intelligent conversation beyond teaching ABCs, wiping noses, and breaking up fights over somebody "touching" someone else. Every now and then she needs to be reminded—all homemaking women need to be reminded—that she is a world-changer. Homemaking isn't for sissies. That One Sexist Passage... It's in the middle of one of those sexist-sounding Bible passages that gives ...Read More
Christians, Stop Protecting Your Kids From Sex
Ever since we published our book, The Talk: 7 Lessons to Introduce Your Child to Biblical Sexuality (which is a biology-meets-the-Bible book for parents to read aloud with their kids), we've been privileged to talk with parents all over the world about giving kids a godly sexual education. For the most part, the conversations are really enjoyable. Then there are the other conversations. Does Sexual Information Rob Kids of "Innocence"? The words are a little different every time, but the rhetoric often sounds something like this... Why on Earth would you talk to your kids about sex? Kids don't even have sex—or at ...Read More
#ShoutYourAbortion: The New (and Ugly) Face of Women’s Rights
A couple decades ago, the ardently pro-choice Clinton administration said they wanted abortions to be "safe, legal, and rare." President Obama repeated the same mantra, calling it "the right formulation" on abortion. While pro-lifers adamantly disagree with the "legal" part, there has been at least the pretense of some common ground—we could all agree that we wanted to live in a world where the underlying reasons why women seek out abortions were eliminated. But today, that "safe, legal, and rare" rhetoric is slipping fast, exposing a new and ugly face of women's rights. With movements like #ShoutYourAbortion trending ...Read More
Using Astronomy to Make Science Fun Again
Some kids love science. Other kids hate it. Other kids like the idea of science but don't actually like doing anything scientific. And then for homeschooling parents, teaching science might be your greatest joy—or it might be the subject you avoid the most. Since ancient times, one of the seven classical "liberal arts" of education was astronomy. Sadly, today the study of the sky is a lost art. Students are often unaware of why the sky moves overhead the way it does. Students aren't often taught about the motions of the sun, moon, and stars, even though these motions impact all the rhythms of our daily and yearly ...Read More
Foods Tales of a Gluten-Free Traveler: 3 Types of “Gluten-Free” Restaurants
My whole family jumped on the gluten-free bandwagon a couple years ago. Other than coming up with good around-the-house snack ideas for the kids (and parents), and other than the first few months when we were dealing with doughnut withdrawal, its been a pretty easy transition. Except for traveling. Eating out in general has its challenges, but in your own town, you find your dependable standbys. On the road, however, you don't know what you're going to find. Looking for more gluten-free resources? This Everything Gluten Free page is a library of everything gluten free we’ve worked on. We should dispel the ...Read More
Homeschooling What Do Jesus and the Planet Venus Have in Common? Biblical Astronomy for Homeschoolers
Did you know that for homeschooling purposes or just as a nerdy parent, you can teach your kids Biblical astronomy? Probably one of the nerdiest things I do is search for NASA images online. I can get lost in them. I marvel a human ingenuity—the ability hurl a jet-propelled computer into space to send us back meaningful information. I marvel even more at the God who created all these things billions of miles away from us. I sat in wonder a couple weeks ago as the first images of Pluto came to us via the New Horizons space probe. For the first time in human history, we now know things about this icy dwarf planet we ...Read More
Talking to Kids About Homosexuality: Modeling Love, Honoring Truth, and Tackling Tough Questions
We live in a rapidly changing culture. Sexual orientations that were once taboo are now largely acceptable and even celebrated. From all sectors of the media, public figures are coming out of the closet—movie stars, Olympic athletes, pop singers, morning talk show hosts, rock musicians, NBA players, reality TV stars, news anchors, and country singers. President Barak Obama has even said religious people who have changed their opinions about same-sex marriage and are now in favor of it have "a responsibility to reach back and help others join them." If there was ever a time in human history to be sheepish about sex ...Read More
