Homeschooling 
It was early in the morning and I was reading in my favorite chair, drinking my coffee. Then I heard the sound of a bedroom door opening somewhere in the house and waited for the familiar sight of a pajama-attired zombie peering in the living room. What I was greeted with instead was a chipper 8-year-old ready to take on the world. Instead of a groggy request for breakfast, I heard, “Can I watch my history lesson again?” I told him he would have plenty of time to watch his next lesson in a few hours when it was time for school. He said, “No, Daddy, my lesson from yesterday. I want to watch it again.” I looked ...Read More
3-Day FREEBIE: New Family Devotional on the Apostles’ Creed
For hundred of years the Apostles' Creed has been the most cherished creed in the church. Going back to the earliest centuries of the church, it was used as a basis for instructing newcomers to the faith. Now you can introduce your children to the Creed, line by line, in our new family Bible study: Laying the Foundation. We are giving away this study for free to all of our subscribers for the next three days. Subscribe to our weekly Family & Homeschool Newsletter to download this study. This promotion ends at 11:59pm EST on Saturday, July 19. Give us your name and e-mail and you'll be directed to a page with ...Read More
Why I Stopped Spanking My Son: A Christian Dad’s Perspective
I stood over him, wooden spoon in hand, facing that all-too-familiar look of defiance in his eyes. I had exhausted my patience with him. It started with telling him to come to dinner, but what should have been a simple transition from playtime to mealtime was now an all-out war of wills. I had issued my warnings, and with each successive “I’m serious!” my blood started to boil. When I entered the room and was met with that defiant you-can’t-make-me look, I had had enough. He saw it in my eyes. He had seen it in my eyes many times before. My rage. The spanking didn’t even correct his attitude in the short-term, ...Read More
Teaching Kids the Apostles’ Creed: Is it just a “Catholic thing”?
This coming school year I aim to have my kids memorize and study the Apostles' Creed. Recently I was asked by one of our readers, "Isn't that a Catholic thing?" For starters, it is important to note that the person asking the question wasn't asking with a critical tone—as if being associated with the Roman Catholic Church was a crime. It is was a mere question of fact: My family is not part of the Catholic Church, so why would I have them memorize something with Catholic associations? 1. The Apostles' Creed is part of our common Christian heritage. It is true that the Apostles' Creed is readily used in the Roman ...Read More
Teaching the Apostles’ Creed: Did Christ Descend into Hell?
In the coming school year, our aim is to have our children memorize the Apostles' Creed as we study it together as a family. This ancient creed is one of the most widely used statements of faith in the church today, and the substance of it goes back to the early centuries of the church. We think studying this will be very beneficial for our kids and our whole family for many reasons. (Read our post, "5 Reasons to Teach Kids the Apostles’ Creed"). When we released our Apostles' Creed handwriting curriculum, we heard from several parents who expressed concern about the controversial phrase in the Creed, "he descended into ...Read More
5 Secrets to Giving Your Child a Heart for Obedience
We need to talk about how to give your child a heart for obedience. John Witherspoon—who was the only minister to sign the Declaration of Independence—once said about parenting: "There is not a more disgusting sight than the impotent rage of a parent who has no authority." A sure fact of life is that our children will disobey us. Another sure fact is that, as parents, we will resort to ungodly means and attitudes in order to try and make them obey. We cannot escape the reality that we are big sinners raising little sinners. But the gospel of Christ offers great hope to sinners like us and our kids. ...Read More
Buy These 4 Family Passes and You’ll Have Access Over 3,300 Educational Adventures
When we travel, we love to take advantage of educational stops along the way. Sometimes these stops are planned. Other times they are spontaneous. Often we like to find educational adventures in our local area, and other times we travel out-of-state. Many nationwide associations sell reciprocal passes. Often, buying individual/family passes to one location will get you into many other locations around the country for free or at very discounted rates. We’ve purchased passes like these just because we knew we were going to be doing a lot of traveling and wanted to get access to a variety of educational ...Read More
5 Character Traits I Stink at Teaching My Kids (and how to change that)
You can teach what you know, but you reproduce what you are. The profound truth of the above statement scares me every time I read it. There were days when my children were very young—too young to even understand my words—that I leaned in and whispered, "I'm so sorry you have such an oaf for a father." Now that my kids are all old enough to not only understand my words but mimic my actions and attitudes, I find myself challenged at every turn. The things I find most annoying and disappointing about my kids are often the traits I hate most about myself. If you ever think to pray for random bloggers you bump into ...Read More
