Homeschooling 
My oldest is 14 now, and his handwriting still looks like it was scribbled out by a chimpanzee (sorry to all you chimps out there). Watching him write reminds me of what young Zorro must have looked like in school, slashing his pen across the paper. If it weren't so sad, it would be comical. We weren't nearly as rigorous about handwriting skills when he was younger—and it definitely shows. Thankfully, we learned we needed to be more disciplined with his younger brothers and their penmanship is quite good. It all started when we combined copywork with our Bible memory goals. Copywork, put simply, is copying by ...Read More
Get Off the Hamster Wheel: How Christian parents can make every day count
A little something you should know about me: I really don't like to read parenting blogs. Not even a little bit. Sufficient for the day is my own trouble. I really don't need to compound my life with the banality and frustrations of other people. "What gives?" you say. "Don't you write for a blog about Christian parenting?" Yup. And I suppose the reason I typically avoid Christian parenting blogs is because it's hard to steer clear of the your-best-life-now kind of rubbish, not to mention the glib look-at-my-annoyingly-relatable-authentic-life exposés. I say this because, with a subtitle like, "How ...Read More
10 Exciting Astronomy Videos to Use in Your Homeschool
I love astronomy—and as a homeschooling dad, I love getting my kids excited about astronomy, too. I've taught astronomy to kids in our local homeschool co-op at all different grade levels, and I've taught over a thousand kids astronomy in my online courses. Because astronomy is a visual discipline, I use a lot of astronomy videos when I teach. If you're looking to teach your kids astronomy, these astronomy videos were some of my students' favorites over the years. Under each astronomy video I've put a quiz question. Watch these videos with your kids and see if they know the answers to the questions! (Answers ...Read More
You Don’t Always Have to Be the Bad Guy (the discipline tools parents are missing)
My oldest son had a particularly busy end week with basketball games and practices. I reminded him at the beginning of the week: he needed to be sure to stay on top of his schoolwork and other responsibilities around the house early in the week so he didn't get behind and overwhelmed later in the week. Tuesday hit, and it all started to unravel. One bad day was all it took. One day where he was distracted. One day where he got behind on his work set him up for failure the rest of the week. When he got a call Friday afternoon from a friend, asking if he could spend the night after his basketball game, he had to ...Read More
12 Reformation Day Read-Alouds for Families
As I write this, it is the year 2017—and we are approaching the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's publication of his 95 Theses. So what? Why should we care about a terse piece of medieval theology written by a German monk a half a millennium ago? What makes October 31, 1517 famous is not necessarily what Luther wrote in his Theses—few Protestants I know are all that familiar with them. Rather, it is now a date fixed on the calendar as "Reformation Day" because of the debate his writings kindled in Europe. When Martin Luther nailed his Theses to the door at Castle Church in Wittenberg (or perhaps just mailed ...Read More
Martin Luther, Racism, and the Church: Family Discussion Guide
Several years ago, a friend of mine was invited to be a guest speaker at a local Lutheran church. As a Christian teacher from a Jewish background he was asked to speak about the spotty history of Christian-Jewish relations. During his presentation, he made brief mention of some of the sayings of Martin Luther during the 16th century—how Luther taught Christians were to deal with the "insufferable devilish burden" of the Jews. Burn down their synagogues, destroy their homes, rob them of their prayer books, forbid their rabbis from teaching, and subject them to hard labor. Yes, Luther really wrote these ...Read More
Balance Amidst the Chaos: Tips for Homeschooling, Work-at-Home Parents
"Can't you kids leave me alone for a few minutes? I can't even think with you talking to me all the time." "I know you think that just because I'm home with you, I can play. But I can't. I'm working now." "I need make a phone call with a business partner, but you still aren't done with your math. Great. Now you're going to have to wait for me to check your work." Juggling homeschooling and working from home has been a big challenge for me personally. In fact, in some ways, I still consider myself a newbie to this pace of life. In one sense, I'm not really a newbie. Homeschooling is all my kids have ever known as ...Read More
Modern Sex Ed Gone Crazy (and how Christian parents should respond)
Just how explicit should sex education be? The other day I was reading through a sermon transcript of a well-known preacher. (If I said his name, you would recognize it.) In his lengthy message, he addressed a vast number of topics, and among those topics was the issue of sex ed. His advice to parents was far from reserved. He told parents they needed to teach their children diligently, not just about sexual morality in general, but about specific sexual topics. He mentioned sins like adultery, rape, lusting after someone else's wife, prostitution, and the devastating consequences of "whoring." He ...Read More
