Renae | Heart of the Matter

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Help! I’m Considering Homeschool

I’m thinking about homeschooling. My husband and family keep talking me out of it. I never considered the possibility before, but since putting my daughter in preschool she’s become angry. I don’t even know how to begin homeschooling. Your views would be helpful. ~J.K. in FL Dear J.K., First of all, I want to encourage...

The Faith It Takes to Homeschool

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For the first time, I wasn’t overwhelmed by the plethora of choices at the homeschool convention. A few art supplies were gathered as gifts to take home to my children, but no curriculum grabbed me. Our shelves at home contained more than enough. After six years of homeschooling, I felt settled. I finally realized there...

Homeschool Is Messy

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My husband leaves for work early in the morning, but the rest of us are here all day, every day. Before breakfast, toys are dragged into the living room. I sling bowls onto the table and notice the library basket being emptied. The rug is covered with books as I pull out the cereal. Breakfast explodes all over the table and...

Homeschool To Do List

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Melancholy settled in as the hours passed. My to do list unmarked except for what I’d deemed most important: prayer, Bible reading, school lessons, and home-cooked meals. Those things took all day. Literally, all day. What about the pencil-scratched trail of obligations and ideas for things I wanted to pursue? My brain...

Perspective Needed

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My daughter received a doll house for Christmas complete with family and furniture. I wish she received a time machine instead, so the hours this toy has scattered across the house could be retrieved. Grandpa hides in a vase. Grandma faints under the couch. Sister peeks from the bookshelf. Mommy and Daddy search for Baby in the...

Feeding My Pride

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Because the lyrics of my life include Rich Mullins’ songs, someone gave me a twenty-six page magazine about the self-proclaimed ragamuffin. There are many pithy quotes in the Release Extra, but this one echoes. I don’t feed my ego by wearing pretentious clothes or by cutting my hair in pretentious ways or by snubbing people...

Habits and Hypocrisy

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Throughout childhood, I read a chapter of the Bible every night. My good habit was challenged in high school. Routine became hypocritical, so I stopped. I only read the Word of God when I felt like it. I cannot recall a specific teacher who introduced this twisted idea of hypocrisy. But somewhere along the way, I concluded...

Can I Go to School?

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At three thirty every afternoon a dingy yellow school bus rambles past our house. My oldest and I are invariably working on math lessons while the little ones sleep, or, at least, are in their room supposed to be asleep. My son gazes wistfully out of the window wishing he could be finished. Then I hear the dreaded question, Can...

Questioning Homeschool

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A couple weeks ago, the Heart of the Matter Homeschool Conference became my talk radio. Fellow homeschoolers encouraged while I painted cabinets, dressed dolls, washed dishes, folded laundry, and skipped around the internet. There were so many helpful ideas. So many passionate speakers. So many foundational truths. How do I...

Raising Children to Live a Normal Life

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While reading Little Homeschool on the Prairie’s review of the documentary Grown Without School, a quote captured my attention: There is a myth that through homeschooling you can achieve…more than a normal life. I want to raise the next George Washington, Albert Einstein, or, for a current example, Ravi Zacharias. In my...