Family and Faith | Heart of the Matter

Making a Homeschool Mission Statement

Homeschool is a mission field. We are ministering to our children and planting the seeds of their faith. We then water them, and watch them thrive. Often we lose focus of the goals of our homeschool. The very reasons we...

How to get your spring cleaning done

Jenny Penton is a homeschooling mother of seven children and loves the closeness that being home with them provides. Un-schooling is how they live and learn and she blogs about their learning experiences at...

The Way They Should Go

I couldn’t keep from thinking, “What could be better than to have our first child today, on Father’s Day!” Many thoughts rushed through my mind as I contemplated the awesome responsibility that was soon to come upon me....

“…..I will not believe.”

Easter has come and gone but the words I heard at our annual community sunrise service continue to ring in my ears. “Unless I see, I will not believe.” These are words spoken by the man that most of us refer to us...

Adoption and Homeschooling

I am writing from China where we are in the middle of adopting our tenth child, a little girl who is nine years old. We have adopted twice before, a nearly four year old boy and a two year old boy, but this is the first time...

What’s In A Name

If you are anything like me, which I’m sure you are, there are times when you just haven’t got a foggy clue what you are doing, and you are pretty sure that no one has ever felt as lost as you, and that no one could ever...

A Set of Experiences

‘Once you get past all the [poor examples of education], you’re going to start getting closer…to the kind of information that will be very, very dear to your heart…You’ll find that you’re not the first person who was...

Helping Your Children Listen in Church

As Christians, our main goal in homeschooling should be to disciple our children in the ways of the Lord. As they grow, we should begin to expect our children to listen quietly during a church service and other meetings where...

Are You Still Trying?

I’m nothing if not persistent. When I set my mind to do something, I am tenacious about seeing it through from start to finish. I love checklists because crossing completed items off my to-do list gives me a sense of...

The Hidden Value of Chores

When I started telling people that I’d decided to homeschool my boys, I got a lot of skeptical comments. I think my favorite has been, “You know you’re going to have to cut the cord eventually right?” If you heard the...