Every Christian Homeschooling Momma Needs to Read this Book!!

 

 

One of the books I read last month was The Spiritual Power Of A Mother by Michael P. Farris. Originally written as “Encouragement for the Homeschooling Mom”, I found this book helpful as a momma who is just starting this homeschooling thing.

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Both Ben and I were homeschooled through high school, so the idea and reasons behind it are not foreign to us. But picking out what curriculum we will use, and how it will work for our family, has had me worried. What if the one I pick doesn’t meet Seth’s learning needs and style? What if I pick one that takes to much time and planning? I was relieved when I came across these paragraphs in The Spiritual Power of a Mother:

Academic success goes hand in hand with the personal sanity of the teaching parent. Successful mom’s are happy mom’s who have established real priorities for themselves and their children.

and

You should homeschool with whatever curriculum you like. As long as it is adequate to teach the basics, it doesn’t have to be perfect. The number one factor in curriculum selection is this: Is this easy for you to use? If it isn’t easy on mom, don’t buy it.

The relief! There are so many curriculum options out there, I was getting stressed about it. In high school I did unit studies, which I loved, and always wanted to do them with my children. So I looked at My Father’s World, but it didn’t look like it had enough structure for Seth. (He loves routine!) I’m still not sure what we will use for pre-k, but I know it won’t be unit studies.

If your homeschool curriculum isn't easy for you to teach, get rid of it! This and other things I learned from this book for Christian homeschooling mommas Click To Tweet

This year we have been getting out little dollar store workbooks every once in a while. Seth loves to go get his books out and is always sad when I make him put them away. We’ve gone over numbers, letters, colors and shapes. I’m not to concerned with how much he is actually getting out of these books right now, since he is only three-and-a-half, but next year we will start buckling down a little and have a more scheduled school week. Probably three days a week for maybe an hour. It just isn’t priority this year. Priorities and goals for our next school year will be much different.

…you have to decide which area of your life is going to get less than the best you can give. You cannot be the greatest homeschooling mom, the greatest wife, the greatest women’s Bible study leader, the greatest church pianist, the greatest neighborhood evangelist, the greatest cook, the greatest housekeeper and the greatest wife that ever existed all at the same time.
You need to decide which areas are more important and devote more of your resources and your incredibly precious time to those projects. You must let lesser priorities slide, either a little or a lot.

I love this quote because it talks about priorities, just like another book that I read recently called Say Goodbye to Survival Mode, in all of life we need to order our priorities and set goals. Trying to balance all the plates that the world tells us we need to (mothering, schooling, leading other women, work, housekeeping,etc) is tiring and we will end up exhausted and of no help to anyone. Choosing a curriculum that covers basic subjects and is easy for momma to use will help put you on the path to a successful homeschooling experience.

{Are you struggling with getting in your quiet time while homeschooling and mothering littles? Here is some encouragement for your tired heart and some tips to help you have a Mary heart in the season of littles.}

My favorite chapter of The Spiritual Power of a Mother was The Dangerous Myth of the Perfect Homeschool Mom. Although this book is directed towards homeschooling momma’s, many of the myths can be applied to all moms. Like the “fact” that we should have a house that looks like Martha Stewart. Hah! We live in our house and it looks lived in. The living room floor usually only clean after a ten minute pick up for ten minutes, unless it is summer and then it is clean because we are outside dirty. 🙂

I think any momma, homeschooling or not, who reads this book would come away encouraged. It will answer questions about homeschooling, encourage you to pray for your children and direct their spiritual life and raise them to be leaders in a world searching for people to follow.

Here is a look at our kindergarten schedule for a 5 year old.