Originally Published October 20, 2021
In the early years it can come more naturally to enjoy peaceful days with our children as we learn and grow together in the early years of their childhood.
Time to adventure, play, and to read picture books comes so naturally and joyfully most days.
When we approach the high school years we can feel the pressure to trade all of that in for more rigorous days filled with computer work, academics, and book work, saying goodbye to the fun-filled days that we once knew, and that we have spent their whole childhood cultivating together.
This is a lie.
The world will always tell us that we aren't doing enough or that academics are the most important thing in our children's lives.
But if we stop to look back and remember our vision and how we got here in the first place we will see that what is most important is cultivating their interests, developing a love of learning, reading good living books that build character and teach them truths, continuing to have fun with our children indoors and out, and most importantly developing a relationships within our families, with our neighbor, and with their Creator.
Don’t give up on relationships just because your children are heading into the teen years. They still need all the same things your young ones did.
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bake with them
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adventure with them
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read and study the Word with them
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pull out books and read aloud together as long as they will let you
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have tea time and listen to hymns, folk songs, and classical music together
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keep book stacks around the house that will encourage them to read often from a good selection of living books
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listen to them but more importantly hear them
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love them
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enjoy them
Time is fleeting and so is their time under our roofs. The skills your children need to succeed in high school can be learned just as easily by talking and reading with you, as by slogging away on a computer by themselves.
Pour into them in these moments together and when they are older they will not depart from it.
Be present in each moment because whether you are homeschooling littles or big kids, one day you will put down the last picture book, read your last read aloud, hang the last painting, break up your last argument, clean up the last mess, and life will continue on but in new and different ways.
Sooner than you realize you will find yourself missing the beauty that was sometimes difficult to see at the moment, these moments of our lives right now.
The Peaceful Path to a Living Education is a wonderful encouragement for every age and stage of your homeschool journey for peaceful days and the prescription for the fleeting of time that can be found in each day.
The course includes five lessons on how to homeschool, as well as helpful bonus episodes with frequently asked questions, Christmas planning, and more!
And the book, Hero Education by Oliver DeMille has great wisdom for teaching teens what is really important.
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