Learning the Basics

 

School starts this week and we are trying to diligently get prepared. As traditional homeschoolers, there are things we do each year to get ready. It usually involves assembling the textbooks, cleaning our school area, making sure we have pencils with erasers, and throwing out last years papers. I’m still doing all that for Little Man and SJ as they will start 1st and 3rd grade.

Miss K is taking a few classes at our local homeschool academy. It’s a once a week academy with classes that focus on helping her with transcript classes. She will be doing some vocational work in her chosen career of photography. Finally, she will finish out her summer job that has taught her so many life skills over the last four years of working there. She has learned customer service, how to run a cash register and make change, how to market products. She has done harvesting, sorting, and displaying produce. She unloads huge amounts of watermelons, pumpkins, and more…building up those muscles when they throw a big watermelon to you!

Now on to Miss M and Miss A. For the first time, they will be attending a Christian School. The school is an hour from our home, so logistics of drop off and pick up will be interesting. They are doing volleyball and cheerleading, leading to many practices and game times. We have had to buy school clothes as there is a certain dress code at the school. We also had a huge supply list to fill. That’s all new to us as we scramble around to find the last-minute items. We even had to think about lunch money this year! I know some of you are probably laughing by now, but after homeschooling for 26 years, we feel a little shell shocked.

As we prepare for this school year though, one of the biggest things we are doing is talking to the girls. We are reminding them to have good character. We are asking them to be so cautious not to gossip. We keep talking about avoiding all appearance of evil.

1 Corinthians 15:35 “Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

Proverbs 11:13 “A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.”

Proverbs 20:19 “A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid anyone who talks too much.”

Ephesians 4:29 “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

1 Thessalonians 5:22 “Abstain from all appearance of evil.”

Our walk and our testimony are the most important thing we can share with others. It is easy to “talk it” but takes a lot more effort to “walk it”. We want our lives to reflect Christ within us.

1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”

I hope as you prepare your children for school that you are focusing on preparing their hearts, as much as their book-bags and lunches. We have so short of time to train our children. They soon grow up. Those long nights of baby and toddlers quickly gives way to school children and teens. Before you blink marriage and babies are next.
Ephesians 5:16 “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” simply means to take full use of this time. The world has lots of evil, but NOW is the time to teach you kids to stand firm on the word of God.