Cultivating Joyful Homes

Homeschooling can sadly be a joy killer. While spending our days with children should naturally bring tons of lightness and joy into our lives, it is easy for us to get preoccupied, worrying about doing enough, and then create an atmosphere of tension instead of fun.

It doesn't have to be this way though. 

When we begin to break down what our children really need to know, and when we begin to get a vision of the long view of homeschooling, we can start to realize that this pressure that steals the fun out of our days with our children is just a mirage. 

Think about it? What do you remember from your school days? What lessons stick out to you?

Here is another question. What do you want your children to remember from their first few years of school?

When we put these questions and their answers into perspective, we can realize that there are only a few things that we really need to do in the first few years of school.

What are these things? 

• Reading aloud
• No pressure phonics
• Some math or counting
• Some stories about history
• Some stories about science
• A few projects each week
• Plenty of time to play outside
• A few chores each day

When you add in some devotional time, and a responsive parent, you have a recipe for academic success. All of the pushing that public schools are imposing on children is not producing brighter children, what it is producing is burnt out children.

Hop off that hamster wheel and start enjoying these precious early years.

Here is a post with some great information about delayed academics.

Here is another post about joy.

This post talks about how some children teach themselves to read.

This company sends out monthly projects.

My preschool curriculum, The Peaceful Preschool, is a great way to cultivate more learning fun in your home. It could easily be adapted to use with a kindergartner or first grader, simply adding a chapter book read aloud, a phonics program and a math program.

Do you need help with figuring out how to pay for homeschool resources? This course is full of practical advice for building a life you love and living within your means. Best of all, 100% of proceeds go towards ministry to families in Tanzania, Africa.

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