The Christian Mother’s Devotional Guide to the Best Homeschooling Year EVER

If you’re like me, you’re paused at the start line right now.

Your homeschool year is cued up, and you’re chomping at the bit to hit the ground running. The plans. Oh, so many plans.

“Wait until they see the space model we’ll be building! And we’re finally reading Alice in Wonderland. They are going to love this year!”
“After years of searching, I unearthed the perfect literature program. This is going to change everything!”
“This is the year we hit math hard.”

You’ve put in the time planning and now? Now it’s time to crack those books and make the magic happen.

Except… let’s be honest. By day three, someone is going to be whining. (Probably you.) And chances are really good that when you pull off the big reveal (“Are you ready? Are you ready? Look here, kids! It’s a new level of IEW!!!”) crickets will sing and you’re going to wilt just a little inside.

Homeschooling isn’t for folks standing around waiting for a pat on the back. And it isn’t for lone wolves, either. Homeschooling works best—and homeschooling moms fare far, far better—when the year has a firm foundation. And that foundation isn’t in the best curriculum money can buy: it’s in Christ alone.

Christian homeschoolers want to get it right. And in doing so, sometimes, we get it all wrong. I’m as guilty as anyone. It’s so, so easy to be sucked down the rabbit hole of books and supplies and amazingly fun games, thinking that they are the answer to producing well-educated, engaged, thinking kids. But they’re not. God is the answer… and you can’t shelve Him between your Apologia science textbooks and read-alouds.

This year, I challenged myself to spending my first week back to “real school” remembering why we homeschool, who we homeschool for, what our purpose is, and who, exactly, we are trying to please. With such  year of transitions looming ahead (and when is it not a year of transitions?) I’m feeling a desperate need for the peace and assurance that this thing is bigger than me, and that I’m not walking alone.

Maybe you’re feeling it, too. If so, I’d love to invite you to join me. Maybe you already started back. Or maybe you won’t call it official until well into September. At any rate, can we purpose, together, to start out this year at the feet of God, resting in Him and remembering His goodness in calling us to educate our children at home?

 

It’s pretty easy. Just spend a few minutes every day of your first week asking God to reveal His plans to you, to remind you of the great things He has already shown you through homeschooling, and to keep you dependent upon Him as you walk forward.

If you feel the need for more structure, I’ve assembled a simple, five-day devotional designed to encourage you. Centered on the foundational elements of homeschooling and the confidence gained from exploring the Scriptures, it will undergird your new year in faith for those days when it all seems, well, too much. Read a section each day. Having a bad day in February? Come back to a piece that addresses your need. That’s it. 

The devotional is available on Amazon for just 99 cents. Don’t have a dollar? Please, don’t let that stop you. The next few months are going to be full of ups and downs and blindsides. They always are. Take the time now to dedicate this year to the fulfilling the purpose God has for you here, in this season. You won’t regret it.