The Homeschool Minute – January 20, 2021

The Perfect Mama for Your Family

January 20, 2021

Hey Mama

Gena Suarez, Publisher of TOS

Fairest of Them All

Hey Mama,

Have I got a secret for you! Come closer . . . listen . . . ready? You ARE the perfect Mama for your family. That’s right! You really are.

Know why? Because you have discovered the “secret” to everlasting beauty, the key to being beautiful, the way to become the prettiest, fairest Mama in the land. Your children certainly think so. Have you seen the way they look at you? It’s really true, Mama.

You become more beautiful, day by day, as you move toward God. A.W. Tozer puts it this way in his book The Attributes of God: Deeper into the Father’s Heart: “All things as they move toward God are beautiful, and they are ugly as they move away from Him.”

How are you moving more toward the Lord today, Mama? Let The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine encourage you in your quest to become the perfect Mama for your precious family.

Give Me Three Good Reasons! by Deborah Wuehler

Finding Faith Connections in the Everyday Moments an interview with Karen Whiting

Bible Study in the Busyness by Kendra Fletcher

And remember, Mama. . .

You love the Lord and you desire to draw closer to Him by the day. You read His Word so that you hear from Him, directly.

Are you perfect? No, of course not.

Do you confess your sins, get up, and try again day after day? Yes, you certainly try. It’s your heart to do so.

Your children see a Mama who is real, genuine, not a phony who pretends to be something she’s not. The Lord has blessed you, and you are becoming lovelier by the day. Keep walking, beautiful Mama. His hand is on your head.

– gena

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Visit https://puritypressbooks.com/ for series information or contact us at sosm@usa.net.

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Raising Real Men

 Hal & Melanie Young, RaisingRealMen.com

The Lord Knows Better

“Why? Oh, why . . . oh, why, Lord?” I prayed that afternoon. I was so frustrated. I was on pregnancy bedrest, trying to do school, trying to talk the kids through the chores, and trying to cope with feeling that my kids would be better off if someone, anyone else were their mother. I couldn’t do the things I thought they needed. I couldn’t cook for them, couldn’t take them to activities, couldn’t go outside with them.

But the Lord knew better than I did what they needed. I wanted them to have normal. He wanted them to have responsibility. I wanted them to be carefree. He wanted them to be compassionate. I wanted to take care of them. He wanted them to learn to take care of others.

I can see that clearly now, twenty years later. It wasn’t so easy at the time. That was a drastic situation, but I think sooner or later we all struggle with feeling inadequate to the task of mothering. You are not alone. 

You really are not alone. God will walk through this with you. Parenting is important to Him. He calls Himself God the Father for a reason. If He cares that much, He won’t leave you alone, but He’ll help you and guide you through it.

The Lord chose you to be your children’s mama. You are the right mama for them and they are the right children for you. That doesn’t mean it won’t be hard sometimes. It’s a fallen world and we are all sinners. 

How kind the Lord is to use these people we love so much to show us our need of Him. In mothering, we’ll see our own sin as we never have before. We’ll see every bit of selfishness that remains in us. We’ll be pushed to our limits and blow right past them because the Lord wants to conform us to His image. He wants us to repent and turn to Him. He wants us to learn to be like Him. How good He is to use such dear things to accomplish this!

So, yes, you’re the perfect mama for your family because a perfect God made you their mama, and He’ll give you the grace for the job! Here’s a free download that might help.

Your friend,

Melanie

Take a break from virtual learning! Club SciKidz offers the best monthly science and technology subscription boxes for kids. Explore science experiments and challenging engineering projects. Each kit comes with an extensive activity guide and real science equipment. We have a great selection of past boxes too. www.clubscikidzlabs.com

Stacy Farrell

HomeSchoolAdventure.com

Relax, Sweet Momma

“Her children rise up and call her blessed.” ~Proverbs 31:28

DO YOU WONDER?

You love your children fiercely. If they were in danger, you’d surrender your life to save them. 

And yet. . . 

In the dailiness of life, you often fail them: 

• You say, “No,” when you should say, “Yes.”
• You raise your voice when a gentle answer is needed. 
• You let the day end on a sour note just thankful to get them in bed.

And so you wonder, are you really cut out for this mother stuff? 

YOU’RE NOT ALONE.

If you relate to any of those struggles, rest assured—you’re not alone.

Although serene family scenes posted on social media create the illusion of moms who have it all together, don’t be fooled. 

Life is messy. 

For all of us.

YOU WERE HAND-PICKED FOR YOUR FAMILY.

Like so many mothers, I know what it’s like to experience each one of those failures. They can make a momma cry.

But I’ve learned an important lesson. 

“We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” ~Ephesians 2:10

It’s not an accident that you’re the momma of your children. You were hand-picked for the job by the One Who knows you best. 

YOU ARE A WORK IN PROGRESS.

And if you’ve asked Him to be your Savior, He has begun a good work in you that He will bring to completion (Philippians 1:6). 

If you let Him, He will. . . 

• Help you grow into the momma you long to be. 
• Help you become patient, kind, not jealous or boastful or proud. 
• Help you become slow to anger and quick to forgive.   

When you are weak, you can discover His strength and His grace. 

In the midst of your failures, you can experience His tender, merciful love. 

When that love washes over you, let your heart soften toward the frailty and failures of those around you—including those sweet children who, someday, just may rise up and call you blessed.

His love,

Stacy 

P.S. Need encouragement? Get the Celebrate Motherhood Digital Print Collection ($19.95 value) FREE for a limited time. 

Dara Halydier

http://www.abidingtruthministry.com/

Pillar of Hope: Just What Your Child Needs

You’re not perfect, but you are the perfect Mama for your family. Homeschooling makes us focus on our imperfections and inadequacies, especially when our children are struggling or excelling. Should we do more? Something different? We ask ourselves if we can challenge them enough or if a professional could do better.

We wonder whether our discipline is enough, too much, or all wrong. We criticize our strengths when our children put us up against their strong will. We lament our weaknesses when our children do not seem able or willing to do what we want them to do. And yet, God gave each child to you because you are just what that child needs to become all that God wants him or her to be. That child is also what you need to help you grow in dependence upon God and your walk of trust and obedience. Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” This is never more true than in the home.

I had to separate my mothering from my teaching. Keeping that balance was hard. When the books were put away for the day, I could just be Mom—the one who delighted in her children, listened to their hearts, rejoiced in their triumphs, and soothed their crying. At our home we often said, “Character over curriculum.” If the books needed to be put aside in the middle of the day so that we could deal with life issues, then so be it. Life was more important.

We need not power or splendor, 

Wide hall or lordly dome; 

The good, the true, the tender, 

These form the wealth of home. 

-Sarah J. Hale

Are you the perfect mom for your family? God gave these children to you; so your job is to be the mom they need—imperfections and all. Annie Sullivan reminds us, “Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction.” What subjects you did or did not teach well will not impact your child’s life as much as your love, support, listening, guidance, wisdom, prayers, and laughter.

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Congratulations to Jennifer T. from Ohio who won our November giveaway!

Contest Corner

for the month of January

Dyslexia Gold – Catch Up Intervention Reading Program

If you have a child who has been diagnosed with dyslexia or struggles with reading (even if they aren’t dyslexic), you might be looking for a proven program to help them improve their reading and spelling skills.

Review From The Life We Build
Many children and adults have difficulty reading due to dyslexia. While I don’t believe our daughter Anna has dyslexia, she does occasionally mix up the letters b and d. Phonics, in regards to spelling, has never really been a strength, which baffles me given her reading ability. I am always interested in finding programs that will help her bridge that gap. 

The Dyslexia Gold Full Bundle contains four online programs: Engaging Eyes, Spelling Tutor, Fluency Builder, and Times Table Tutor. The recommendation is to use the program for 10-15 minutes a day, and we found that this was pretty accurate in the amount of time it took Anna to complete an activity. We rotated the programs in order to get an overview of the offerings from Dyslexia Gold. With the program Engaging Eyes, there is a target practice game that requires 3D glasses; Dyslexia Gold provides the glasses. Spelling Tutor has your child practice spelling certain words; it requires paper and pencil. Fluency Builder is phonics based. A particular phonics sound is focused on, and at the end of the lesson, a short story is presented with questions that follow. Times Table Tutor is the practice of multiplication; it will work on each number individually.

This is a brief description and review of the Catch Up Intervention reading program from Dyslexia Gold (previously called Full Bundle). You can see a thorough description and 40+ reviews from homeschool moms describing their families’ experience with this program on the Homeschool Review Crew site. 

Enter the contest for your chance to win a 3-month subscription to the Dyslexia Gold Catch Up Intervention reading program. You can enter several times!

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