But does this divine calling require a distinctively Christian education? Should Christian parents send their kids to public schools as salt and light or should they take their kids out of public schools to form distinctively Christian schools and home schools dedicated to holding forth Christ as Lord of all? Because our kids belong to God, are we called to surround them with a biblical worldview from the time they get up to the time they go down, including the hours from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.? Excused Absence is a powerful book that points Christian parents to a better way to educate their children. It is sure to inspire and motivate the growing Christian schooling and home schooling movements for many years to come.

    Yes. It’s worth it. But do you ever feel as if your life is “all homeschool—all the time?” Do you ever wonder where the girl your husband married went? This book is for every mom who has collapsed into bed at the end of the day, looked into the eyes of her husband and promised “tomorrow” she’d have time for him. Trouble is, tomorrow finds her more exhausted than the day before. If you have ever felt caught between the demands of nurturing your children and meeting the needs of your husband, you’re not alone. Read and discover how even a busy homeschool mom can make time to nurture her marriage. It’s not as hard as you think—and more important than you may realize.

    These tips have also directly impacted her teaching to make it a much more effective process. Now her family is able to spend more time focusing on their passions.In Simplify Your Homeschool Day, you will learn:*Practical tips that can save you hours of teaching, planning, and grading each week;*Effective communication techniques that can eliminate frustration and dramatically impact your child's learning;*When you should enlist help;*Creative learning strategies that can be applied on the go; and*How to pursue your own passions.These time-saving tips will increase your child's enjoyment of learning by reducing the time it takes him to complete school work without decreased learning. Put some extra time back into your day right away!

    New unschoolers have had the same questions over the years, and experienced unschoolers go through some similar stages of nervous doubts. This book addresses and summarizes dozens of concerns and puzzlements about whether and how children can learn without schooling.

    When You Rise Up: A Covenantal Approach to Homeschooling

    But as they grow, worries often crowd out wonder. Knowing this, how can parents strengthen their kids’ love for the world so it sticks around for the long haul?Thankfully, parents have at their fingertips a miracle vaccine—one that can boost their kids' immunity to the world’s distractions. Well-chosen stories connect us with others, even those on the other side of the globe. Build your kids’ lives on a story-solid foundation and you’ll give them armor to shield themselves from the world’s cynicism. You’ll give them confidence to persevere in the face of life’s conflicts. You’ll give them a reservoir of compassion that spills over into a lifetime of love in action.Give Your Child the World features inspiring stories, practical suggestions, and carefully curated reading lists of the best children’s literature for each area of the globe. Reading lists are organized by region, country, and age range (ages 4-12). Each listing includes a brief description of the book, its themes, and any content of which parents should be aware.Parents can introduce their children to the world from the comfort of home by simply opening a book together. Give Your Child the World is poised to become a bestselling family reading treasury that promotes literacy, develops a global perspective, and strengthens family bonds while increasing faith and compassion.

    As a RIE teacher and student of pioneering child specialist Magda Gerber, her advice is not based solely on formal studies and the research of others, but also on her twenty years of hands-on experience guiding hundreds of parents and their toddlers. “No Bad Kids” is a collection of Janet's most popular and widely read articles pertaining to common toddler behaviors and how respectful parenting practices can be applied to benefit both parents and children. It covers such common topics as punishment, cooperation, boundaries, testing, tantrums, hitting, and more. “No Bad Kids” provides a practical, indispensable tool for parents who are anticipating or experiencing those critical years when toddlers are developmentally obliged to test the limits of our patience and love. Armed with knowledge and a clearer sense of the world through our children’s eyes, this period of uncertainty can afford a myriad of opportunities to forge unbreakable bonds of trust and respect.

    Today, many children graduate without this essential knowledge. Most curricula today follow a haphazard sampling of topics with a focus on political correctness instead of teaching students how to study. Leigh Bortins, a leading figure in the homeschooling community, is having none of it. She believes that there are core areas of knowledge that are essential to master. Without knowing the multiplication tables, children can't advance to algebra. Without mastery of grammar, students will have difficulty expressing themselves. Without these essential building blocks of knowledge, students may remember information but they will never possess a broad and deep understanding of how the world works. In The Core, Bortins gives parents the tools and methodology to implement a rigorous, thorough, and broad curriculum based on the classical model, including:- Rote memorization to cement knowledge - Systematic learning of geography, historical facts, and timelines - Reading the great books and seminal historical documents instead of adaptations and abridged editions - Rigorous training in math and the natural sciences

    Parents will learn how to transform their home into a learning environment that rivals the best preschool classroom by finding exciting learning opportunities in everyday occurrences, from using laundry to teach sorting to exploring growth cycles in the garden. Parents can make easy use of simple-to-start ideas, advice, and activities, as well as organizational tips, recipes, and more than 200 activities that are easy to pull together. In addition, there are convenient charts and checklists to document children’s growth, which will help ensure there are no gaps in educational, social, or physical development.

    Trusting her own children to "show me the way" was a difficult challenge - but one that gave unexpected and rich rewards. Anyone familiar with the writings of John Holt will be interested to learn how things worked out for a family that decided to test his belief that children are the best directors of their own education. McKee offers the reader insights on how children learn, plenty of illustrations and practical advice about how "unschooling" works, and thoughtful commentary on the state of education today. This book will reassure parents considering homeschooling that nurturing children's natural desire to learn can empower their children to become enthusiastic life-long learners.

    A Mom Just Like You is for all those moms who wonder, "Okay, so how do you do it?" Through her warm, practical style, Vickie Farris fills moms with encouragement and practical suggestions for those days when the challenge seems over-whelming.

    Toddlers can be tricky. On one hand they can be lovely. On the other hand they can be really hard work. They'll make you laugh. And they will probably bring you to tears. Or at least a high level of frustration.I felt the same way when my children were small and I was struggling to get them to do things. I felt enormous empathy for them, but wasn’t sure what the alternative was to threatening, bribing or putting them into time out.It’s been my mission since then to find another way. I’ve now been working in Montessori education for nearly 15 years and love to learn from the 100 toddlers and parents I see every week in my classroom. I am so happy to share with you what I have learned and help you understand your toddler better too.This book is the result. Your comprehensive guide to raising toddlers in a Montessori way.A quick aside for those of you that don't know Montessori. It is an alternative education system where, instead of the teacher standing at the front of the classroom telling the kids what they need to know, the children are free to explore a classroom of well-designed materials covering language, mathematics, daily life skills and more. The result is that the children are able to follow their unique natural rhythm and development as well as learn with concrete learning materials to make discoveries for themselves. But that's it. It's not just for school aged children - you can apply exactly the same ideas in your home and with your toddler.And when I say toddler, I'm talking about children around 1 to 3 years, give or take a few months.Each section of the book is super practical and it is beautifully designed to make it even easier to read. It’s perfect if you are a busy parent, carer or even grandparent. And it doesn't matter if you are brand new to Montessori or have been using Montessori for a while - or even if you aren't planning to send your children to Montessori school. You can read it from cover to cover. Or just open up the book at a page that interests you and you will find something practical you can try today.You’ll learn how to set up your home to get rid of the chaos and bring back some calm into your lives. You will get the tools to work together with your child. How you can lead, guide and support them, especially when they are having a hard time (and throwing themselves on the ground in the most inconvenient of places). You’ll also get ideas to create Montessori activities at home that are just right for your toddler. You will find answers to your questions. To see there is another more peaceful way to be with your toddler. To help you plant the seeds to raise a respectful and responsible human being. To work on a relationship with your toddler which you will be building on for years.So are you ready to say goodbye to frustration and hello to peace and calm? It’s time for us to learn to see through our toddler’s eyes - The Montessori Toddler.

    In this book, she shares the secrets for supporting young writers, from the smallest of scribblers to middle-schoolers mastering script. You play an important role in nurturing your child's writing development. You are your child's first writing teacher, and their most important writing role model. From teaching your child how to hold a pencil and form the letters of the alphabet, to creating writing spaces and meaningful writing rituals at home, this book gives you all of the information and inspiration you need to raise a confident writer. Fifty-two playful activities are presented as ways to invite your child to write. Each activity offers specific suggestions to meet the needs of Scribblers (pre-writers), Spellers (emerging writers), Storytellers (beginner writers), and Scholars (more experienced young writers)—providing the just-right combination of fun and functional skill development. The Write Start is a treasure trove of irresistible ideas that will help you introduce your child to the wonderful world of writing, now, and for years to come.

    Most Christians believe God doesn’t care, one way or the other, how our children are schooled or what methods are employed. This book will use Scripture to prove otherwise. What you read in this book will radically challenge your assumptions and preconceived ideas. - Discover the true purpose of an education and how this affects and influences students - Explore a truly Biblical philosophy of education and how it compares to traditional schooling - Learn to apply a Biblical worldview strategically and systematically to core subjects of education There is almost no topic that is as relevant to the future of Christianity or as controversial as the education of children. Students in school classrooms spend thousands of hours being instructed by people who are not their parents. There is almost no way to calculate what a powerful force this is for influence. From rules to help students reason to information that will help you be a more effective teacher, this book shows the vital importance of “why” in asking students to learn the “what” and “how” of any subject. The future of your child’s education and, therefore, his or her life is ultimately in your hands as a parent. Open your mind and your heart to God’s Word and His truth. Much is at stake. Ask Him to give you discernment to help you understand how He sees the issue of education.

    Grounded in the latest neuroscience and behavioral research, and drawing widely from literature, The Enchanted Hour explains the dazzling cognitive and social-emotional benefits that await children, whatever their class, nationality or family background. But it’s not just about bedtime stories for little kids: Reading aloud consoles, uplifts and invigorates at every age, deepening the intellectual lives and emotional well-being of teenagers and adults, too.Meghan Cox Gurdon argues that this ancient practice is a fast-working antidote to the fractured attention spans, atomized families and unfulfilling ephemera of the tech era, helping to replenish what our devices are leaching away. For everyone, reading aloud engages the mind in complex narratives; for children, it’s an irreplaceable gift that builds vocabulary, fosters imagination, and kindles a lifelong appreciation of language, stories and pictures.Bringing together the latest scientific research, practical tips, and reading recommendations, The Enchanted Hour will both charm and galvanize, inspiring readers to share this invaluable, life-altering tradition with the people they love most.