Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts. Psalm 145:3-4

How are you declaring the works of the Lord to the next generation? Do your children know your testimony? Do they know how the Lord has changed your life? Do they know how the Lord has answered your prayers? Yes, read the Bible stories to your children. Hey, act them out. Draw pictures. Make a puppet show. I’ve been having my kids each tell a Bible story after dinner as way to work on Scripture memory, though we don’t worry about getting it exactly right. They are stories of the works of the Lord, of His mighty acts, of His unsearchable greatness.

But our family also has a miracle wall (pictured above). We’ve posted notes and mementos that mark miracles we’ve experienced and awesome answers to prayers. They range from our daughter’s free art lessons, to healings, to provisions of money, to protection from lice, and even an evaluator to sign our homeschool paperwork! Our kids know how the Lord has helped us along the way. They know the Lord delivered me from all things streaming and how much I love God’s word. They see (or hear) me singing (and maybe a little dancing) and clapping the tambourine most every night. 🙂

Declare the mighty acts of the Lord! Praise God! Let your children know how great our great God is!

Titus 2:4 These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children.

I turned 47 this year. Three of my children are now adults. Does that mean I can count myself an older woman? Because I want to teach you younger women something. Love your husbands. Love your children.

Here are our definitions of love from 1 Corinthians 13.

Love is patient. What does patience with your child look like on you? (and with your husband if you are married)

Love is kind. What does kindness look like and sound like when you interact with your family?

Love is not jealous. Can you spot any places where jealousy lurks?

Love is not boastful or proud. Love isn’t happy to be proved right.

Love is not rude. (Hint: Instead, it is meek and gentle.)

Love does not demand its own way. Consider the interests of others in the decision.

Love is not irritable. What does that mean when you are talking with your family?

Love keeps no record of wrongs done. Neither your husband nor your children owe you anything. Love is selfless. It’s not about you. Jesus paid your debt on the cross and theirs too. If you want your debt wiped out by the blood of Jesus (and you do), then you need to count everyone else’s debt wiped out as well!

Love never gives up. Where have you been tempted to give up?

Love never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. How can you do that? Give thanks. Praise. Remember your good and perfect God is still and will always be good and perfect. Trust Him and rejoice.

I’m really excited about this new course I’ve added to the All-in-One Homeschool site. I was inspired to create it after subbing as a Sunday school teacher. I asked the kids, “How would someone know you were a Christian?” Two fifth graders piped up, “Because we believe Jesus died on the cross.” That was the consensus. I pointed out the problem with that. There were people watching Jesus die who were mocking Him. They saw Him die. They knew He died on the cross. They didn’t become followers. Knowing wasn’t enough.

If you use our site’s curriculum, you’ll eventually come across a link to what I call my favorite sermon, Ten Shekels and a Shirt. Paris Reidhead talks about how salvation by intellectual assent crept into the church to the point where someone is said to have become a Christian because they can say, “Uh-huh” and nod their head in answer to a few questions.

Salvation isn’t acceptance of the historical record. Salvation isn’t accepting facts about Jesus. Salvation is a supernatural transaction where we are delivered from the kingdom of this world and transferred into the kingdom of God. It’s where our flesh is crucified and buried and we are resurrected as a new creation so that we can say, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

In the course, we will learn some big words like “propitiation,” but this is not a theology course. I don’t want you to know about God. I want you to know God so you can live in the salvation Jesus bought for you.

I would love for anyone who considers themselves to be seeking after God, seeking after life and freedom in Christ to go through the course. I do not teach the doctrines of man. I teach the Bible. All of God’s word is true, not just the verses that support a particular position! The course uses a lot of Scripture, hoping to always point you to God’s word. On the course page you can find the outline of the course to see all the topics covered.

I am aiming at 90 lessons. I have posted the first 60 as I finish off the rest, which will be up in September. I usually say my teachings are for age 11 through adult and that if you want to use it with younger kids, use it as a family.

You can use the course off of AllinOneHomeschool.com, but to track what lesson you are on, you can use a free My EP account. You will find this course in the Bible block on My EP. Click on Next Course to find it just after the high school Bible courses. You can also add it from the Bible block on the Extras page or as a Parent Add-On. Here’s a video on how to do those things.

This post is for the Christians.

I wrote a post on this topic a little over three and a half years ago, but it’s been on my mind again. This is NOT a repost. I’m writing it fresh from my heart to yours.

I have a prayer binder that’s over two inches thick. It weighs almost four pounds. I pray for you, your children, your families. One of the things I pray against is this homeschooling lifestyle becoming an idol. I don’t want you pursuing an ideal of what a homeschool family should look like. I want you pursuing Jesus and loving Him with your all. Homeschooling is not the goal, just something the Lord might use to help you along to the goal.

If you are imitating other families in how they school, dress, have family devotions, order their day, spend their free time, etc., then you are headed the wrong way. I highly recommend burning, shredding, destroying in any manner you can, all Christian books that instruct in how to do something. A Christian book should only point you to the Bible to seek from God what He wants from you. He is creative and can lead each family uniquely.

It doesn’t matter if the person you are learning from is successful and blessed in what they are doing. They may very well be following the Lord’s leading in what they are doing, but if you start following them, you are going after the wrong thing. We are disciples of Christ, no one else. And I say this as someone who teaches and disciples people. While I try to share the stories of God working in my life to give an example of how God can work in your life, I hope I always point everyone to Christ to seek after their own relationship and never encourage anyone to just copy me.

Think about what your heart is set on. It needs to be set on God alone. You goal is knowing and loving and serving Him alone. Has any other desire crept in? Has any other goal been directing your decisions?

If you find something other than the Holy Spirit and God’s word directing your steps, confess. Ask for help refocusing. We have a beautiful promise from God. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.

“All these things” are everything the Lord knows we need. He can take care of them for us. What does it mean to seek His kingdom? In August I will be releasing the September Study for the year. It’s called The Kingdom. I am also planning on releasing Disciples of Christ, an EP course to disciple you through teachings on the foundations of faith, who God is, and who we are in Christ. As with all my stuff, I usually recommend ages 11 through adult and that if you want to use it with younger kids, do it together.

But in the meantime, seeking God’s kingdom and His righteousness is seeking to know and obey God. I have tons of teaching on the site to help you along with reading through the Bible. Read His word. Talk to Him. He’s a good Father, able and ready to help.

Amazon is raising their book printing prices in June. I’m not sure when/how it will all work, but I wanted to give you the heads up so that if you were planning on buying books, you could do it now before the end of May.

We will not be getting any extra money from the increase. This is just on Amazon’s end. Actually, I have been impressed with them keeping their prices the same over the last two years when we’ve seen such an increase in other things. It was pretty inevitable. The general idea is that the price is going about $1.20 for every 100 pages, so some books, like readers, will be affected more than parent guides, which would just go up cents.

When I’ve looked into other places to publish, I always end up back at Amazon as the cheapest option. One of our core values at EP is availability; having low-cost books is part of our striving to do that.