I have heard it said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Why? It is the foundation for your day. You can fill your body with empty sugary calories that will cause you to have a dart of energy that is depleted in an hour, or you can feast on healthy proteins and carbs which will fuel you for all morning. This is the same principle that applies to our homeschooling. Fueling your homeschool with God and family is what we need to start our day off well.
Starting our day with a feast in God’s Word and family connection is the fuel that we need to accomplish great things in the morning.
What can you do at the start of the day to set your homeschool up for success? Below, I have listed the elements that we have done over the years to start our school day. During some seasons we did only a few of them (when we had a newborn baby) while other times we were able to complete many on the list. It is important that you come together and incorporate a spiritual component and whatever else you feel are the most important items for you that correspond to the season that your family is in. There is just something special about gathering together before the hustle and bustle of the day to turn to God in His Word together and talk to Him through prayer. It is the foundation that we all need to focus our minds and hearts.
Here are some of the components for fueling your homeschool with God and family:
1. Reciting the Pledges
One of the first things we do is to start our day with the pledges. It is interesting to note that many children the same ages as my own, do not know the pledges to the American flag, Christian flag, and the Bible. We are thankful for the freedoms that we have in the United States of America to worship God, read the Bible, attend church, and even homeschool. It has been an important value in our family to love God first and also love our country. If you aren’t familiar with these pledges or would like to print and laminate a new copy, see my free printables: American Flag, Christian Flag, Bible.
2. Singing Songs and Hymns
Learning hymns has always been a part of our homeschooling. I believe that hymns build a foundation of theology into our children, introduce them to men and women of faith, demonstrate good writing and new vocabulary, and aid in our participation of worship at church. Just a few days ago our church sang Praise to the Lord, the Almighty. Our children were able to sing that hymn with passion since they all have it memorized. I am filled with joy when I hear our children singing the great theology that comes from these hymns of our faith.
Click here for more about our passion for learning Hymns in our home and to print out our list of hymn lyrics.
3. Learning and displaying character qualities
Our children will not just develop Biblical character on their own. It takes teaching, practice, and discipline. We use the time in the morning to learn about a character quality that we find in the Bible. Using a Biblical figure and a missionary story, we discover how this character quality is lived out in the lives of real people. The children also like to role play positive and negative ways to show these qualities by making up stories. It is important for our children to identify these characteristics so they will be able to live them in their lives, and you should look for situations where your children have demonstrated these qualities and encourage them to continue in that.
For a list of character qualities, printables, and my framework for how to use them (like you see below), click here.
Another great resource, To Every Nation by Not Consumed, is a curriculum that combines missionary biographies and character education.
4. Memorizing Scriptures
“Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You.”
Whether we are learning an isolated verse or learning a whole chapter, memorizing Scripture is a pillar in our homeschool. Not only does the Bible instruct us to hide the Word in our hearts, it also tells us to DO what it says. By learning verses, we are knowing what God’s Law says on a variety of topics and our goal is to know them so they will keep us from sin.
Find our top ten tips for memorizing Bible verses with children here and our Alphabet Verse Challenge here.
5. Bible Study/devotions
One of the most important parts of fueling your homeschool each day is your time in God’s Word together. Over the years this has looked different at different times, but one thing has remained constant: getting into the Word. We have studied verse by verse through a book of the Bible, read a Psalm or Proverb each day, analyzed a life of a Biblical character, read a devotional and verse each day, and the like. It is critical in your homeschool and family that you spend this time in the Word together. Ask questions. Find the verses in the Bible together. Let the children read the verses. Discuss theology. Learn catechisms. Be in the Word together. You will not regret it.
6. Add another subject of study
Several years back, I was talking to the children about where a certain country was in the world. Not only did they not know where that country was, they didn’t know it was even a country! It was there and then that I decided that I MUST start a unit in geography with all of the children. Even though there were kids of all ages around our table, these lessons in geography were good for all of them. We took a deep dive into the continents, discovered the location of many important oceans, rivers, and lakes while also identifying scores of countries around the world. All it took was a little planning and a little bit of time each day. And it was fabulous to do this as a family — all of the kids together!
I made a list of the geographical features and countries that I wanted the big kids to be able to identify, and we chipped away at the list bit by bit (with lots of review each day) until we all knew 90% of the items on my list. This took some planning ahead for me and acquiring of a good map (I had a folded laminated one that worked well).
There have been times in our homeschool journey that I felt our children were deficient in other subjects and have used this time together in the morning to feast on that subject as a whole group. It has really brought some great learning and discovery to our daily routine. The children really have fun doing these subjects together and helping each other along. While some have greater understanding than others, they all participate which creates such special memories as we all work and learn together.
7. Pray together
Before we scatter into the various parts of the house for individual lessons, we gather to pray together. This is where we hear the hearts of our children who come with requests for friends or self and tenderly present their items to a loving Father. It is special to hear their prayers of faith. We use this time to pray for requests that we have written on our prayer wall — friends and family and missionaries and more!
Sarah, are you saying that you do all of these things every school day?
No, we don’t. While some of the elements are things that we do daily (Bible study and prayer), the other components of the morning are things that we don’t do each day.
Overall, spending time in the morning before the busyness of the day begins is a perfect way to be fueling your homeschool with God and family. It is important that we come together to hear what God’s Word says so we can help each other live what it says. This is a way that we build community and identity into our families. We are the LIGHTNER family… and the Lightner family knows God’s Word, starts the day in the Word of God, and we do that TOGETHER!
What are some ways that you are fueling your homeschool with God and family?
Let us know in the comments below.
To learn more about becoming a Biblically Minded Family, click here.
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