DIY Homeschooler

This is fun, isn’t it? Finding excellent resources and books and units, worksheets, craft ideas, and other nifty elements to make our homeschools vibrant and exciting! And you and I are learning more than we ever knew before — certainly more than we gleaned the first time around. Explore our Educational Bucket List. Let it start your mind thinking about those elements you want to include in your child’s day each day.

Table of Contents

• A Healthy Focus
• 1. Fill up
• 2. Love
• 3. Serve
• 4. Think
• 5. Do
• 6. Move

A Healthy Focus

But remember, amidst our pinning, and re-pinning, liking, and thumb-uping — we don’t want to lose focus of the wee things:

• The wee hands that grab, caress, hug, pull, make, and find things we didn’t know existed.
• The wee eyes that watch our every move.
• The wee feet that run faster than we can keep up with.
• The wee hearts that need our attention to guide them to the Shepherd that will guide them through life.

Yes, of course they need reading, writing, and arithmetic. But while we focus on the bare bones of academics, let us not lose focus on those things that flesh out the quality of education our children receive.

To get you started, here are our top six ideas — elements we tried to include in our homeschool each day. Add (or subtract) to make this list your own. 

1. Fill up

With Him. Start with the first thing the first thing. There is no other foundation on which to build. And we are building for eternity.

• Bible Study Tools
  Bible reading schedules, devotional, and other Bible study tools to help you get started.

2. Love

Sharing with and caring for others. An educated man is not, if he is not magnanimous.

• Loving the Unlovable
  Even those who are difficult to love.

3. Serve

OK, we usually give this the label “chores” and off we all go. Certainly the first people in his sphere a child needs to serve are those in his immediate family. As he ages, he can branch out to extended family, friends, and those in need.

• 22 Ways to Love, Do & Think Every Day
  Ideas for serving.

4. Think

Of course to think, you need something to think about…something true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. That means input. You see how careful we need to be about input. Input can be:

• Literature.
  What we read gives our minds something to meditate on, starting with Scripture, but also including poetry, great literature, history, and science.
• Art.
  Again, the guideline holds. Art is only worthy of thought if it is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report.
• Music.
  Yes, we can “think” about music, although to be fair, it seems to play around on a sub-level we rarely “think” about!
• Nature.
  I recently read an account of a young man who realized the value spending time with nature gave his day. The outside world has a way of recharging our batteries and revitalizing us.

5. Do

We have our interests and projects, designs, creativity; the things that motivate us from within to do, build, and make. In general, this one is output. By having something go in, now something can come out.

It takes time to create. And our days should include this block of time.

• Why Your Children Need You to Remain Creative
  They learn by watching us!

6. Move

Every day we need to stretch the muscles, fill the lungs, build the circulation. We not only reap strength and endurance, but activate the mind.

• 5 Goals for Fitness
  5 simple fitness goals you can pursue individually, as a family, or as a focus for students.

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Build your own educational bucket list. And keep it in front of you daily to remind you of those wee things….