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homeschooling parents, we have God-given authority in our homes and over our children. Along with this authority, He enables us to identify our children’s needs and equip them for the future He has in store. We are the ones God has granted with this incredible responsibility.
No one else has the authority over your kids that you do. Not to rule them, but to help them grow. As you discover your unique rhythm in this season of life, I encourage you to remember this about your role.
These are uncertain times in many ways. But thank the Lord, we are not people of uncertainty. We know of whom we believe. We can step up to the task of homeschooling with boldness because we trust the One who has entrusted us with these children. It doesn’t mean you’ll know exactly what to do all the time… it means you have access to the One who does. But we do need to put on the truth of our authority and identity. We are called to this role so we can lean on the Lord knowing He’s going to provide wisdom, guidance, and peace.
God has gifted you and your spouse with the ability to discern your children’s needs. One thing that’s clear as you read the pages ahead, everyone’s rhythm will be different. Everyone will have their own timing and season to identify.
That’s the adventure of it! Finding your family’s path and seeing it as a creative exploration with God.

My husband is more of a night owl. He enjoys connecting with the Lord after everyone goes to bed. Not me! I can hardly keep my eyes open past 10:00 p.m. Some people take a midday walk and use that as their time to worship, pray, and connect with God. You can even listen to the Bible now through the Holy Bible app. It doesn’t need to look a certain way. Whatever brings rest and connection to your heavenly Father, that’s what matters. That’s the place where we find hope and perspective that originates not from ourselves, but from above.
Magnifying God instead of our circumstances and above our questions and concerns, this is what reminds us that He is in control. I like how the New Living Translation puts it:


We’re in this with you!






hirty years ago Homeschooling Today magazine was founded by homeschooling parents with a vision to encourage and assist homeschooling families. Today, that vision continues with homeschool graduates Alex and Ashley Wiggers at the helm.
We are staunch supporters of homeschooling because we’ve seen the value of what this choice has to offer. In our homes, it was enjoyable, filled with learning that lasted, and built on the foundation of relationship. We are now continuing this legacy of freedom in learning with our own children. Parents, we believe in the power of influence you have as you walk with God, to provide everything your children need to fulfill their destinies. We believe that homeschoolers are uniquely fitted to become world changers because they’re used to doing things differently. Having been shown the true value of learning and what they’re capable of, these children will look at the world with eyes to help, lead, problem-solve, and display a depth of character that reflects the convictions of their faith.
This is what our children are called to do, but it won’t happen if we walk in fear. Our mission is to come alongside you with encouragement and practical help, to remind you that we’re in this together, and to help you see past the present trials into the reality of your true calling, equipping your children to be the remarkable people God created. Whether you are homeschooling for a season of life or the years to come, this movement can be a catalyst for courage. It will be through our ability to shed fear and embrace courage that we will enable our children to do the same!

I live in Texas, and as I sit here writing this we’ve had more than sixty days where the temperature has been over 100 degrees. At least it’s been consistent! This coming week there’s a glimmer of hope in the form of forecasted rain and a break in the heat—I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. But summer’s not the only crazy season around here. Often during the winter, our temperatures are “temperamental,” swinging from warm days to freezing temps. Some winters we barely have any snow and at other times we experience blizzard-type conditions.
That’s the way it is with the weather here in Texas and I’m guessing where you are too… it’s always changing. Sometimes the same day.
When it comes to homeschooling, our days look a lot like Texas weather. We have seasons of consistency—even hard consistency—and seasons when life feels like it’s all over the place. And in the midst of it all, we are doing more than school when it comes to homeschooling. We are “doing” home.
There are some foundational principles you can have in place to help you be consistent when life isn’t… or when life is consistently difficult. But know that with every principle, there is also grace. The grace to adjust and readjust, to be flexible and creative.
In this issue, Durenda answers the question, “How do you balance everything?” I’m guessing you’ve often wondered the same thing. And in Mom to Mom she explores how to find your routine. Kathy and Lesli share how even our little ones can contribute to the family home while Connie tackles what it looks like for older children and teens to manage their time well. As Todd “gently” reminds us… life skills are REAL school. We hope these practical articles will help you do just that: teach your kids the skills they’ll need for the rest of their lives.
One of the best ways to find a balance between “school” and home is to teach naturally. Michelle Moody shares ways science can be studied without textbooks—in a way that captures kids’ curiosity about the world around them. And I’m continuing my series on shifting our paradigms about teaching writing.
When it comes to the home, you have a lot of responsibilities! The sisters from Trim Healthy Mama will give you a plan for getting supper on the table that is actually doable for those of us who don’t spend a lot of time planning. And Vicki Bently is sharing ways to get your children involved in helping take care of your home.
As always, there is so much more—from Jennifer’s hifalutin hints on planning to Steve’s encouragement for families. Though I wrote this in the midst of summer days, as you are reading it, the weather has probably shifted. Grab that cup of coffee or tea, get in your comfy chair, and find encouragement and practical ideas to help you HOMEschool boldly. As this new season begins… Enjoy the fall, y’all. I know I will!



cultivating the atmosphere
Let’s create a safe place for our children to learn—where our kids can make mistakes, be their unique and gifted selves, and know that they don’t have to “keep up” with the arbitrary standards and timelines for learning.
creating playfulness
It’s time to focus on FUNschooling! In this issue, we’ll talk about building relationships, making memories, and ways to keep things more “light”! We want to hone in on the things that graduates look back on and say, “I loved it when we…”
curating rhythms
This will be a very practical issue full of help for organization, chores, meal planning, and all the things that keep the home fires burning. Find out how to teach kids life skills with topics like time management and productivity, too!

winter 2022-23:
celebrating the family
This digital only edition will help you to celebrate the holiday season, keeping first things first. But that’s not all! You’ll find both unique and practical ways to keep the homeschool fires burning throughout the winter season.
Ad Index
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Celebrate Simple & Cheryl Bastian
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Daily Skill Building – Ad 1, Ad 2
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Dianne Craft: “Right Brain” Learning System
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Literary Adventures for Kids
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Rainbow Resources
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The Homegrown Preschooler
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The Smiling Homeschooler & Todd Wilson
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Trail Guide to Learning Series
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Trim Healthy You
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Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett
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Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers
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Ad index
www.americanheritage.org
Building Faith Families
www.buildingfaithfamilies.org
Celebrate Simple & Cheryl Bastian
www.cherylbastian.com
Christianbook
www.christianbook.com
Connie Albers
www.conniealbers.com
Creature Crew
www.thecreaturecrew.com
Daily Skill Building – Ad 1, Ad 2
www.dailyskillbuilding.com
Demme Learning
www.demmelearning.com
Dianne Craft: “Right Brain” Learning System
www.diannecraft.org
Durenda Wilson
www.durendawilson.com
Evangel University
www.evangel.edu
Great Homeschool Conventions
www.homeschooling.mom
Harding University
www.harding.edu
Hifalutin Homeschooler
www.hifalutinhomeschooler.com
Literary Adventures for Kids
www.northwest.edu
Northwest University
www.northwest.edu
Rainbow Resources
www.rainbowresource.com
The Homegrown Preschooler
www.thehomegrownpreschooler.com
The Smiling Homeschooler & Todd Wilson
www.thesmilinghomeschooler.com
Trail Guide to Learning Series
www.trailguidetolearning.com
Trim Healthy You
www.trimhealthyou.net
Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett
www.unitstudy.com
Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers
www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com







With its crisp, cool air and changing leaves, autumn is the perfect time to enjoy hands-on activities, build family relationships, and enjoy the great outdoors. There’s something for everyone in the Autumn Activity Guide!
Enhanced – read by the author

Finding Your Routine
hen I was pregnant with our sixth baby, our oldest was nine years old. We seemed to have a pretty good rhythm to our days, but I had this nagging feeling that with the next baby our current routine would simply not work.
I spent some time praying and sat down to reorganize our daily life. It was overwhelming. Questions ran through my head. How do I keep our house in some semblance of order, nurse a baby every few hours, make regular mealtimes happen, continue to train the children the way I know I’m supposed to, and homeschool?
It seemed like an impossible task. However, I knew God had given us these children, and He would somehow provide the grace to do all that needed to be done.
So I prayed again, dug into some resources I thought might be helpful, and prayed some more.

I feel like I am cooking and cleaning all day and haven’t even started homeschooling yet. We will start in the fall. How do you balance everything? My boys are six, three, and one and do help with some chores.

It sounds like that is exactly where you are as you anticipate adding homeschooling to your already busy days.
Because I don’t know everything about your family or situation, I can’t give more specific advice, but there are a few general things that come to mind:
Please remember that your children are still very young, and you are in a particularly busy season. Two out of three of your kids still need you most of the time! It’s wonderful that you have the six and three-year-old helping with some chores! You have headed in the right direction!
I think my first word of encouragement to you would be what I say to every mom with young school-age children: young children don’t need to do a massive amount of bookwork in order to be learning.
In both of my books, The Unhurried Homeschooler and The Four Hour School Day, I continually remind moms that easing into bookwork slowly tends to be a far more beneficial approach. Young children aren’t ready for the kind of academics that older children are. However, make no mistake, they are learning all the time! So much of that learning happens naturally through chores, play, reading out loud, and living real life together.
This is also the time when you are laying a foundation of good character which will lend itself to a smoother homeschooling journey down the road, so it’s important to be diligent and consistent in that area.

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“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
seeking to obey and practice these truths which God laid out for families, my wife and I sought to be intentional in being with our children to do life together as a family. At the time, we were not cognizant that shared experiences are the commonality which is the basis of lasting relationships, but forty years later, our family still shares meals together, works together, plays together, and worships together, with the additional blessings of grandchildren!


Ashley Wiggers
otice how I said “finding” contentment in the title? Sometimes I have to go on a search for it. Because of the ages of my kids (six, three, and one), there are widely varying needs to be met and with every season comes needed adjustments.
At times, I start going down the mental path, “Am I doing enough?” There are so many pieces to be tied together in this real homeschooling life.
It’s really about being sensitive to the One who orders our steps and following His lead. Every season of life will include more of one thing over another, and if we tune into the Father’s voice, we’ll find we’re meeting the right needs at the right time.


And I very much did not like writing in high school and college. I dreaded it. It even took the joy out of the novels we were to read for class. Books aren’t nearly as interesting if they are just another thing to write another essay about.
I blame all those five-paragraph essays and formal research papers we were assigned. The research paper…Y’all, I grew up during a time when you had to hand write the paper while leaving room at the bottom for your footnotes. At a time when, if you made a mistake, you were required to write the page again. IN INK.


…and possible poppycock.”
Jennifer Cabrera

…and possible poppycock.
“The next week of the rest of your homeschool year starts now,” I mentally beam to each of my kids, as I choose an inspiring palette of gel pen colors for each of their planners and begin authoring their academic endeavors and advancements.
I plan for perfection, but I keep it real and doable by settling for just being awesome.




Fortunately, we have about eighteen years to teach our children these things, and when we hold a balance between steady progress and lightheartedness, they can leave our home prepared to take care of themselves and others.
One of the beautiful things we get to model and teach our children is how each family member helps with the care of the home. Many people call these actions chores, but we like to think of them as contributions. In a family, everyone contributes according to their abilities. Everyone needs to play a part in making the home run smoothly. In our family, contributions look like making your bed, washing and putting away your clothes and dishes, sweeping the floor, wiping the counters after dinner, and cleaning your room. Chores are jobs that children can do if they want to earn some spending money, such as picking up pine cones in the yard, weeding the garden, deep cleaning the bathrooms, or washing the car. We believe that contributions and chores are a great way to train and empower your children as they grow closer to independence.



all is my favorite time of year! I live in the South, so our summers are long and hot. Every year, my family and I look forward to autumn when the days are cooler, the mosquitoes have (hopefully) gone away, and, for many families, homeschool is back in session.
There are lots of autumn learning activities that can help make getting back to school something you and your children look forward to. As you’re doing these activities, use the ideas to come up with even more ideas of your own!
If you have younger children or want to make this activity simpler, write acrostics. Simply choose an autumn-related word such as apple, autumn, leaves, hot chocolate, etc. Write the word(s) going down the side of the page. Then write an autumn-related word beginning with each of the letters.
If you’d like to make it a little more challenging, write haiku, free verse, or another type of poetry. Make it serious, make it informational, but be sure to make it fun!
2. Go on a nature walk.
While you’re walking, pay attention to the plants and animals you see. Look at bugs and birds. Notice the landscape.
When you get home, write poems or short stories about the plants, animals, and areas you observed while you were on your walk.
You may even want to go on nature walks once a week and make notes of the changes in temperature and weather and the different kinds of plants and animals you see so you can compare them or graph them.
3. Make fall leaf creatures.
Collect some beautifully colored fall leaves and make fall leaf creatures! Make animals just for the fun of it, or create them and write short stories or poems that include your leaf creatures as the stars of your stories. Or you might want to create cards to give as gifts to friends or relatives or patients at a local nursing home.


all is my favorite time of year! I live in the South, so our summers are long and hot. Every year, my family and I look forward to autumn when the days are cooler, the mosquitoes have (hopefully) gone away, and, for many families, homeschool is back in session.
There are lots of autumn learning activities that can help make getting back to school something you and your children look forward to. As you’re doing these activities, use the ideas to come up with even more ideas of your own!
If you have younger children or want to make this activity simpler, write acrostics. Simply choose an autumn-related word such as apple, autumn, leaves, hot chocolate, etc. Write the word(s) going down the side of the page. Then write an autumn-related word beginning with each of the letters.
If you’d like to make it a little more challenging, write haiku, free verse, or another type of poetry. Make it serious, make it informational, but be sure to make it fun!
2. Go on a nature walk.
While you’re walking, pay attention to the plants and animals you see. Look at bugs and birds. Notice the landscape.
When you get home, write poems or short stories about the plants, animals, and areas you observed while you were on your walk.
You may even want to go on nature walks once a week and make notes of the changes in temperature and weather and the different kinds of plants and animals you see so you can compare them or graph them.
3. Make fall leaf creatures.
Collect some beautifully colored fall leaves and make fall leaf creatures! Make animals just for the fun of it, or create them and write short stories or poems that include your leaf creatures as the stars of your stories. Or you might want to create cards to give as gifts to friends or relatives or patients at a local nursing home.



by Connie Albers

The alarm goes off and your teen hits the snooze button three times before making any attempt to get out of bed. Another child isn’t dressed because she can’t decide what to wear. Meanwhile, you are frantically trying to make breakfast and get out the door so you aren’t late for an appointment. You get down the road, though, and realize you forgot to grab the paperwork you need to take with you. At this point, everyone feels stressed and irritated.
Have you been there?
Every time this happens you tell yourself you don’t want your family functioning this way, but you can’t seem to change things. You aren’t alone! Learning to be good at time management is challenging. For our family, it took many failed attempts before finding what worked for us, and not against us.
One of the questions I am often asked is, “How do you get your children to take ownership of their time?” I love it when parents realize something isn’t working and search for solutions. My reply goes along these lines: Help your children create a list of what is most important, and then teach them how to spend their time doing what matters. Though it took years, I love watching my adult children using the same process they learned during childhood. And so will you!
How do you get your children to take ownership of their time? Start with creating a family calendar so they can readily see your family goals. Then help your kids make an individual one. It will be shorter and simple.


How will he do this? He has to come up with a plan to discover how to hunt the legendary Firefish and sell the rare meat… all while winning the heart of beautiful Panna Seline.


Comparing is greater than (>) or less than(<). Combining is adding(+) or subtracting(-).
Once again, “To compare or combine, you must be the same kind.” When I was a classroom teacher, I normally taught this idea when combining algebraic expressions like 2X + 3X = 5X. Since they are both Xs, I was able to add the 2 and the 3 to get 5. Similarly 4A plus 5A equals 9A. When the variables are the same, we can add the numbers.

he truth is, some of us are meal planners and some of us just aren’t! But it’s simply not true that you have to become a detailed meal planner to whip up quick, easy, healthy, and scrumptious meals for you and your family.
The following approach can work well whether you’re a “never plan a meal” type or an “ultra-planner-here’s-the-spreadsheet” type. Even ultra-planners can get unraveled when life throws curve balls, and life inevitably throws all of us curve balls at times. But even during seasons of chaos and far from perfect circumstances, you can put meals together that are healthy but oh so doable.
The healthiest meals for growing children and busy parents are grounded in protein, contain phytonutrients from veggies, offer whole grains or unprocessed carbohydrates, and/or healthy fats. These meals don’t even need recipes! They can work for any meal… breakfast, lunch, or dinner. They can be whipped up in just a few minutes and jazzed up with spices and seasonings.


Michelle Moody

ast summer, my husband built some garden boxes for us. What amazed me most about the entire process was his ability to recall and use the algebra and geometry he learned in school so many years ago. I watched with a deer-in-headlights look as he measured diagonally, wrote down numbers, and diagrammed his calculations on paper.
I told my daughter, “Now, this is why we have to do algebra and geometry!”
The garden box project was a perfect example of how science is integral to our everyday lives. Undoubtedly, the foundation a curriculum provides is critical, but how do we help our children move beyond the science text and integrate science into their daily rhythm?
How do we help them develop the confidence in their observation and science knowledge to take on those garden box projects as adults?

• Inspires a Love of Learning
• Produces Independent Thinkers
• Nurtures Curiosity
• Easy to Teach


I lived life at a super busy speed for far too long. I believed the lie that I could multitask twenty-four seven, and I was depleted by my lack of boundaries. Twenty-four hours a day weren’t enough for all I had on my plate.
I was exhausted, empty, crying myself to sleep, and feeling like I failed as a mom.
Busyness and stress caused me to step down from full-time ministry, brought us to a very difficult financial situation, and—almost eight years later—I am still suffering from the health consequences of that burnout.
In my busyness, I neglected myself, my daily connection with my children, and my husband. The good news is that those days are over, and I no longer fall back into the super busy mom trap.


aising kids who help at home is about more than just getting the chores done. It’s about training your children to be responsible members of a family who diligently serve one another. It’s about discipling—or apprenticing—them in living skills. Remember: you have years to develop your children’s character, so don’t overwhelm them with unrealistic expectations. As the sign near my front door reminds me and our guests during this season of training:

Colleen Kessler, M.Ed.
Strengthening Executive Function Skills
What people don’t see at first glance is the distractibility, disorganization, poor planning, and lack of emotional regulation that my crazy, chaotic, creative, and very fun kids show on a day-to-day basis. There are all sorts of executive function struggles in our home.
Maybe there are in yours, too?


Can my high schooler earn credit for learning life skills?
No doubt life circumstances, or personal interests, have ushered in learning opportunities for your high schoolers.

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Let’s face it, Mom is often the keeper of the home and keeping it running smoothly can be quite challenging! M.O.M. Master Organizer of Mayhem by Baker Publishing Group has such great tips on organizing the home. Each chapter ends with a “You got this” challenge and thought-provoking questions. This could be a fun book to go through and complete with a group of friends. Clean Mama’s Guide to a Peaceful Home by HarperCollins Publishers is a handy resource that features over fifty tips for homekeeping bliss! Incredibly relatable, part cheerleader, and part self-analysis—this book is for those who need some encouragement with practical guidance to maintain a calm, cozy home. Question grids help you see where improvements can be made by going room by room. Author Becky Rapinchuk examines your routines with real topics like meal planning, kids’ rooms, vacuuming, laundry, and more.
If you have been looking for a way to declutter, organize, and streamline your home, this book will give you plenty of good advice! In Organized Homeschool Life (A Week-By-Week Guide to Homeschool Sanity) by Fun to Learn Books, Dr. Melanie Wilson provides a year’s worth of weekly challenges! When it comes to keeping the home and school, it is possible to have an organized homeschool life. I adore that she targets the Christian homeschool mom and that she writes from the perspective of one who felt she wasn’t organized enough to get organized. Though designed to start in January, you can begin any time of the year. Begin with the current month or tackle your greatest struggle area first. Chapters are divided into months and provide weekly challenge overviews and daily missions (tasks). For example, organize the kitchen in the third week of September. Missions: organize dishes/cups, set up snack centers, move seldom used items, and organize for kid cooking.



But at some point, someone divided learning into categories: academics skills and life skills… or real school and not real school. Today, children spend most of their time learning academic skills, and then if they have a few extra minutes, life skills are squeezed in as extracurricular activities (read: NOT REAL SCHOOL).
But life skills carry just as much weight as academic skills… and maybe even more. I’d much rather break down in my car with a guy who can fix the engine than a lawyer who can only help me if I’ve been “injured in an accident.”
Give me a guy who can do plumbing or electrical over a guy who has memorized Pi to the 100th digit any day. Life skills are REAL SCHOOL and can be counted in the same way as math skills, language arts skills, and geography skills.

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