Redeeming Holidays with our Children Facebook
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Redeeming Holidays With Our Children

Redeeming Holidays With Our Children As parents, we desire to be intentional in living out Christ in front of our children in every way, including redeeming holidays with our children or using the opportunity of celebrating a holiday to show them Christ. So when our children were little, my husband and I talked about how we had celebrated holidays in our families growing up and what traditions we might want to share in our own family. We asked ourselves why we observed each holiday and talked to Christian friends about their traditions at holidays.  Also, we read Treasuring God in…

Side view of woman with blond hair sitting with her back against something and her knees pulled up with her hands resting on her knees and holding a pink mug with a shape overlaid and the words Finding Contentment in Motherhood
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Finding Contentment in Motherhood

Contentment is often associated with those who are single, but mothers should also seek the end goal of contentment and joy in Christ in their journey through motherhood. When I was a child, I thought that motherhood was going to be like being Mary Poppins – that I would spend delight-filled hours playing with my children and going on outings. I was blissfully unaware of the reality that Mary Poppins was actually a nanny, not a wife or mother, who had no responsibilities to cook or clean or maintain a relationship with a husband as well as the children. In…

Image of a sheet of music with the words Hallelujah at a diagonal below the music. There are blue bars across the top and bottom of the image and at the top are the words 7 Reasons Why Your Family Should Investigate Messiah Oratorio
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Journey into Joy: 7 Reasons Why Your Family Should Investigate Handel’s Messiah

Could a centuries-old oratorio captivate the hearts of children? Handel’s Messiah most certainly can! In the world of classical music, George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Messiah stands as a timeless masterpiece. Written in just 24 days in 1741, its first performance was in Dublin, Ireland in 1742 as a charity event, and later, it made its way to Covent Garden in London. It has become a standard work performed during the Christmas season. Beyond its beautiful melodies, there are compelling reasons to introduce children to this classical gem, from cultural enrichment to family connections. Here are 7 reasons why parents should…

Image of a brain made up of music notes with words above and below it in teal-colored boxes that say Boosting the Brain with Music Education
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Boosting the Brain with Music Education: The Importance of Including Music in Your Homeschool

“For anyone to grow up complete, music education is imperative.“Paul Harvey In our highly technological world, we are told to focus on STEM – science, technology, engineering and math. And to prove to the world that we are not making a mistake in homeschooling our children, we homeschool parents may be concerned about the academic side of our children’s education. So why would we want to add music and fine arts to our children’s education? This is exactly what David Kearns, now retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Xerox Corporation, asks and answers: “Why arts in education? Why education…

Image of Family playing with kitchenware as musical band at home with purple diagonal area and the words The Importance of Music in Child Development
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The Importance of Music in Child Development: 6 Areas of Development which Music Benefits

Can exposure to music help your child’s development? Yes! Music is a fun and easy and IMPORTANT tool for enhancing childhood development and building your child’s brain! To understand how music aids in child development, we need to know the order of normal child development and compare it to music development. Child development compared to music development The first sensory organ to function in the womb is the ear.  The heart of a child in the womb starts beating about 21 days after conception. At 40 days brain waves are measurable. At 2 months in the womb all body systems…

Picture of a woman jumping at the beach as she has learned How to Thrive, Not Just Survive, as a Homeschool Mom
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How to Thrive (Not Just Survive) as a Homeschool Mom

Is it possible to thrive as a homeschool mom? I always wanted to be a mom. With six younger siblings, I usually had a baby or toddler around to play with until I was a teenager. I would play dolls and dress them up, play school, and even pretended to be Mary Poppins. What could be better than being a mom with my children all day? There were a number of things I didn’t understand about mothering and homeschooling though, obviously. For one thing, my mom did not homeschool, so she appeared to have time to herself to do things…

Imge of a woman with shoulder-length brown hair and a white shirt sitting at a table with a girl with blond hair pulled back in a pony tail and pink shirt. They are looking at books and holding pencils as if writing in the books.
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Generations Homeschool Curriculum Review

For years, I have been part of Classical Conversations and used the resources suggested by Classical Conversations even when I left the community. This year, we decided to try something different. With a focus on discipleship, not merely academics, Generations Homeschool Curriculum caught my attention. In fact, they advertise themselves as Christian Discipleship Curriculum. With the spiritual battle in our world for our children’s hearts, academics is just not enough nor should academics be our end goal. It is up to God to change our children’s hearts, but should we not take every opportunity to teach them about Christ and…

Image of red background with out of focus lights and stars. In a white rectangle across the image are the words "The Best Classical Christmas Music for Kids."
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The Best Classical Christmas Music for Kids

The Christmas season is the most wonderful time of the year. So goes the song. And when it comes to finding engaging classical music to study with your children, there are definitely some wonderful and familiar pieces from the Christmas season which will help your children to fall in love with classical music. The ideal place to start with classical music is with short listening pieces. Here is the best short classical Christmas music for kids. Most of them are pieces from longer works, which are all worthy of listening to in their entirety when you and your child are…

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Best Bible Studies for (Homeschool) Moms

Marriage. Motherhood. Homeschooling. You can’t do them in your own strength. You may have had ideas and plans for how being a wife or parent was going to go for you. But you may also have quickly found out that you are not really in control of everything, especially when it comes to how other people – our husbands and children – are going to act. So we need much grace from God in our marriages, parenting, and homeschooling. As Jesus tells us in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and…

Image of a fan with an American flag print and confetti above it. A red rectangle at a diagonal is in the left hand corner with the words, "Patriotic summer music activities for kids."
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Patriotic Summer Music Activities for Kids

Patriotic Summer Music Activities for Kids Since we have several patriotic holidays over the summer, you can bring a little structure and fun to your days by doing patriotic summer music activities with your kids. Sing patriotic songs, learn a little history, add in crafts, and you will have a fun America-themed unit study for even just 15 minutes a day. Where to start: A great place to start is to learn some of the American songs of the past and their history, like The Star-Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, God Bless America, My Country ‘Tis of Thee, and Yankee…

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