 To my dear homeschool mothers,
I wanted to take a moment of your time today and make sure you know what an honor it is to stand shoulder to shoulder with you, my sisters in Christ. While the world tells us our children are an inconvenience - YOU brought your children home to spend every waking moment together. While the world tells us our children cost too much - YOU choose to not be a two income family and instead sacrifice money for a priceless commodity - time with your family. While the world tells us our children should all learn at the same pace, in the same age group, and in the same way - YOU have chosen to honor the uniquenesses of each of your children allowing them to climb the ladder of learning in their time and in their own way no matter how fast or slow that is. While the world tells us that being "just" a stay at home homeschool mom isn't enough - YOU have decided that it is far more than enough. Because being "just" a stay at home, homeschooling mom is a ministry, a calling, a moment by moment chance to disciple our children, a sacrifice, a joy, an exhaustion, a challenge, uplifting, out of the box, and if done right - the hardest job you will ever do. As a stay at home mom keeping up on the cleaning, laundry, cooking, and various other household chores we have homemaking done right is a huge job. We've decided to add a few more plates to balance and spin by embracing the role of homeschool mom. We are with our children 24/7 and we see the worst in them at times. We hit our knees often asking for wisdom on how to shape, mold and build these disciples for Christ. Add to this the weight of our children's education and future and it's easy to see why we can feel overwhelmed and weak most any hour of the day! Friends, I just want to remind you that the Lord sees you and the sacred work you are doing in your home. Though most of what you do tends to feels invisible, His eye is on YOU - little sparrow, and He is watching with joy your faithfulness to this calling of Homeschool Mom. This work, this sacred work is the most important work you will ever do. You are Raising Arrows who will shoot into world changers for the Lord someday. This is our job, our calling - this is homeschool mothering and today on mother's day I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for making your family the best priority you could ever spend your time on. What a gift you are giving your children allowing them to be homeschooled by you. I'm honored and so blessed to know you, call you friends, and get to walk side by side in this journey of homeschooling together. I virtually raise my reheated in the microwave 3 times cup of lukewarm coffee to you today and say thank you for all you do in serving the kingdom of God and your family. Happy Mother's Day my friends, Love you all - Jenny Isaiah 44:10 Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
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 Raising Arrows has been busy preparing resources to help you as you plan your up and coming homeschool year. There is a ton happening on the Raising Arrows Facebook Page, including give aways, discussions, and bonus videos. To find the Planning the Homeschool Year Journal CLICK HERE
We hope these resources will be helpful to your upcoming homeschool year and take a bit of the stress and challenge of planning away. Excited for this to be your best homeschool year yet! Hi Everyone - here is our last video on homeschooling with littles. This video is from Q & A questions people in Raising Arrows sent in. Here are the rest of the videos from our Homeschooling with Littles Series Homeschooling with Littles - Our Hearts Homeschooling with Littles - Consistency Homeschooling with Littles - Anchors Homeschooling with Littles - Routines Homeschooling with Littles - Be Prepared These video posts, many topic conversations, and some fun giveaways all happen on our Raising Arrows Facebook Group We have had a great week talking about homeschooling with littles. Today we are talking about schedules or routines. For some schedules work and for others routines work. The important part is simply to do something that helps you simplify your day. By keeping either a schedule or a routine means you are more likely to get all your homeschooling and other to do's done in your day. I'm a routine person, which simply means I do the same things in the same order every single day. I don't have to think about it I just do the next thing. I've found that having a routine helps my littles too. They know when I'm doing the finance curriculum with my bigs that this is the last thing before we start making lunch. My 3 year old has said several times "Oh yeah we are talking about money that means lunch is next" This routine gives our littles some security in knowing what comes next and what is expected for the day. Watch today's video for more information on schedules and routines. Don't forget to check out the rest of the videos in our Homeschooling with Littles Series at the links below: Homeschooling with Littles - Our Thoughts Homeschooling with Littles - Anchors Homeschooling with Littles - Consistency Homeschooling with Littles - Be Prepared Hi everyone we are back to talk about homeschooling with littles and being prepared for our day. Nothing can set our day up for success or failure like walking into the day prepared! Watch the video for some ideas on a few things I do to prepare for my homeschool days. If you missed any other videos in our series on Homeschooling with Littles the links are below so you can get caught up! Homeschooling with Littles Series: Homeschooling with Littles - Our Thoughts Homeschooling with Littles - Consistency Homeschooling with Littles - Anchors Hope you all are enjoying our theme week on Homeschooling with Littles. Today we are discussing the importance fo using anchors in our day to get all the things done that must be done. The idea is those staple things that happen every day like brushing your teeth, eating breakfast, lunch and dinner, babies taking naps, snack time, or even bath time you use to your benefit. Attach a task that must be done for homeschooling to these anchors. A simple example of this would be at breakfast each morning I read a chapter of Psalms with my kids and we practice our memory verse. They are all sitting at the table and its a super simple time to accomplish this task. It also means during my day I don't have to try to fit this in somewhere else - Bible always happens during breakfast. Watch the video for more ideas on anchors and how best to use them with your littles. Don't forget to check out the 2 days videos too! - Homeschooling with Littles : Our Heart - Homeschooling with Littles: Consistency We are back for another day discussing Homeschooling our littles. Today we are talking about consistency. Consistency is KEY to a successful homeschool year. When your littles know what to expect they will thrive. All responsibility for being consistent is on us. I know when I resolve to do school every day with my big kids my littles do so much better in the homeschool day One thing I always recommend to help with consistency is NEVER scheduling doctors appointments, coffee dates, play dates, dentist, or any other type of appointment in the morning. Keeping the mornings blocked off for school every day allows you to be free of distractions and able to focus on schooling in the morning. You would be amazed how much of your homeschool day you can fit into the morning when it is left uninterrupted. Another thing I always do is leave my phone in my bedroom in the morning so that there is no chance of text, phone call, or facebook distracting me from my valuable morning time. Waking up at the same time every morning also leads to a better consistent day. If each day starts at different times this makes the schedule for the day tough to plan. Nap time at the same time each day is another great thing to get consistent on to keep the flow of the day going great. It takes time and many days of practice for our littles to really get into a rhythm with homeschooling and we aren't doing them any favors by not being consistent or skipping days of school. Be consistent you will see the fruit of this work as time goes on, but it does take time. Be patient and stick with it!!! Here is yesterday's blog and video: Homeschooling our Littles - Our Hearts I would love to hear your comments and thoughts on Homeschooling with Littles! This week in Raising Arrows we are talking about homeschooling with littles underfoot. Before we could jump into the practical side of thoughts and ideas on how to pull off the day to day tasks with littles, first we must address our hearts.
It’s not hard to look out in our culture and find someone speaking demeaningly about children, memes on facebook that complain about them, abort them if it isn’t a convenient time for you to have a child, or put them in day care if staying home with them is too much for you. We won’t even get started on the view the world has on stay at home moms and then add to that homeschool moms - right?!? These views in culture can permeate the church too. We’ve been to churches where there were signs on the sanctuary doors saying “no children in the sanctuary” or heard a pastor ask an usher to escort the crying baby out of the sanctuary. Children are not looked at as a blessing, a joy, or a gift in todays culture. It’s hard not to allow the blaring noise of the world to seep into our minds as well. In the day in day out thankless job of motherhood it can be hard to keep the right perspective. So let me remind you of a few things. Psalms 127:3-5 Behold children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior so are the children of your youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. Children are a reward a gift from the Lord and the big word in these verses is HAPPY!!! When we focus not on the endless tasks that come along with feedings, changing diapers, and all the work entailed to us with little children but instead view these children through the eyes of the Lord and remember these babies are a daily gift and reminder of the goodness of the Lord. We should find so much joy and delight in our children. I love this quote from Gloria Furman “When I view motherhood not as a gift from God to make me holy but rather as a role with tasks that get in my way, I am missing out on one of God’s ordained means of spiritual growth in my life. Not only that, but I’m missing out on enjoying God.” We are the ones missing out on the joy and gift of our children when we allow the lies of the world to change our view of our children. We must take our thoughts captive. Colossians 2:8 says See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, According to the traditions of men rather than according to Christ. Mama’s this verse is for us - we have to test our thoughts about our children through scripture. We want our children to see us find joy in them and really in the Lord. So the rest of this week we will talk about all the practical but today we need to make sure our hearts are in the right place with the Lord. Looking forward to talking about our littles more this week. Love you all!  On our Raising Arrows Facebook Page we are talking about The Homeschool Marriage this week. Each day we will post a video on a topic within our marriage. I'll post the videos on this blog post so if you miss any they will be in one convenient location to find. There will be many more posts and conversations happening on the Raising Arrows Facebook page. If you aren't part of our group CLICK HERE to join the group! Video 1 is the introduction video The Homeschool Marriage Video 2 - Encouragement The Homeschool Marriage Day 3 - Teamwork The Homeschool Marriage Day 4 - Serving Each Other The Homeschool Marriage Day 5 - Priorities The Homeschool Marriage Day 6 - Homeschooling  Hey Everyone, Happy 2020! I can't believe we are here and celebrating 2020 - it feels like it wasn't that long ago we were celebrating 2000?!? Ok, maybe that was a long time ago - but still! We are excited to be launching into a new year here on Raising Arrows and have some great things planned for this year, I want to make sure you don't miss out! First, we are beyond excited to let you know we are partnering with The Homeschool Summit to bring you some of our favorite past speaker sessions. Each month we will post on the Raising Arrows website the new speaker of the month. January's speaker of the month is Voddie Baucham and his session is on Homeschooling with Your Grandchildren in Mind. This is a great session that we loved and learned a lot from. We hope you will take the 50 minutes to sit, watch, learn and enjoy this session as much as we did! Click HERE to watch the Speaker of the Month Session Theme weeks are coming back on our Facebook Page each month and we are thrilled with the content planned this year. January's theme will be on The Homeschool Marriage and it will be starting on January 19th on our Raising Arrows Facebook Community Group. If you have not joined the Raising Arrows Facebook group CLICK HERE to join. We have some giveaways and other great conversations happening on the Facebook page this month too so be sure to join in the conversation! Praying your new year and homeschooling starting back up will be successful this month. Grateful for all our Raising Arrows families who are striving to keep Christ at the center of their home and homeschool. It's a joy to walk this journey with you. As always we are here for prayer and encouragement if you need anything. In His Love Ben and Jenny  |