• Skip to main content
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • Start Here
  • The Shop
    • The Lifetime Shopping Pass
    • Explore The Shop
    • Digital Products Terms of Use
    • Your Account Details
      • View Your Orders
      • Go To Your Downloads
      • My Account
    • Lost Password Help
  • Recent Comments
  • Tags
  • Donate
  • Subscribe
A Quiet Simple Life

A Quiet Simple Life

Sallie Schaaf Borrink

  • Audio Playlists
  • Beauty & Culture
    • Movies & Films
    • Old-Fashioned Blogging
    • Printable Poetry
    • Quote Collections
  • Bible & Devotionals
    • Morning Hope
    • Eventide Blessing
    • Streams in the Desert
  • Books
    • Book Lists for Adults
    • Book Lists for Children
    • Chapter Books for Children
    • Free Ebooks
    • Picture Books for Children
  • Christian Faith
    • Christian Faith
    • Faithful Christian Living In Difficult Times
    • From My Bible Notes
    • Journaling
    • Marriage
    • Prayer
  • Gifted & 2e
    • Gifted & 2e Homeschooling
    • Gifted & 2e Parenting For Christians
    • Gifted & 2e Women
  • Gracious Christian Parenting
  • Holidays
    • Thanksgiving
    • Christmas
    • It’s a Girl! Day
  • Homemaking
    • Homemaking
    • Homemaking – The Prudent & Prepared Homemaker
    • Comfort Food Recipes
    • Health
  • Homeschooling
    • Choosing to Homeschool
    • Creative Children
    • Curriculum Reviews
    • Discipleship Homeschooling
    • Elementary School
    • Encouragement for Moms
    • High School
    • Middle School
    • Our Curriculum Choices
    • Our Learning Room & Supplies
    • Planning
    • Preschoolers
    • Products from My Shop
    • Relaxed Homeschooling
    • Right Brained Learners
  • Homeschooling with Cozy Books
  • Linux
  • Our Cozy Family Life
    • In Our Cozy Home This Week
    • My Pregnancy & Baby Stories
    • Guest Columnist – David
  • Simple Living
    • Simple Living
    • Big Tech & Social Media
    • Home-Based Business
  • Unit Studies
    • Unit Studies
    • Unit Study Ideas
You are here: Home / Homeschooling - Planning / What Is Worthy Of My Child’s Time?

Post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure statement.

What Is Worthy Of My Child’s Time?

Monday, September 26, 2022 by Sallie Borrink
2 Comments
1    
1
Share
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

When homeschooling was new and the homeschool pioneers were fighting for the opportunity to legally teach their children in the home, they put together a course of study however they could. There was no internet shopping or websites devoted to homeschooling. Huge homeschool conventions with featured speakers flown in from around the country were literally decades away. Parents used real books, worked with small Christian school publishers, and otherwise made what they needed. Although academics were certainly important, the early pioneers focused a great deal on family and relationships.

Over the past few decades the homeschool market has exploded both in terms of curriculum and ideologies. Homeschoolers face an overwhelming number of options at this point. To be totally honest, I’m not sure it’s a good thing. I believe being faced with too many options is perhaps just as bad as having only a few limited options. (You could even make an argument it might be worse but that would be a post for another day.)

The homeschool community has experienced many trends and even some fads. They continue to this day. I will refrain from mentioning what I observe to be some of the current ones since my goal with this post isn’t to bring wrath down on my head. (I did that once with my milquetoast post about why we didn’t do Classical Conversations and several years later the comments still bubble up anew from time to time.) But there are definitely ideas and curriculum that explode into the homeschool world and become “the thing” for a number of years. The pressure to participate can be significant because people are sure “this is it.”

Recognizing all of this reality does raise the question of what a mother should choose for her child. How does she make those decisions regarding which ideology to embrace and what to buy? Practically everything is promoted as being necessary to provide a child with a “great education.” Every ideology’s adherents believe they do it the best way and the pressure to do it “right” (as they promote it) can be intense. No homeschool mom wants to deny her child the “best education” possible.

But I think there is something to consider that can lessen the burden.

In a recent discussion with a fellow homeschool mom, I made the observation that just because something is worthy of study it doesn’t mean it’s worthy of my child’s time. I think I have instinctively known this and that’s why we became relaxed homeschoolers when so many other people I knew were embracing classical education, Charlotte Mason, etc. They didn’t fit my child and I knew it.

But I hadn’t worded it in that way and so I immediately wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget what I said.

Just because something is worthy of study it doesn’t mean it’s worthy of my child’s time.

There is precious little time available for homeschooling. This becomes all the more apparent when you reach the high school years when parents are tempted to believe the idea that every choice is virtually a matter of life and death. Courses, schedules, grades, credit hours, etc. can all become your master rather than homeschooling continuing to serve your child.

I have dealt with this first-hand in recent years. We’ve always homeschooled and we did so because we believed it was the best option for our child. Period. I’ve written at length about how we came to see that it’s really the only option for our child. So homeschooling has always been in my mind something to serve our family and not the other way around.

Maybe some of the current must-haves and must-do priorities have value and maybe they don’t. Certainly there are many worthy things to potentially study. Think about all that we continue to learn as adults. But many of those worthy subjects, ideas, philosophies, and goals may not be worth your child’s time. Just because an expert in an ivory tower or a mom in your homeschool group insists that something is critical to being truly “educated” doesn’t make it so for your child.

The wisdom comes from knowing your child in a significant way, trying to discern what the Lord might have for your individual child in the future, and making the best choices you can with the information you currently have available.

The bottom line is that something an expert deems worthy might have no relevance to what God has created my child or yours to do in the future. While we will come across much in our lives that has great worth and value, it does not follow that it is worthy of your child’s valuable time.

So to the dear homeschool moms reading this who feel overwhelmed by the pressure both from without and within, I want you to know this. You will never be able to do it all, read it all, visit it all, or learn it all with your child. In fact, trying to do so could be a real waste of your child’s time and yours. Instead, ask God to guide you each day to make the most prudent decisions for your child – even if it is completely different from what your friends and family members are doing. He will answer that sincere prayer. He will guide you in ways you won’t even realize until perhaps weeks or months later. I’ve seen Him do it time and again in my own homeschool planning.

The Lord will lead you to what is worthy of your child’s time if you ask Him.

Category: Homeschooling - Discipleship Homeschooling | Homeschooling - Planning
 

More Related Articles

The Power Of A Simplified Homeschool Life

Relaxed Homeschooling Curriculum Choices For Eighth Grade

Fellowes Comb Binding Machine To Make My Own “Workbooks”

5 Days To Re-Energize Your Homeschool

Previous Post:In Our Cozy Home This Week – No. 100
Next Post:In Our Cozy Home This Week – No. 101

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Thomas

    Monday, September 26, 2022 at 5:05 pm

    We home schooled our 3 sons to high school. I am a teacher and know all too well the curricular fluff jammed into course loads to satisfy Dr. NoItAll from the university of Bugtussel. We focused on literacy and numeracy, science/technology. The rest was recreational (gym, art). We took them to every museum we could, they had their own mag subscriptions and I had every educational channel available and a plethora of didactic material (CD Rom, posters, books, etc.). We spent tons of down time with them exploring the woods, farms, orchard, gardens, zoos, insectariums, movies, art galleries…. I can safely say, many years later all three are thriving, successful and prosperous Christian men (30, 31, 33 y/o). I followed an old acronym I leaned at McGill, KISS…keep it simple stupid.

    Reply
  2. Peggy

    Tuesday, September 27, 2022 at 11:48 pm

    Amen!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 

Thank you for your comment. I read and appreciate each one even if I am unable to respond.

Sidebar

I’m Sallie Schaaf Borrink, a Christian wife, mother, and homeschooler. Welcome to my cozy corner of the world. Our little family lives a quiet simple life of home education, self-employment, and laughter. I share what I've learned to help others navigate this world with truth and beauty. Please start here. ♥ 

Blog Categories

Categories in My Printables Shop

Support This Site – My Affiliate Links

If you use these links when you shop, I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you!

  • Amazon - My Recommendations Storefront 
  • 7 Sisters Homeschool  
  • All About Learning Press
  • Answers in Genesis
  • Beautiful Feet Books
  • College Prep Science
  • Creation Crate
  • Deposit Photos 
  • Dover Publications
  • Homeschool in the Woods
  • The Hungry JPEG 
  • The Master and His Apprentices (Christian high school art history - We loved it!)
  • Pilgrim Institute (Providential American History)
  • Schoolhouse Teachers (Affordable homeschool curriculum for the entire family) & The Old Schoolhouse Magazine 
  • The Shop at Sullivan (Anne of Green Gables & more!)
  • Thrift Books 

New Post Notifications (Does Not Include My Newsletter)

Receive new post notifications from A Quiet Simple Life

Powered by follow.it

Your Shopping Cart

Popular Posts Today

  • Free Printable Christmas Advent Calendar Pin 2Free Printable Christmas Advent Calendar
  • The Cozy Life in America and Why I Prefer It To the Danish Hygge SIMPLE2The Cozy Life In America (and Why I Prefer It To the Danish Hygge)
  • Why I Reject Minimalism and Embrace My Cozy Living History SIMPLEWhy I Reject Minimalism
  • Why I Homeschool in the Afternoon and Not the Morning SIMPLEWhy I Homeschool In The Afternoon and Not The Morning
  • Bumblebee Paper Roll Craft SIMPLEBumblebee Paper Roll Craft
  • Cozy Blogs I’m Reading SIMPLECozy Blogs I’m Reading
  • The Ginghams Paper Dolls (Free) SIMPLEThe Ginghams Paper Dolls (Free!)
  • Free School Year Countdown Calendar 2Free School Year Countdown Calendar Printable
  • Online Art Classes for Beginners SIMPLEOnline Art Classes For Beginners
  • Free Printable Christmas Gift Tags Pin 2Free Printable Christmas Gift Tags

Learning With Themes & Unit Studies

Sallie’s Rebuilding America

Karen Kingston on the Texas Attorney General’s Lawsuit Against Pfizer
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
More Disney Corruption Revealed
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
As in the Days of Noah, Genesis 6 – Chuck Missler
Saturday, December 2, 2023
The Book of Enoch
Saturday, December 2, 2023
The Great Taking – Free PDF
Saturday, December 2, 2023
Dr. Rosaria Butterfield at Liberty University
Saturday, December 2, 2023
Weaponization of Federal Government – Taibbi and Shellenberger
Saturday, December 2, 2023

For the Love of Pansies

Click to visit my other website

My Blogroll

  • Adventures In Keeping House
  • The Blessed Hearth
  • The Bluebirds Are Nesting On The Farm
  • By Sun and Candlelight 
  • The Charm of Home 
  • Coffee Tea Books and Me
  • Creekside Cottage
  • Elefantz
  • Exquisitely Unremarkable
  • Generations Before Us
  • Heavenstretch
  • Homemakers Thoughts
  • Hope and Thrift 
  • A Housewife Writes
  • Jane Austen's World
  • The Legacy of Home
  • Like Mother, Like Daughter
  • Love My Life
  • Mama's Learning Corner
  • The 1940s Experiment
  • Rural Revolution
  • Something From Almost Nothing
  • Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth
  • Stories of an Unschooling Family
  • Sugar Pie Cottage
  • Thinking About Home
  • A Working Pantry 

Blogging Is Better With Blinkies!

Archives

Lifetime Visits

17740953

Contact Me • Privacy Policy • Disclaimers & Affiliates

Copyright © 2005–2023 · A Quiet Simple Life · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Mai Theme

Scroll Up