I reviewed The Convivial Homeschool for the homeschool blog Blest the House this week -- you can read my full review here. Overall, I found it very helpful and encouraging.
I want to share my favorite parts here with you so you can get a taste of how good this book is. And so I can refer to them whenever I need them.
Particularly Good Bits:
Our job isn't to figure out how to make everything go smoothly and easily; it's how to glorify God in all things (p. 14).
Tears are a normal response to difficulty. However, we don't want to shelter our children from encountering difficulty. Experiencing and overcoming hard work and natural consequences at home is a vital training ground for adult life when they will not have a mom smoothing their path for them (p. 22).
Our goal is to walk in step with the Holy Spirit, not to make each and every homeschool day conflict-free. The goal needs to be handling inevitable conflict with the fruit of the Spirit (p. 24-25).
Sometimes homeschooling becomes not just our pet project but the core of our identity, causing us to take situations personally. As Christians, our real identity is in Christ... Homeschooling is one way we serve God; it is not a part of who we are as people (p. 42).
...we think that choosing to homeschool means we are assuming control of and responsibility for how our children turn out (p. 47).
Being merry and festive is not the same thing as being lazy or carefree. It is being cheerful and enjoying life while doing the work of life (p. 60).
Homeschooling is no solution to sin. It does not prevent sin in any way. It just changes the setting and the temptations (p. 76).
Even as we disciple our children through the phases of growing up, we, too, are being shepherded through our own idealistic, stubborn, or discouraged seasons by a Good Shepherd who knows exactly what we need and where we're going (p. 103).
It turns out that homeschooling is work. It's much more than teaching; it is providing the structure that allows our children to build their work ethic and responsibility muscles (p. 109).
Not a single one of us is patient enough to homeschool (p. 159).
Kindness is love in little things, in our entire way of life with one another (p. 166).
Most of what we, as mothers, do all day is mundane: read a book, correct a child, make a meal, sweep a floor, change a diaper. Our days are full of small tasks, but their smallness does not mean they are insignificant. It is in these ways that we faithfully love our families; by loving them, we also faithfully love and glorify and enjoy God (p. 183).
Our role is not to impart everything they need to know... Our role is to see them, hear them, train them, love them, and hold them accountable (p. 194).
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G. No objectionable content here.
This was the 48th book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2022.
