Natasha Trudeau of Christian Homeschool Supplies talking with Erika Shupe of the blog Large Families on Purpose.

 Natasha Trudeau of Christian Homeschool Supplies     talking with    Erika Shupe of the blog, Large Families on Purpose:

Natasha Trudeau ---“What are five suggestions that you would give to new homeschooling parents?”

Erika --- First, you really have to get your heart and mind right about what you’re doing and why. Home education is about discipleship first and education second. If you raise a PhD and that is a heathen, self-centered and materialistic like most other people in the world, what was the point?  Here is one of our posts on why we homeschool.  http://www.largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2011/05/homeschooling-why-do-we-do-it.html

1. For the practical elements of homeschooling I encourage moms to implement a plan for your week; a weekly routine or schedule in place at least 4 days out of a 7-day week (more than half the time).

     In order to be successful in the goals we’ve set and which the Lord has placed before us, we must have a plan (Some people are very good at “seat-of-the-pants” type of living but most need a plan). And in order to avoid expecting 27-hour days our of ourselves and then going to bed every night feeling like a failure at all of the things we can’t get done or done well, we need to plan out a 24 hr. day for ourselves and our children that is balanced. There should be time to do school, time to get enough sleep, to have time in God’s Word, to exercise, to do a little bit of a hobby, to spend quality time with the children, to keep up with the house work, to have dinner on the table on time, to have some smile left in the day when Hubby comes home…Yes – it’s very possible. In a word you need to have balance in your life, your children’s lives, your schooling and home in order to sustain the homeschool lifestyle and to be successful.

     Our blog page is really a very large version of answering this and other similar questions born out of our desire to answer the primary question “How do you do that” to people who are just starting out, adding children to their family etc. If you would like more information and practical how-to’s on scheduling you can start with this post. It will cover: why I began scheduling, how I began scheduling, my overall scheduling framework, and additional benefits to scheduling. In part 2 of this post you can read about the difference between winging it and planning it, the blessings of planning, and looking at some common road blocks to being in a successful schedule.

http://www.largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2011/01/scheduling-routines-you-cant-have-your.html

2. I encourage you (everyone) to learn how to productively occupy young children that are not yet ready to use homeschool curriculum yet.

They learn a great deal from their siblings but they also have to have their own time and activities. We cannot have young children wandering about the house during homeschool hours and expect to not be interrupted by managing their choices or relationships. And we cannot expect homeschooling children to stay focused with younger siblings playing all around them and with activities out all over the place. It just looks too fun and older ones have to join in! But if we productively occupy younger children in healthy ways then they are doing their own learning and mom can focus on the older ones. And the younger ones learn to focus on specific skills or activities.  If you like, you can read more about why and how to do this starting with this post.

http://www.largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2011/02/young-children-inclusion-in.html

or productively occupying 3-year-old boys, http://www.largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2012/05/productively-occupying-3-year-old-boys.html

3. When beginning to homeschool I would also like to encourage you to stop-stop-stop.  *wink*

     By this I mean, stop “doing school” (curriculum) at a general time of day every day; stop for the week on a certain day each week; and stop for the school year at a designated time of year.  It is easy to feel like you should be doing a lot more in a day of that you should finish all that you’ve set before you and your children and so you may be tempted to continue working into the evening. I made this mistake in my first year of homeschooling and it totally burned me out. I’ve learned better strategies that are healthier and one of those is to do school/curriculum for a certain part of the day and then stop no matter where you are in that. Likewise, it is easy to work into the weekend also and not take the break that everyone needs in order to live a balanced life.  Or even in to holidays or the summer. Children and moms need breaks; and our husbands need us to have had breaks.

     Keep in mind that the overarching goal is to win the hearts of your children with the gospel and to instill a love of learning that will help them their entire life. You can undoubtedly see all around you how fast the world is changing. A child that has mastered the facts of the day but is unable to learn new things as they go will be left behind and likely have a very disappointing career life. Career is not everything but it is an important component of a successful life, especially for men.

You can read more about how we homeschool if you like by beginning with this post.

http://www.largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2011/06/large-family-homeschooling-how-we-do-it.html

4. I encourage you to intentionally develop character in your children which will greatly influence their attitudes and success in school and life. Even at the expense of your schooling schedule when child training is necessary. We personally would prefer children who are morally upright and a grade behind the world than masters of the education and corrupt at heart. (which rarely happens due to the great nature of homeschooling, but if it does for a season then no worries.)

     Children need to learn things like obedience, punctuality, orderliness, perseverance, and the rest of the 49 character traits for people’s lives. It will greatly effect how homeschooling goes and the rest of the children’s (and parent’s) lives.  So how does one do this?  I have a great resource to share with you!  *smile* Learning these outward behaviors is not for the sake of good behavior it is a reflection of what is going on inside the heart of the child… or adult for that matter. Remember that the child’s greatest influencer will be you and likely they will do what you do more than you do it. Homeschooling is a refining process for the parents as much as it is for the child and sometimes more so. There are reasons more people don’t do it; it’s hard to grow our own character. *laugh* Sending your child down the street in a yellow school bus is easy and has very low expectations on the parents. As does going to a job every day instead of staying home to disciple the children and to be discipled by the Lord as well.

http://www.largefamiliesonpurpose.com/2011/08/character-training-for-children-core.html

5. I highly recommend the resource, 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum, by Cathy Duffy, to help you find the best curriculum for your family not only in quality but the best fit for your particular students and for you as their teacher. I believe this book can literally save you thousands of dollars and years of time by helping you find the curriculum that is best for you. It saves you money by helping you avoid purchasing a variety of curriculum choices trying to determine which one you like best for your family and that is successful in teaching your children. Instead you can make a very educated judgment as to which curriculum would be best and then run with that. It also can save you years of time as you purchase and experiment with all types of curriculum only to discover that one requires too much teacher preparation, or too much handwriting, maybe too much review work or not enough. Perhaps the curriculum you chose does not teach concepts in an order that makes sense to your students, or perhaps it is either unattractive to look at every day or it can even be too entertaining (which teaches children that all learning ought to be fun and exciting – which is not real life, and which will have to be always increasing in “entertainment value” in order to keep their attention). Any of these things can cause you to be tempted to purchase something different. Or, if a child is struggling in a subject of school how can a mom know if the problem is that child has a learning disability, or maybe the curriculum isn’t good quality, or maybe mom isn’t teaching it well? This book can help you find that out and know when to make a change and when to encourage a student to persevere. 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805431381?ie=UTF8&tag=largefa-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0805431381

Okay…that was 6 things I’d recommend. I couldn’t help it!  *wink*  There are many more books we’ve recommended in our “Recommended Books” list on our blog home page as well. ~ Blessings as you begin your journey!  Erika

If you go to Christian Homeschool Supplies and use promo code OQDPUXVPS49X before tomorrow night 8/20/14 You get 10% off any order.

Consistency Consistency Consistency

Natasha

I think you (the parent) have heard about consistency before and said something like “I know, it's a matter of being consistent, but it is so hard”. I myself have said it. It can be really hard at first to get established in the area of consistency, but once it is set into place and the children know the routine, it is a big help. Not only is it important to plan out your days for yourself but also creates good habits in your children. One thing that is important for you, a homeschooling parent, is to have a good plan or schedule set in place. Inconsistency only leads to confusion, miss-communication, and most likely lots of disappointment and possibly tears from your children.

Lets Just Start With Sleep

Human beings should sleep in order to be healthy and productive. As you know, if you do not get enough sleep then you are cranky and tired all the next day. John Tesh gives examples on “Four Ways Sleep Can Dramatically Improve Your Life”. These four ways are 1.) “Your Brain will be Sharper” 2.) “You'll Have a Better Relationship” 3.) “A Good Nights Sleep Will Make You a Better Person” 4.) “Sleep Will Make You Thinner, and Better Looking”. To look more into these reasons, please clink on the link. So in a nut shell, we all need to put aside time for sleep.

We All Have To Eat

Ok so here is a fact that I have for you. Can you guess what it is, if not here goes. We all need to eat. Yup, fact of life. If you don’t eat, nothing good will come from it. Pediasure talks about (Child Growth and Development), giving a list of reasons why giving your children good nutrition is important. Some examples would be “the body uses protein to build healthy muscle and tissue”, “carbohydrates are the bodies primary source of energy”. So we all have to eat, it's important to set aside time for eating. Eating is also a time where you and your husband or wife can get together and enjoy one another's time.

Cleaning and Preparing Food

As a mom I know how much time it takes to clean the house and prepare food. It almost seems sometimes that “There isn't enough time in a day”. When it comes to preparing food, most typical meals take around fifteen to thirty to sixty minutes of prep time. This time frame does not include cooking time, just prep time. You can always be doing other things while food is cooking in the oven or in a crock-pot. If it's on the stove, I will just include that along with the prep time because stove-top meals don’t generally take as long to cook. Then I will add in one hour to eat a joyful and delightful dinner, and one hour and fifteen minutes to eat breakfast and lunch. Got to take time for coffee or tea you know. So with those time frames added together, at most you are looking at three hours and fifteen minutes around just eating and preparing food. I haven’t even mentioned the time it takes for clean-up. I could honestly sometimes go all day just in cleaning alone, but that just cannot be the case. In the area of cleaning I am not going to give a specific time frame because everyone is different and does things differently. So its up to you. However I think that it is important to plan out your days so that one is not overwhelmed by the cleaning, or the opposite, not productive with the cleaning. I think that it is very important to find out where you personally want to be as far as cleanliness and order, and how much time you are willing to put aside for cleaning.

Test It Out To Find Out

There is no harm done in just testing out how much time you spend accomplishing all of these things. Take a couple days to even a week if you want and see what you have for time. Make a list of all the things you typically spend doing in a day and write them down. Next, as you spend your day or week doing your tasks, log how much time you spend doing them. For example; “I sleep from eleven to seven- I would like to change that to eleven to six”. “ I spend three hours on average preparing and enjoying food with my family- I think that is good where it is”. “I spend four hours of cleaning my house on average- not happy with that need improvement”. These are a few examples, just to show that you might actually surprise yourself with what you are currently doing. After you have your list with your test log, you can sit down and go over with your family the things that you like and the things that need improvement.

Time For School

Again, this is an area that is up to personal preferences, the ages of the children, and things that need to get done. The typical school day last about six to six and a half hours. The great thing about homeschooling is that you don't have to follow that and just do what works best as far as time frame. It is a good idea though to make sure that your child's schooling is not put on the back burner time wise. The knowledge and understanding that our children get is very important and will help them in the long run of life. Us as parents need to find out how much time is going to be put aside for them to learn about life. If they have a test or book report or things have happened and they need to catch up, that is one thing, but I'm talking about time that they typically should spend on schooling in a day. If there is a time set up for this then you and your children will have time to enjoy other things as well.

So why should we have consistency in our days? Why should we put things in time frames? Why does life need to be set up in categories? Why can't I live life on a whim? Well, as I said previously. We all need to sleep. We all need to prepare our food. We all need to eat. We all need to clean-up the mess. We should all need to stay healthy, and clean. Also, we need to put aside time for educating our children. Consistency goes along with time, and time put aside for things brings consistency into our lives and into the lives of our children. If our children have consistency, then you will find that our children will feel loved, safe, taken care of and appreciated. If the test log is done right, then you as a family will know where you are and where you want to be. Then you will know how to achieve consistency in life.

Hello Everyone, my name is Natasha. I am a stay at home Mom who has three young boys. The oldest who is five is very energetic, very personable and he likes to talk, A-Lot. He is very smart and is good at expressing his feelings. It amazes me sometimes with the things that he comes up with, reality hits me and I think that my little first born is growing up---quick. 
Then there is my middle son who is three and is my "mini me". He is very opened up to those that he knows, but shy to strangers. He looks up to his older brother and does everything he does. There are moments however that he notices that his big brother is overwhelming him in his own personal bubble and wants to be left alone to play for a little while. He is very snugly and enjoys to be tickled. 
My youngest son is just seven months old and he is always smiley and enjoys to be held. Sometimes he likes to give me big slobbery baby kisses and pull on my very long hair in the process. However he makes me feel like there is no greater place to be except knowing that he is my baby and he loves his mama. 
Then of course there is my husband who I have been with for twelve years now. We have made quite the journey together and have gone through innumerable amount of trials together, but we have come out on the other side of them. The longer we have been together, the easier the marriage seems to be. We love to have coffee in the morning together, we love to take walks, take care of our children and go places. He likes to read, wrestle with the boys, and take walks through the woods. 
I in particular as a mother think about my life and think about the past, the present and the future. Everyday I get up, have my two cups of coffee and then start to automatically think about how my day is going to go. I was always a list formation person who needs order, well planned out days and to do things I enjoy before I loose my mind in the monotony of life. I love being a stay home mother, but that doesn't mean that it can't sometimes be testing, lonely, and feeling like sometimes it has no purpose. 
things like....
Laundry
Dishes...Both Biggies
The Toys Scattered Across the Entire House
THE BATHROOM?
All these things get done at some point and then ...somehow....Never completely done, or back to square one. I guess we all hear that saying "A mom's work is never finished" whoever wrote that knew the truth of it. OK so I listed some of the struggles but what about ......The POSITIVE things. 
Thinking POSITIVELY...I think being a stay at home mom is the most purposeful job that I could ever ask for. At the end when my little boys are grown up I can actually say "Wow! look at those Men that I got the opportunity to raise, teach, love on, and see the people that I am launching into this world. I may be a mother that has young kids and I know that there are people out there that have already gone through their child raising years, but it still doesn't stop me from being there for other moms more experienced or not. I love my boys. I can picture them when they are older coming over to visit with their future wives and children. I can just see myself- a grandmother-doing dishes and one of them comes up to me and wraps his big arms around me to give me a hug and says "I LOVE YOU MOM". That will let me know that all those hard years of dirty faces, crying episodes, wet beds in the middle of the night, sibling rivalry, and so on will all be missed and worth it. 
PURPOSE
That is a word that comes or will come to all human beings. My husband and I talk a lot about PURPOSE. I may be a mother of young children, but there is still always the question of..what other purpose in life do I have. Yes as a Christian we all know and have most likely heard that our purpose in life is to spread the Good News to all the world, raise Godly children, and love others as we love ourselves. Those are all important don't get me wrong, but what other things in life could potentially give us that extra purpose that we may have been looking for. 
Have you figured it out? 
Do you know? 
Are you asking yourself now what that might be? 
Are you thinking well the list that you just listed previously sounds like enough on my plate already...why would I need more?
Well I will tell you why. Because a lot of woman that I have run into who are older and there kids have moved out are wondering "What Now?" I have taking care of my children for so long and have guided them through and been there for them, and now...I'm not sure what to do next. The only reason I bring this up is because I get frustrated sometimes with the same chores that need to be done sometimes around the house, the constant patients I need to have as a mom and a wife. The constant ..wake up do the same thing..routine of life. I need something else to do, to like, to prepare me for when my young boys are grown and moved out. 
This is the reason for starting this blog on christianhomeschoolsupplies.com. I am going to homeschool my boys to the best of my ability. I myself went to public schools and I have just gotten into homeschooling but my husband and I would like to learn and provide for other homeschooller's who need help or want to give advice. I want this blog to take off and be a web of usefulness to other parents so we can all go through this homeschooling journey together. Hopefully along the way we can grow homeschooling out to those considering homeschooling as an option. I myself don't know much about computers but my husband has pushed me to give it a go (by the way I need the push) so that this website can take off and grow over the years. 
I look forward to hearing from others about my very first blog post ever......Ever.
Thank You:-)