Two years ago I realized that I had been focusing on the wrong things in our homeschool. I had forgotten why I had chosen to homeschool my children. Somewhere along the way I forgot the directions that God had given me for homeschooling. I got lost on our homeschool journey and was merely working to give my children the education that I had begun to think they needed. Our homeschool days became filled with reading, writing and arithmetic. I laid aside the most important parts of our homeschooling journey to ensure that they my children knew their school book facts well.
When our homeschool journey began God laid on my heart the importance of ensuring that my children didn’t just know mathematics, history and reading. After all, if I have taught my children school work facts for all the years that I’ve homeschooled them then I’ve given them nothing more than an education. I didn’t choose to homeschool to give my children an education. I chose to homeschool my children because I wanted to give them the lessons that they’d not find in a public or private school. My choosing to homeschool my children wasn’t about a better education, it was about something much more valuable…their hearts.
Over the last two years I’ve been learning that it is essential to stop our school work if there are more important issues to address at hand. By homeschooling my children I’m given countless opportunities to see things that I would rarely get to see if they were spending 9-10 hours in public or private school. Having my children in my home 24/7 allows me to teach and train them to be the adults that God made them to be. God didn’t call me to just teach them lessons from school books, He called me to teach and train their hearts and their minds to be toward Him and His ways.
The most important part of our homeschooling journey is building character. It is my responsibility to raise my children to have Godly character and I can not do that if I’m solely focused on the lessons inside of their school books. I must be willing to stop our school work for the day if there is character training to be done. It is necessary that I put aside the day’s activities to correctly train my children to pursue the character qualities that God desires in each of His children.
Training my children to have Godly character requires the use of God’s Word at all times, if I try to teach them the ways of God without using His Word to do so then to them it is merely mom speaking. My children need to know that they aren’t my words, they need to see that they are God’s Words from the Bible.
Throughout our character building in our homeschool, my children have learned how to use a concordance to locate scripture references for the specific character that requires training. After they’ve located specific Bible verses for their character training, they spend time copying a few verses that spoke to them in regards to their behavior at that moment.
Another resource that we also love and use is the Child Training Bible. My favorite part about the CTB is that the Bible verses are already located and highlighted, this makes character training very simple. When you’re having to address your child’s character in the heat of a moment this is a great resource to have on hand.
I’ve wanted to go beyond just addressing my children’s character. I wanted to be able to show them what their behavior looked like at the end of the day. I felt that it was important to be able to show them their good character and the character that still needs training, so they could see what they were doing right and what still needs work. I didn’t have any idea where to begin with these ideas, so I just kept pressing on with the character training we were doing with God’s word.
When I first found out that a blogging friend and her husband were coming out with a new character training system I was thrilled! Character Badges is a Bible based child training system based on 3 parts; charts, badges and rewards. I love that the charts in this system include both a obedience and a disobedience chart, a consequence chart and a reward chart! This is exactly what I had been looking for to continue to build Godly character in my children.
Another item in this system that I love is the Do’s and Don’ts poster. If my children are struggling with a particular character I have them read the do’s and don’ts for that specific character for a refresher. I find that by having them read what they should and should not do to achieve that character provides a great reminder and essential motivation.
No matter what type of training you do it is important that you see the progress you’re making and where you still need to work. In training there are also rewards and consequences for each decision you make. This is what I love most about Character Badges, my children are able to see exactly what they’re doing right and what they need to do better!
Building character through homeschooling is possible and it is an every day part of our homeschool journey. I want my children to grow up to be respectful and Godly adults. In order for them to be that, I must train them now. Character training matters most in our homeschool.
How do you build Godly character in your children?
