Start Your School Year Off Right

Here we are once again – another summer just about to end, and the school year is beginning. For most families, unhappy groans and miserable grunts can be heard throughout the house at the mention of the word ‘school.’ As a parent, your job never stops. Whether your children realize it or not, they look to you as their role model – in and out of the classroom. Even if your children attend a day school, your role as a parent in their lives is of utmost importance. School is a time in a child’s life in which they are being taught and prepared to enter the real world on their own. As a role model, you provide your children with the guidance and discipline they need in order to become godly men and women. Of course, you cannot do this all by yourself. The only One who can truly shape your children into the mold desired for them would be the Creator. You could have the smartest tutors and the most talented musicians mentor your children for 12 hours each day, but they would not learn what is most important.

Even if you spend thousands of dollars on an amazing curriculum that promises to turn your children into successful businessmen and businesswomen, their most important lesson would still need to be taught. As a parent, the most crucial subject for you to impart to your children is that of character. Throughout the school year, there is no better way to ingrain godly character into your pupils than to study the book written by the only perfect Man who ever walked the earth – God Himself. Here are multiple ways to incorporate the study of God’s Word into your school day, while praying that God will slowly mold your children into the people He desires them to be:

  • Family Devotions. This is a great way to get grounded in the Word of God even if you do not homeschool your children. Before, during, or after breakfast, gather your family around the table and read a chapter of the Bible together and then discuss it. This gets the whole family involved and allows you to hear what your kids gather from the Scriptures.
  • Literature. You can assign Scripture readings in your literature class. Pick a chapter of the Bible, perhaps in the poetry portion, and ask questions that involve the theme, the plot, or the mood.
  • History. The Bible is also a great history book. If your curriculum discusses the Egyptian era, talk about the Israelites escape from Egypt and their 400-year captivity. Genesis 1 is the beginning of all history!
  • Bible. If you do not already have a Bible curriculum, start this year! Ones that encourage verse memory are often some of the best.
  • Personal Devotions. One of the most important ways for your children to grow into citizens of godly character is for them to study the Bible on their own. It is in the confines of their own room, with nobody except them and God, when the most important decisions will be made.

This school year will be successful – not because it is founded on man’s wisdom, but because it is grounded on the Word of God.

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