Last week I published a post called Renewing of Vision where I shared about our focus this homeschooling year on being Kingdom builders together as a family. To recap from that post: “Each of our families play a crucial role in the building of the walls of Jerusalem. As the Lord has listed out in Nehemiah the individual workers on the differing areas of the wall, so no person who is quietly seeking to obey the Lord in his/her capacity is forgotten by Him. They are known by name. In our homes we should be seeking out ways to advance Christ’s cause and Kingdom. If we could begin to think in these terms, no task will seem insignificant.”
In keeping with this focus, our responsibilities this year are not called “chores” (chore seems to have a negative connotation). They are called “Kingdom Blocks.” Each block, or brick that is laid is furthering the Lord’s work, whether that is doing our schoolwork, cleaning our rooms or reading to our siblings. We can even scrub our floors with honor.
To make our Kingdom Wall I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased:
- A Black Display Board
- Small canvas black bags for pouches (which I cut the handles off of)
- Brick Scrapbooking Paper
- A Small Glue Gun and Glue Stick
This is the end result:
Each card has the children’s daily responsibilities (their Kingdom bricks) on it. They move the “Bricks” into the “Done” pocket upon completion each day.
Their bricks have their school subjects as well as their daily routines and household duties on them. Each card also has a little color code for the time of day on the schedule that they are to work on it, and their initial on the bottom (since there are several of the same cards for different children). The two younger ones have pictures on theirs with the words to help them identify what they are to do. One of the keys to homeschooling several different grade levels at once is to help our children learn to be more self motivated. And this is really helping.
The children absolutely love this system! They begin working through their cards first thing in the morning and if they are completed by a certain time they get a small reward. Who doesn’t enjoy a special reward once and awhile?
We are so excited about our homeschooling schedule this year!
It is busy, sometimes crazy and at the end of the day we are tired. But, it is all good.
It is a blessed life.