Kids all over the country have headed back to school, and it’s hitting me really hard this year. It’s not all the COVID craziness, though I know children, parents, teachers, and administrators are all having a rough time with our current schooling reality. What’s making it feel real to me this year is that it’s the last year before my E goes off to school himself.

He just misses the age cutoff, and although I’m confident that he’s academically ready for kindergarten, as a teacher I just feel good about giving him one more trip around the sun to let him be a little boy with all day to play and learn on his own terms.

It’s got me thinking though. I have one year left of (relatively) unlimited time to nurture, lead, love, and teach my boy all of the foundational things that he MUST KNOW before he hits the school scene. And you guys, it’s not the 3 R’s (who named them that, anyway?!) that I’m worried about.

I’ve got less than 12 more months to teach him the foundational truths about who he is and where his awesome memory, curiosity, tenacity, oratory skills, kindness, and capacity to love come from.

After this, Disciple Dad and I will no longer be the sole contributors to E’s developing worldview. We’ll be letting teachers and kids from other families have a lot more sway in his life than anyone else has right now. No matter how much we trust his teachers (and we do), it’s definitely a bit scary to think about letting him go.

How to discipline children

I’ve been going back and forth for a long time about writing this post (or any post) about how to discipline children. As the mom of 2 little boys, discipline is a huge part of my life. I know that it’s something most parents need help with, because it’s so easy to feel like you have no idea what you’re doing when it comes to discipline.

Well, I’m tackling child discipline today. Not as an expert, because…well…because I mess up just as often as I get it right. But, I have learned some things through a lot of trial and error, and today I’ll be sharing some basic principles and philosophy behind loving child discipline that work in a Christian family.

This is the second post in the Building Family Identity series here at Disciple Mama! If you missed the first one, check it out here: Building Family Identity, Part 1

What are family core values?

If you’re serious about discipleship parenting, you’ve probably put a lot of thought into defining your family values.

Discipleship parenting means being intentional about passing our values on to our children.

If you haven’t done it yet, or if you haven’t really articulated your family values with your spouse–do it! After all, this intentionality is the whole idea behind Deuteronomy 6:6-7, right?

Confession time: I was all excited to participate in Finding Joy in Service Day (read about Finding Joy in Service Day here) but my kids have been sick, our bathroom is being demo’d and reno’d this week, and I just started a new (temporary) part-time job. Yesterday my kids and I weren’t up to anything big, and I let it go.