Christian life

Living as a Christian

Fall Update…

/ Holly Stoner / 3 Comments
Original artwork by me

Here we are again, it’s Halloween. I’m not going to talk about this pagan holiday today, but if you’d like to read about why after being fully in to participating in Halloween that I haven’t been since 2014, you can check out my blog post here. It’s a testimony of sorts where I share a bit about God, namely the Holy Spirit, convicting me. I was also convicted to homeschooling my children. Have you ever had that tug? The feeling in the pit of your stomach? If you have accepted Christ as your redeemer and believe the word of truth, God’s word, and given your life over to him, you not only have the assurance of salvation but a comforter, a counselor, that remains with you your whole life, that is the Holy Spirit.

John 14:15-18 – “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—  the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

Continue reading →

Why does worldview matter?

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment

Hello readers!

Today’s post is still about homeschooling, but it will be different than my recent posts. I will get back to posting about how our 3rd year of homeschooling in the state of Pennsylvania is going, on a later date. For now, a topic came up in a group I am in which is for Christian homeschooling moms. The topic was teaching from a Christian worldview, why, or why not. All in, or only partly in? Follow along with me here.

(This was the post that started the discussion in the group)

So that was the question. How “Christian” should a curriculum be. Nothing against this poster, but this was posted in a Christian homeschooling group. I was curious, given today’s Christianity, or today’s “Christian”, what the answers would be so I followed along for a while. I’m not going to post to every response, but I will tell you that responses like the below were numerous and quite frankly shocking, though I guess I shouldn’t have been shocked.

Continue reading →

Not a new resolution….

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment

2019 Happy New Year background. Seasonal greeting card template.

An entire month went by and I didn’t post a thing on this blog. Whoops! So much for me trying to post at the very least, weekly. Life can be quite hectic sometimes. Trying to fit in outside hobbies and obligations while you’re solely responsible for educating your children can be an enormous undertaking. I wouldn’t change it though. God called me to this task so I know it’s what I am meant to be doing even though some weeks, or even an entire month, can feel so very daunting. There are so many things I like to do. There are so many things I have to do. There are so many things I need to do. Many of these things have nothing to do with homeschool. If you’re a homeschooling parent, you likely know what it’s like. For example, my son began phase two of orthodontic treatment and so that means many visits to the orthodontist. This will be part of our life now. The visits will be at least monthly, in the daytime, during school time hours. It’s much easier now though than when he was in phase one and in public school. The month of December is always hectic with preparations for the Christmas holiday. There are usually many events happening during the month. We also experienced some sickness and we are actually again cycling through another virus. It seems everyone around us right now is sick with a cold so no matter how much we try to prevent it, sometimes its unavoidable.
Continue reading →

Monday, Monday…..

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment

Monday’s typically are the hardest day of the week for us in our homeschool. They are especially hard if the children have a quiz or a test that day. My children know when these things are coming. One thing I enjoy about the Master Books curriculum is there’s no excuse to knowing when something is due. The schedule is pre-planned in a calendar type form. Because of holiday’s and field trips, I did spend some time altering the schedule, however, it’s still very clear what is due and when. My children seem to think that learning and studying only is supposed to happen Monday – Friday from the hours of 8am – 2pm, despite me telling them otherwise. So they are usually unprepared for a Monday quiz or test which just so happens to come occasionally. Quizzing them and testing them, usually by means of the curriculum, is the hardest part really of our homeschool and that is because of their refusal to review the work “outside the school day”.

Continue reading →

To Halloween or not to Halloween

/ Holly Stoner / 2 Comments

Today’s post is going to possibly hit a nerve with some of the people who read it, but I felt like sharing why I no longer participate in Halloween. This post isn’t to judge anyone. I think for some of my family members and friends who’ve attended my Halloween parties in the past, they could be wondering, why the change? My children didn’t understand either until I explained it. Of course they still didn’t like the idea because to them Halloween meant CANDY! They realize now that we don’t need to participate in Halloween to eat candy.

Let me give you a background before I discuss why I no longer participate in the day.

When I was entering 2nd grade my parents began attending church regularly, of course with my siblings and myself as well. We did not participate in Halloween. We didn’t trick-or-treat and we didn’t have parties and we didn’t buy or wear costumes. I remember in public school, which I attended in kindergarten and first grade, I did wear a costume and participate in a during school Halloween parade. But for most of my young life, I didn’t. I guess it wasn’t until maybe I was about 10 or 11 that my sister and I began to ask why we couldn’t trick-or-treat when most of our friends were. My parents decided that we would be allowed, but with rules. We were not allowed to dress up as witches, zombies, or anything scary. Our costumes were created by things we found around the house. We dressed up as hippies one year, for example. Mostly we just liked the dressing up part which we did even to just hand out candy. Our trick-or-treating years were short because once you reach a certain age you pretty much stop going.

Continue reading →