Making Biblical Family Life Practical

Whether the economy is strong or struggling, the traditional Christmas gift-buying rush is a major expense. When you’ve got a big family like ours, that only accentuates it! This week, we’re talking about ways we’ve learned to make your Christmas budget go a long way, even with lot of kids and a little bit […] The post Five Ways to Optimize Your Christmas Budget – MBFLP 217 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

The Thanksgiving holiday is the busiest time of year on America’s highways, and you may be driving long hours with little ones on board. How do you manage this so you all arrive at Grandma’s in good spirits? We hit the road in 2010 with seven children in the van and we’re crisscrossing the country […] The post Long Distances with Little Ones – MBFLP 216 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

Once upon a time, when we were young parents a long way from home, we heard someone say, “Date night is absolutely necessary for a healthy marriage!” When you’re new in town and grandparents are a thousand miles away, that’s discouraging! But the important thing is not “dates” but connection – how to renew the […] The post Date Night (even when you “can’t”) – MBFLP 215 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

Are Manners Important? In the digital age, when informality and familiarity is the norm in so many places, is it too “old school” to teach manners to your kids? Have we moved past all the old social niceties? Is it unmanly for our boys to be schooled in etiquette? Or is there something important and […] The post Why Teaching Manners Matters – MBFLP 214 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

If your child has siblings it’s just about certain they’ll have squabbling. Sibling rivalry of one sort or another is unpleasant but normal – the question for us as parents is, “What can I do about it? How can I deal with the bickering and arguments, to make our home a place of peace and […] The post Stopping Sibling Squabbling – MBFLP 213 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

Homeschooling with Babies and Toddlers We homeschooled from the very beginning, which meant that we’ve always had babies and toddlers in the mix. We’ve always had multiple ages to deal with! What’s the number one thing we wish we’d known? That it gets easier! The struggle is real. When you have little children, the burden […] The post Homeschooling with Babies and Toddlers – MBFLP 212 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

Move over, Millennials – the new generation has arrived! Researcher Jean Twenge calls them iGen – the first generation that’s grown up with smart phone in hand. How has that shaped their thinking? What does that mean for the rest of us? How should we teach and prepare our children to interact with their generational […] The post iGen – Understanding the New Generation – MBFLP 211 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

Is your son or daughter an entrepreneur at heart? Are you or they, either one, debating whether college is even worthwhile for a young person aiming at their own business? This episode, we talk with our son Samuel Adams Young, who’s enrolled in an innovative business program at his college – one that teaches the […] The post Entrepreneurship and College – MBFLP 210 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

When’s the right time to get your middle schoolers online? Researcher Jean Twenge (iGen) says that people born since 1995–that’s the class just starting to graduate from college, and their younger siblings–have basically grown up with round-the-clock Internet access. It’s not healthy, and it’s causing some specific, traceable problems … and yet, the world our […] The post Middle Schoolers Online – MBFLP 209 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

Nobody told us what to expect … babies and toddlers we read about, and people warned us in hushed tones about the dreadful teen years, but nobody told us, “Just wait till they’re in middle school!” This week on Facebook Live we took questions from parents of pre-teens, asking them “What are you having struggles […] The post Middle School Q & A – MBFLP 208 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

This episode we deal with a perennial problem in parenting – how in the world do we teach our kids self-control? The entertainment and collegiate culture may celebrate raw emotion and thoughtless self-expression – if it’s “authentic” it’s immune from criticism – but the Bible says differently. What’s more, every parent knows that what you […] The post Teaching Kids Self-Control – MBFLP 207 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

We hear from a lot of parents who are struggling with their eleven-year-olds – the preteen uproar is real! But a close second is parents who are wrestling with an older teen – typically a seventeen-year-old. They don’t feel the respect or obedience, they are experiencing pushback and defiance, and they wonder how to make […] The post Doubling Down on Seventeen – MBFLP 206 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

“You think this is hard – just wait till they’re teenagers!” the stranger told Melanie as she pushed our four young children through the Atlanta zoo. But that’s a cultural expectation, not a foregone conclusion. Why can’t the teen years be productive years of growth, maturity, and deeper fellowship between parent and son or daughter? […] The post Preparing Your Teens for More – MBFLP 205 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

Surveys and studies have shown that over 90% of the time, Mom is the primary teacher in a homeschooling family. But that doesn’t account for everyone, and sometimes Dad is the teacher, not Mom. How does that change the homeschooling dynamic? What is it like being a Dad at a support group meeting full of […] The post When DAD Is The Teacher – MBFLP 204 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

It’s inevitable that we will have conflicts with the ones we love – the simple fact of fallen people living in a fallen world means accidents, misunderstandings, expectations – and yes, downright sin sometimes. When they happen, though, how do we turn the unavoidable conflict into something constructive? Can we argue in a way the […] The post Win-Win Arguments – MBFLP 203 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

Kids need discipline, and in fact, God tells us that a child who doesn’t receive discipline has been rejected by his parents! (Hebrews 12) Discipline, after all, is discipleship – it’s meant to teach, not just punish. But there are good and very bad ideas for administering the needed correction to our kids. How can you discipline […] The post Discipline Without Breaking Their Spirit – MBFLP 202 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

“My son shows me disrespect.” “How can I deal with the disrespect from our kids?” “What can I do to teach my children to be more respectful?” It’s something we all have to deal with as parents, and yet it’s hard – and some of us struggle more than we expected! This episode, we look […] The post Dealing with Disrespect – MBFLP 201 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

What can you do when Mom and Dad have different perspectives on parenting? We get this question a lot, and it’s a concern – but in many cases, it may be a feature, not a bug! “There is unity of spirit, but diversity of gifts – just like in the church,” we think – listen […] The post Mom and Dad Parent Differently – That’s Okay! – MBFLP 200 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

We’ve traveled about 150,000 miles for ministry and business the past several years, so we’ve learned a few things about taking a big family on big trips for small budgets. This year, we have several new tips, trick, hacks, and advice on budget travel, discount lodging, and cheap food along the way – it’s our […] The post New Hacks for Family Travel – MBFLP 199 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.

This page may contain affiliate links which earn us a small commission while not costing you anything extra. Have you ever thought about “coming home” from the corporate world and running a family business? A lot of homeschooling families dream about that day … but we found there are some surprising discoveries when your mate […] The post Business and Marriage – Making it Work – MBFLP 198 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.