When Big J was 2 1/2 years old, we started doing some “preschool” at home. It was my first year being home with the boys. It was also the year I entered the world of blogging. And had our second child. And my husband started medical school.

No big deal.

As I dove more into the online world, I found TONS of great ideas for teaching just about everything to my little guys. As a former teacher, I was THRILLED to find lesson plans and printables and field trip ideas and… you get the idea!

The holiday season came around and Advent calendar ideas were EVERYWHERE. I just couldn’t get enough of looking at the newest one and figuring out how it was better than what I was already planning.

But then I thought, “Why don’t I just ADD that to whatever we’ve been doing?”

And the snowball effect began.

Every new idea I found, I needed to try. And the Advent season became VERY stressful. Just like that.

I was not doing my children any favors by throwing MORE of Christmas and Jesus at them – in fact, they were probably overwhelmed by it all too. Not to mention my attitude – I was obsessed with doing an awesome craft every day, and if that didn’t go well, the day was ruined.

Great Christmas spirit, huh?!

By the time Christmas came and went, I was done.

And I knew I couldn’t go through another holiday season as obsessed-crazy-Christmas-lesson plan mommy.

You don’t have to do it all, parents.

There already is enough “stuff” surrounding the Christmas holiday in our culture. To help your children realize what Christmas is all about, go for the less is more strategy and keep the focus where it belongs – on Jesus.

So what did we do the next year?

We picked ONE Advent calendar “lesson plan” to follow and then let the rest of our “learning” about the birth of Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas come from our daily life. Believe me, the boys always have PLENTY of questions surrounding the holidays, so we weren’t hurting for chances to discuss the reason for the season.

Doing less “planned” stuff during the holiday season also gives your family a chance to bless others as the need arises. You can’t give of your time if every moment of your schedule is already packed!

The reward for slowing doing and simplifying your holiday season?

A family who looks forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus.

This year, Big J looked at the calendar in early October and said…

“Next comes November and then… Jesus’s birthday!!!”

Yep, that’s what it’s all about.

Have you fallen into the “more is more” trap at Christmastime? How do you guard your family from getting TOO busy during the holiday season?

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Erin Mohring is a follower of Jesus Christ, wife of a med student and stay-at-home mom to two lively young boys. The hubby and Erin have been blissfully married for eight years. Big J is five and Little J is almost three. She’s learning quickly about the world of boys – which you can follow at Home with the Boys!

Gratitude has become very important to me in the last year. It’s not that it wasn’t before, but recently it has changed my daily attitude. It has changed my outlook on life.

And we knew it needed to be a larger part of our family life.

The boys take turns praying before meals, but we found they were saying the exact same thing each time they prayed before a meal. At their young age, we knew now was the time to teach them what prayer is – a time to talk to God – and what it is not – the same words repeated time after time.

This prayer time before dinner became an opportunity to not only bless the food, but to also give thanks for the blessings of the day. I love to hear what each boy enjoyed from the day, but it is even more awesome for my hubby who has just arrived home from work – a sort of recap of the day!

I’ll admit, it was like pulling teeth at first getting them to come up with things for which they were thankful. The initial items list included candy, certain toys, and more candy.

Now, it is almost hard to get them to stop listing things they are thankful for…

Mommy
Daddy
Brother
the baby in Mommy’s tummy
Wild Kratts
homeschool
swimming lessons
our new fence
going to play at a friend’s house
a new Star Wars t-shirt

Lots of smiles are also shared as we think of all the wonderful things God has placed in our lives! We’ve had many great conversations following these expressions of gratitude.

Little J volunteered to pray at his Wednesday night church class earlier this fall. His teacher reported back to me after class that he just kept praying…and praying…and praying…but she said it was wonderful and full of thanksgiving! {And apparently all of the little three-year-old girls in his class were very impressed!}

I was so blessed to hear that his prayers of gratitude were going beyond what he expressed in our home.

We didn’t do anything fancy. We just encouraged the act of giving thanks – something any and every parent is able to do! No crafts or songs or creative magic needed!

And this I can’t emphasize strongly enough… MODEL it for them. Take your turn to pray and give thanks as well. And express gratitude verbally throughout the day – what a pleasant, God-honoring environment it provides for everyone!

Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. ~Psalm 105:1 {NLT}

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Erin Mohring is a follower of Jesus Christ, wife of a med student and stay-at-home mom to two lively young boys. The hubby and Erin have been blissfully married for eight years. Big J is five and Little J is almost three. She’s learning quickly about the world of boys – which you can follow at Home with the Boys!

We have this beautiful print hanging in our home…

I love everything about it, but especially the message.

“God is good all the time.”

I need that reminder often, but sometimes I worry that it gives the wrong impression to our kiddos.

WE understand that God is good all the time because, as adults and more mature Christians, we know that there is a plan bigger than what we can see.

But what about our little ones? What about children and teenagers hearing about God for the first time?

It is SO important for us to help them understand that GOD IS good all the time.

But it is also important to help them understand that life isn’t always fair – whether we know God or not.

I was thinking about this as Big J {our five-year-old} was throwing up one night. We prayed that God would help calm his tummy, to which he responded “Now I don’t need the bucket anymore.”

Imagine the sadness on his face when he DID need that bucket just a half hour later.

He believed with all of his heart that God was immediately going to calm his upset stomach because we prayed to Him. I love to see that faith. I want to be more like that.

But I also need to be there when his expectations aren’t met to help him understand that God is still good, but, because of the evil in this world, things will not always go the way we think they should.

I worry about the seeds of doubt that are planted when children ONLY hear “God is good all the time,” and never hear that it doesn’t mean our life will be all sunshine and roses.

Our job as parents is not to give our children blanket one-sided statements about God to memorize, but to walk alongside our children to answer questions as faith unfolds in real life – good and bad.

When a good friend of ours died earlier this year, I struggled with the very goodness of God – I believed our friend would be healed. I had a hard time singing about the goodness of God during that time.

Big J saw me tear up when one of those songs came on the radio and wondered what was wrong. It might be a heavy subject for a five-year-old, but it was very important for me to be honest with him in that moment.

I talked about my sadness and other feelings. But I also told him how happy I was our friend was with Jesus. It was a moment of sharing about the difference between a “good life” here on earth and God’s GREAT plan for each of us that know Him.

God IS good all the time, but life isn’t always “fair” – it wasn’t for Jesus, it isn’t for us.

How do you teach your children about the goodness of God in a fallen world?

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Erin Mohring is a follower of Jesus Christ, wife of a med student and stay-at-home mom to two lively young boys. The hubby and Erin have been blissfully married for eight years. Big J is five and Little J is almost three. She’s learning quickly about the world of boys – which you can follow at Home with the Boys!

We started homeschool just a few weeks ago with our kindergarten-age son. Yikes – how did that happen already?! We have really loved the first few weeks, but no situation is without its challenges.

Having been a public school teacher for five years and now starting up homeschool, I can see a struggle parents in any educational situation might face: their child’s level of motivation in school.

We’ve already seen this in our five-year-old! He doesn’t find the work too hard by any means – he just drags his feet in almost everything! At the end of the day he tells us how much he loved everything he did in school, but it felt more like teeth-pulling to me!

So, I thought, maybe it’s not about the schoolwork as much as it is about completing the tasks he is given – any task, school-related or not.

When I had that realization, I knew it was time to bring in some external motivation.

We put up this sign above his desk…

Considering the life lessons I want our son to learn early on, this verse is at the very top of my list. And it is a great reminder for any student to memorize at the start of the year.

Think of the implications of this verse as your kiddo goes back to school:

*You have a gifted student who might be bored in class. Will it do him or her any good to do less than their best on whatever the class might be working on? Will having a bad attitude move them any further along?

Gifted students need a reminder to work hard even when the work is easy – and they need you to help challenge them at home if their teacher is not able to in the classroom. Working hard in the place you are is a life lesson that will take them far in life.

*What if your student is struggling? This is a lesson for both students and parents in hard work AND trust. The last thing you want to do to your struggling student is make them feel inadequate or disappointing. But they also need to know that God has given them abilities and they need to work to the best of these abilities.

Where does trust come in? That’s for you as the parent. If you and your student start the year with Colossians 3:23 in mind, you need to trust that your child is giving school their best effort and encourage them to do the best THEY can, not someone else’s best.

Having Colossians 3:23 hanging in our homeschool room has been perfect as a reminder throughout the day about who we are doing EVERYTHING for. If your child attends school outside of the home, consider putting this verse in their planner or as a note in their lunch at least once a week to keep it fresh in their mind!

So I would love to hear more ideas: what Scriptures do you use to help motivate your children and spur them on as they start up another school year?

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Erin Mohring is a follower of Jesus Christ, wife of a med student and stay-at-home mom to two lively young boys. The hubby and Erin have been blissfully married for eight years. Big J is five and Little J is almost three. She’s learning quickly about the world of boys – which you can follow at Home with the Boys!

Help! I’m surrounded by boys!

Actually, I AM surrounded by boys and I am loving it!

Erin Mohring and her family

I am Erin, the writer behind Home with the Boys and the co-founder and creator of The MOB Society!

Wife to this handsome man…

Who is also a fourth year medical student.

And mama to these little heartbreakers…

Who I will also start homeschooling in the fall!

See?! Boys everywhere!

Having grown up with just a sister, this world of boys has stretched and challenged me, but everyday I am learning and loving being a boy mom!

And you know what I’ve discovered about my boys?

They CRAVE routine.

And I’m not very good about giving it.

But the thing is, I REALLY need routine as well, so we can’t afford to just let it go in the summer.

I actually find summer to be the BEST time to start new routines and really establish old ones that may have fallen by the wayside.

Without regular school and church activities happening during the summer, we have more time to focus on making the important things at home happen.

What routines have we established this summer?

*Family reading time everyday after lunch– Just sitting down to read all together, whether it is Charlotte’s Web or The Beginning Reader’s Bible. Sometimes I read, sometimes Big J does. We have all loved this non-TV relaxing time together every day!

*Family outside time – And this means with all of us engaged in the outdoors! Enjoying God’s creation, cooling off in the water, taking a walk or playing hopscotch. This time gets us away from media and burns off lots of energy – win/win for me!

*Learning not to hurry – This summer has allowed us to slow down a lot and every minute of it has made me want to reestablish our routine to BE this slow and simple all the time. Ann Voskamp wrote a post a while back with 10+ Real Helps for Really Busy Moms and the one that stuck with me the most was this…

“Life is not an emergency. Life is a gift. Just slow.”

So that is what I am trying to do. Less hurry-scurry, more going slow. Enjoy life and the gifts He has given. It may not seem like a part of routine, but if you don’t build in the “slow”, life will speed pretty fast on you!

*Giving thanks – This summer, we started the routine of asking the boys at supper time for two things they were thankful for that day. At five and three years old, the list doesn’t vary much yet – candy, Mommy, Daddy, the zoo – but we want gratitude to be in all we do and this is where we start.

It is great to relax in the summer, but routine is still our friend. We’re just slowing it down a bit and hoping to carry that pace though the rest of the year!

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Erin Mohring is a follower of Jesus Christ, wife of a med student and stay-at-home mom to two lively young boys. The hubby and Erin have been blissfully married for eight years. Big J is five and Little J is almost three. She’s learning quickly about the world of boys – which you can follow at Home with the Boys!