Homeschooling places great demands on parents and leads to great expectations. This combination often sets us up for an intense sense of failure and disappointment. Homeschooling doesn’t always go according to our plans. Even when we are doing our best to follow God and love our families, we may find ourselves in the “fiery furnace.” In this workshop, Zan Tyler explores the causes of burnout and talks about ways to avoid them. She also explains what to do if you are already there—ready to throw in the towel and put your children on that appealing yellow school bus. This workshop contains many practical tips on streamlining your life, but it also focuses on developing a powerful, biblical vision of what you are ultimately trying to accomplish in the lives of your children through homeschooling—to sustain you through the hard times and difficult days.

When you look at your children, do you see only little people making demands on your time? Or do you see what God sees—a landscape of limitless possibilities? Author and homeschool mother Zan Tyler wants to take you beyond the demands of everyday life to embrace a wondrous, life-giving vision for your children’s future. You will learn to recognize the signs of potential in your children’s lives—signs that are easy to miss yet ripe for cultivation. You will begin to see every facet of each child’s life through the eyes of faith and the lens of Scripture and to create a vision of hope and beauty. You will also look to the Master Gardener as you learn to use the tools He has given you for cultivating that child’s potential. Let Zan show you how to help your kids establish a godly identity, build deep relationships, discover their unique purpose, develop a biblical worldview, and build leadership and communication skills. You will come away with a vision of child-raising so captivating and enthralling that you will know, come bedtime, it’s all been well worth the effort.

Establishing a clear biblical worldview and a strong foundation in basic Christian doctrine will inoculate your children against the false teachings and worldly values they will one day encounter during the critical teen years. This workshop will give you the confidence and tools you need to cover this vital subject with your children.

Homeschooling is more like a 26-mile marathon than a 100-yard dash. If you want to complete the race successfully, you must develop a training strategy that builds your strength, stamina, and vision and enables you to persevere until the end. Zan Tyler, who homeschooled her children for 21 years, provides training tips that will help you complete the God-given task of homeschooling and help you “run with endurance the race that lies before us.”

Our children live in the midst of a secular culture and face a host of frightening problems that we never had to deal with at their age. Because they are often not prepared to counter our culture, startling percentages of children raised in evangelical homes do not continue in their faith and beliefs into adulthood. For this reason, training our children to develop a strong biblical worldview is one of the most important things we can do. Teaching them to think biblically about all areas of life equips them to become powerful thinkers, leaders, and communicators. Most importantly, it also gives staying power to their faith as they face opposition. Our goal as Christian homeschoolers must be bigger and broader than turning out kids with exceptional talent and high SAT scores. By incorporating worldview training, we can better equip them to use their gifts to impact the world for Christ, help others by solving real problems, and bring glory to God in the process.

In the traditional school environment, students have an average of eight to ten individual interactions with their teacher each day. In your homeschool, these verbal interactions can number in the hundreds and thus greatly enhance the education your children receive at home. Zan Tyler shares how the simple, free tool of conversation can help your children replace boredom during lessons with a motivation to learn. Discover why parents make the best teachers and capitalize on these strengths. Explore strategies to minimize conflict in your home and promote camaraderie and enthusiasm instead. Identify simple but profound ways to replace drudgery in learning with stimulating academics. Conversation is key!