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Let me set the stage. I have two older children who home schooled all the way through high school. At the time I did Morning Time before Morning Time was a thing! The big kids look back with fondness on the books we read, the spiritual training, the poems and verses we put to memory and the slower start to our school day. (Our son probably remembers most jumping on the mini-trampoline while saying his memory work)

Fast forward to the present where we adopted infant twin boys from the foster system. The boys are now 8 years old, and definitely impacted by inter-utero drug use from the birth mother. They have some fairly serious impulse control issues which make learning challenging.

By the grace of God they are performing at grade level academically, but they struggle with behavior issues despite all of our best parenting tools. Parenting/homeschooling these two has been the most humbling thing I have ever done. The point of my sharing all this is because I want to let readers know that morning time doesn’t always look snuggly and peaceful, although I still value it every bit as much…if not more.

We start our day with devotions and prayer. Many days one of our boys crosses his arms and lets me know that he doesn’t want to read the Bible. It gives me a chance to put my arms around him and pray for him-that God would make him into a mighty man of God.

On good days, he prays the most heartfelt, sweet prayers you have ever heard. We read our Bible, and I remind them again and again how what we learn from the Bible is foundational to everything else we do. Sometimes we need to pause for some discipline because the attitudes are so bad. And then we come together again back on the couch for hugs and prayers.

Homeschooling is never easy with these two. But, I owe much of our success to our great Morning Time routines.

Mindy Buller