Homeschooling and Extra Curricular Activities: Spiritual

I believe that though one's life as a Christian cannot be compartmentalised, it's important to ensure that my children participate in extra curricular activities that are spiritual in nature - that feed their soul, remind them of who they are in God and develop good healthy relationships with the church.  I want to encourage them to enjoy fellowship, the gathering of the saints and being part of a body - at a young age.  We study the word and pray every day with our children but if we relied only our input into their lives, they would be limited in their growth.  This gives them many opportunities to grow, to be challenged, to  learn and to have fellowship.

There are a number of spiritual extra curricular activities our children are involved in on a weekly basis:

Youth

Friday we priortize Youth, which for us happens at a local church.  The balance of fun and the gospel is a winning combination for us. It has included carnival days, youth camps and excursions.  Of course if there is a themed holiday club we are the first to sign up. I always endeavour to find Christian based activities that remind them that life with God is not always about struggles and sacrifice but that you can have lots and lots of fun while walking with Him and others.

Life Group

Though our children are not actively involved in our lifegroup (for some of you that might mean Bible Study or Cell Group), again its an opportunity to get together with families in our church and beyond while studying the word, praying and lots and lots of laughter.  The children normally play in the other room but they are very aware of what's going on and they get to spend time with their friends.  And of course cake and chatting afterwards is always a winner.

As parents we are modelling something to our children.  Fellowship, Prayer, Faith, Friendship - the list is endless.  They are often part of worship and prayer, putting into practice some of the things they read about in the Bible or hear in our Bible Study time.

Friendships

Meaningful relationships are important to adults and children alike.  Though I think you can spend time with almost anyone, our closest friends need to be people who have the same love for God as we do.  This is not exclusive in nature but rather a way to encourage our children to ensure that the people they walk the closest to, are like minded.  It's easy to think that these like minded souls can only be found in your own church or denomination but we have really enjoyed getting to know a number of Christians in the valley who are not members of our church.

Through our other sport, learning enrichment and creative extra mural activities - there are lots of opportunities to build relationally with others, often the activity you are busy with, will keep you from forging deep friendships.  So we need to make time.  And we do.  We limit the number of times we do this in a week, as it can get really busy, so much so that our house is a shambles and my husband has to wait for supper - but we do make a point of scheduling time for friendships every week.

There are moms that I spend time with who are my spiritual sisters and so I love that our children can build lasting relationships with their children.  They might not be the same age but I believe in giving my children the opportunity to build cross- racial, cross- generational and cross -cultural relationships that span a variety of ages.  Older and younger.  A chance to follow and be followed.  Hopefully children that younger children can look up to and friendships with older children who will help them grow and challenge them to greatness.

So those are our spiritual extra curricular activitie, just one type of extra curricular activities we are involved with.

See the other posts on Homeschooling and Extra Curricular Activities in:

*  Enrichment

* Creativity

* Sport

This post features on the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers (SACH Bloggers) where South African home schoolers share experiences, ideas, philosophies and much more. You can join the carnival too by heading to the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers sign up page.  We hope you enjoy the
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This month's blog carnival is being hosted by Trixi's HomeEd Academy