Disciple Your Children
How do you make discipleship a natural way of life? Whether it’s the younger years, the middle years, or the launching years, discipleship can easily be woven into the natural rhythms of family life. It can start with simple questions about the beauty around you in creation or reading Bible stories at bedtime. You can discuss right choices or natural consequences of bad choices. You can talk about school and life through a biblical lens. You can do a book study with your teens, host a backyard Bible club this summer for your elementary-age neighborhood kids, or read Bible stories to your little ones. It does not have to be hard or complicated, but it does have to be intentional. Talk with your children when you wake, when you walk, and when you wind down to sleep (see Deuteronomy 6). So that pretty much means disciple your kids all throughout your days. Do not leave it up to the church. They are there to partner with parents not replace biblical teaching in the home. In order to disciple your children, you want to open the doors of communication so it is regular and natural and you will want to lead…
Digital Escape Rooms
Looking for some new rainy day activities for your kids? While spring is popping up in most gardens, rainy days and Mondays still can get us down. Looking for some new rainy day activities for your kids? Try a digital escape room from the comfort of your own couch! Many free and educational digital escape rooms exist. I’ll list a few here but you can do your own search for more using the Tailored Search Terms listed below. There are even a few you can print and use if you want a pencil and paper version. Typically escape rooms involve solving puzzles to get a key or code to unlock the room. Most digital escape rooms have several puzzles and several locks. Some have a storyline woven throughout the game and some just stick to a theme. Some puzzles are visual and others rely on knowledge. In our house, we have solved puzzles together or assigned a certain one to each kid to attempt before the rest join in and help. Some are short with just a few puzzles and can be completed in less than a half hour. Others are more complex or have longer puzzles that take time.…
Dual Enrollment
How do you choose dual enrollment classes? One option for saving time and money in college is to enroll in a dual enrollment program. Typically this is where high school students can simultaneously complete high school and take some college classes during their junior and senior years. Some students even manage to complete their high school education and earn an associate’s degree at the same time. In some states, students can practically go to college for free while in high school. We highly recommend even a few dual enrollment courses while in high school. Because we did our homework, our youngest daughter was able to start college with enough credits to complete 4 years in 3, saving both time and money. She knew her major, and she knew what college she wanted to attend. First, we looked at a sample degree completion guide and what community college and AP/CLEP test credits the university accepted. With this information, she could choose dual enrollment courses that would benefit her not just earn her college credits. Using the sample course completion guide for her major, we mapped out her dual enrollment schedule for her last 2 years of high school. Like all things,…
Product Review: Bankroll Coffee
Can drinking coffee make you a millionaire? I self identify as a coffee snob. No doubt about that. For Christmas my kids got me a coffee bundle from Bankroll Coffee, and it was the perfect gift! Good coffee, catchy packaging, and amazing prices per cup. Names like Double Down, Morning Drip, and Diamond Hands grace the bags. I can’t even pick a favorite, but maybe Hodl, the espresso roast. Eventually, I’d like to try the decaf, Buy the Drip. If you read my earlier post, you’ll know that I make cold brew coffee at home. I always have some regular and some decaf in my fridge. Check out my cold brew coffee review here. Graham Stephan, with his interest in personal finance, real estate, and investing, has an interesting recipe for brewing coffee at home and saving money to invest so you can be a millionaire when you retire. According to Stephan, millennials spend more on coffee than they do on retirement! He says in his video that he wants to create a business that will continue to grow on its own without him having to be constantly involved as the influencer. I resonate with that business goal. That’s what…
March Madness College Spreadsheet
Does March Madness bring thoughts of basketball tournaments or college tours? Without a college spreadsheet, brain overload accompanied my first college visit with my daughter, but it got easier after that. What did not get easier was the amount of information we got and how to keep track of it all. We ended up creating a shared spreadsheet of information. This useful college spreadsheet planner tool helped us track the information, prioritize colleges for application, and organize the application process and products required for each one. We chose to make it a shared document which was also super helpful as we could both add information or check due dates. Having gone through this process several times with my kids and clients, I find myself suggesting a collaborative spreadsheet to others time and time again. While the decision is highly personal, the process is quite standard. Now available for sale, is my College Planner Spreadsheet tool. This College Spreadsheet Planner tool will help organize all the information you gather, even suggesting categories you may not have thought about. You can edit the form to fit your needs. This information will be helpful when visiting colleges, narrowing down which ones to apply…