Every one of our kids has a calling, but, of course, it’s not our calling on their lives; it’s a God-given calling. Still, we have an important part to play in their development and preparation for it, and as homeschoolers, we have unique and powerful opportunities to help prepare our kids well.

When we can operate as a three-cord strand -- us (the homeschool parents), our child, and the Holy Spirit -- we can harness the power of the homeschool years to help our kids become the best possible candidate for their next step (after high school).

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire..”

In this episode we are going to talk in detail about the three stages in this process -- the process of preparing them for their calling. These stages are

1. Discovering their interests
2. Developing passion
3. Creating a powerful preparation strategy

We have followed these steps with our kids and with the hundreds of families we’ve worked with over the years. In an ideal world, each one of these stages correlates with a season of education.

It’s awesome when we can dedicate the elementary years to helping our kids discover their interests, and that means offering them a wide range of experiences. An interest is not something you can brainstorm around the kitchen table. You can’t Google an interest. You have to experience something to discover whether or not it truly interests you. So one of the primary goals of the elementary years is to take field trips, read broadly with our kids, and find all sorts of ways to fill their days with a buffet of experiences and then step back and observe. Conversation plays an important role here. We want to bring a strong curiosity to our conversations to help our kids discover what they love and what they’re good at.

“Passion is not something you discover. Interests are something that you discover, but you develop passion.”

Although you can discover interests, you do not discover passion. Passion is something that has to be developed. It takes digging, practicing, exploring deeply, and developing expertise. And not every pursuit becomes a passion, but when we dedicate the middle school years to this pursuit, our kids will emerge with a better understanding of God’s call on their lives, and when that happens, we can create a powerful strategy for the high school years to help them become the best possible candidate for their own, unique next step -- the step after high school on the path to fulfilling their calling.

In this episode, we will talk deeply about this process. So grab a cup of coffee and sit in our chat.

As you tune in, you’ll get to hear our super cool theme music. All of the music on the C2C Podcast was written, performed and produced by Jenni’s daughter Sky. Be sure to visit her on Instagram.

Please write to us and let us know what you thought of the show. AND...head over to whatever platform you used to listen to this Podcast, and give us a rating (a great one, we hope). That is SUPER important!!

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