Christianity & Homeschooling: Dinner Time and the Home Schooling Family
By Mimi RothschildUnlike students at traditional schools, who have mountains of homework, school functions every night, and parents who have very little time themselves, home school students have plenty of time to spend with their families. Not that home schooling does not require discipline and scheduling, (for both children and parents), but home schooling makes it possible for your family to enjoy the many benefits of eating dinner together on a regular basis.
Of the many educational, physical, and psychological benefits that come with home schooling your children, eating dinner as a family may be one of the most important ones. Home schooling gives you, as the parent, more control over your home schooled child's schedule. This means that you can decide on a time for dinner and stick to it most nights of the week. Furthermore, home schooling your child ensures that you have the time to create home cooked meals for your family, so that you are less reliant on fast food and snacks replacing dinner.
Dinner with the family has well-researched physical and psychological benefits for both adults and home schooled children. Family dinners allow your family to reconnect after a day of being apart. Home schooled children learn a lot from their parents at dinnertime. It is a place where you can discuss and pass on your beliefs about religion, society, morals, and politics to your children. Home schooled children who eat dinner with their families regularly get better grades. They are less likely to act out and less likely to get into trouble. These benefits are more pronounced as the home schooled child progresses from elementary through high school levels.
Family dinners can have physical benefits for your home schooled child and the rest of your family as well. Research shows that families who eat together are less stressed and eat healthier. Furthermore, people who eat home cooked family dinners are less likely to be overweight or obese, which is a growing problem in this country. Home schooling allows you to control bad eating habits in your children. You can monitor what they eat throughout the day and make sure they only get healthy food and plenty of exercise. Home schooling along with family dinners allows you to better monitor the health of your family and make sure your children learn healthy eating habits.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, children's rights activist, author, and Founder and C.E.O. of online education company Learning by Grace, Inc. Rothschild and her husband of twenty-eight years reside in suburban Philadelphia with their eight children.
Feeling that “our current system of education has broken its promise,” Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. to provide families with Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children all over the world.
In addition to her twenty years of experience as a homeschool mother, Rothschild has written a number of books dealing with education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Home Education Websites Blog consists of helpful online content and activities for Christian homeschooling families.
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