Family Discipleship Ideas for Busy Homeschooling Families

As busy homeschool parents, trying to fit everything in can be hard. Suddenly, discipleship feels more like a chore than a blessing. But family discipleship doesn’t have to be a struggle. We want to make it fun, meaningful, and memorable so the lessons we teach will last an eternity!

Here are some strategies to simplify and enhance family discipleship in your home:

Incorporate discipleship habits into your daily rhythms and routines. 


Forming new habits can feel overwhelming at first. However, if you pair the new habit with an already-established habit, it becomes much more doable. For example, if you already eat dinner together as a family each night, include a prayer or a short devotion with your dinner. Or when you’re together in the car, listen to the audio Bible, pray, or worship together along the way.

Focus on making meaningful moments together. 


Our children will experience over 9,000,000 moments throughout their childhood. There’s no possible way for them to recall all of them. Our brains selectively filter what we remember. Typically, we recall significant or repetitive moments. Therefore, if we learn to be intentional in making meaningful faith-filled moments with our children, they will be more likely to remember those moments. Think about snuggling together on the couch to read family devotions, having praise dance party breaks from school, praying for strangers, or baking treats as you talk about Jesus. Meaningful moments are all about making heart-to-heart connections with our kids as we disciple them.

Bridge the gap between the pages of the Bible and daily life.

Each day presents new opportunities for us to help bridge the gap between what our children read in the Bible and what they experience in life. As we help them to look at the world around them through the lens of their faith, it suddenly comes alive in a whole new way. While they marvel at the number of stars in the sky, you can talk about God’s promise to Abraham. When you plant seeds in your garden, you can share about Jesus’ teaching of the parable of the sower, or how our prayers are like seeds and even when we can’t see God working, we can trust that He is. And as your children grow, there will be no separation of what they believe and how they experience life.

Turn trials into teachable moments.


One of the most effective discipleship tools we have are teachable moments—the times when our child has an angry outburst, refuses to forgive a sibling, or gossips with a friend. When we slow down and take time to teach our children how to apply the truths from God’s Word in our everyday struggles, we empower them to live a faith-filled life.

Ask questions.


Conversation and connection are essential to enhancing our family discipleship. The more we focus on conversations with our children, the more naturally they’ll be able to explore their faith. The trick is to learn to ask open-ended questions that invite our kids to share their thoughts, feelings, and questions in non-threatening ways.

Our family loves to do this as we bake in the kitchen together, while we play games, or as we walk around the neighborhood. We’ve found that if we’re engaged in other activities, the conversation can flow naturally, and the activity itself strengthens our connection at the same time.

Put your faith into action.

It’s one thing to read about Christianity–it’s another thing entirely to live it out. The Bible teaches us that faith without works is dead (James 2:26), and that we are called to be doers of the word and not just hearers (James 1:22). For our children to build a strong and vibrant faith, they need to learn how to live it out. Our kids need us to model Jesus to them, and encourage Christ-like actions through them. This often requires us to get out of our comfort zones and stretch our faith as well!

Build it into your homeschool day.


Last, but not least, build your discipleship into your homeschool day. Start with a quick prayer and read a passage of scripture. Sing a hymn or worship song together. And don’t just relegate the Bible to a separate study block. Instead, utilize the Bible to help you explore history, geography, social studies, math (convert shekels to dollars or figure out the area of the ark, etc.), science, and language arts.

You’d be amazed at how easy it is to incorporate the Bible into your daily studies. There are so many practical applications! You can sing songs to memorize scripture, use verses for copy work, explore the various people groups, and so much more! Have fun and think outside the box!

For fun family discipleship resources, visit KatieJTrent.com.