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My name is Jennifer Flanders. I’m a Christian wife and homeschooling mother of twelve and grandma to 22. Although I’m the one who does most of the writing here, this blog was really the brainchild of my husband, Doug.
When he saw how much time I spent fielding phone calls from folks with questions about homeschooling and parenting, he suggested I build a website and put the answers to the ten or twelve most frequently asked questions online, then refer callers there for more in-depth answers.
And, viola! Flanders Family Home Life was born!
Our Mission
Although our website has grown a lot since those humble beginnings, our objective is still the same: to share helpful tips, heartfelt encouragement, honest answers, and practical resources, and biblical solutions to problems parents face (especially those who are trying to homeschool):
If you click through any of the above links, you may notice some of them direct you to my other blog, Loving Life at Home. Since not all parents have partners and not all couples have children, I generally address topics related to parenting/ homeschooling here and matters related to love/ marriage there — although there’s inevitably a little overlap (as demonstrated by the above link list).
Our Family
2
PARENTS
37
YEARS
12
CHILDREN
8
SONS
4
DAUGHTERS
22
GRANDKIDS
Thirty-seven years of marriage. Twelve children. Twenty-two grandchildren (and counting). People often tell us we have our hands full — and they’re right! — but our hearts are full, too. They are filled to the point of bursting with love for one another, joy for living, and gratitude to God for blessing us so richly with all these precious souls — in addition to a beautiful Savior who shed his blood to save us all from our sin.
Our family motto can be found in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Honoring God and pointing others to Jesus: That is our goal in our home, with our words, in our thoughts, through our actions, at work, at rest, at play, on this blog, in our books, and through our podcast. In all our ways, we want to make Christ known. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
FAQs about our Family
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Hi Jennifer
I came across your website and am impressed with your work. With Christmas coming, I like to use your tracts to give out to people. Just checking in to ask for your kind permission to do that. Would you mind if I pass your website to others too? God bless you and your big family. You are all so happy and joyful in the Lord. Happy Thanksgiving in advance.
Blessings
Paige.
Absolutely, Paige. I would be thrilled for you to share both the tracts and our website. That’s what they’re here for. You can even suggest that your friends subscribe to my mailing list if they’d like a themed bundle of free resources delivered directly to their inbox every Wednesday. And a very happy Thanksgiving to you, too!
Love your family! as a former educator and home school teacher for my austic son (he’s now 37). Thank you so much for all you do!
Bless you, Carolyn! And you’re welcome. Our oldest is 37, too! 😊
Good morning:
I’m Rus Jeffrey and I’m currently write “A Primer on Prayer: The Full Armor of God”. While looking for a good armor graphic to include in the book I came across your Full Armor graphic. It says it’s a free printable. However, I would like to use it in my book. So, I’m wondering if I have your permission to use it.
BTW, love the website and you’re doing!
Thanks in advance.
Thanks so much for checking first, Rus. I’m happy for you to use my graphic in your Primer or Prayer book, provided you leave the copyright in place and let readers know they can download a free printable copy on our website.
What a surprise to find this site. I have pleasant memories of living across the street from one of your sons and his little family before I moved in 2015. They are such a special little family with all those darling little boys, and I wish them blessings, wherever they are!
Thanks so much, Mary. It’s a small world, right?
I am very exited to find your website.
I personally am a christian mother of 13 children and my husband and I feel so blessed with these wonderful children.
My husband pastors a small church in Idaho and I teach about 30 students in Sunday school.
I came across your website looking for ideas to teach lessons about Easter.
May the good Lord bless you and your family and the blog you posted to reach out to others with christian resources to bring souls to Christ.
It makes me happy to think of you using our resources to teach your Sunday school class, Otilia. May God bless your faithful service to Him!
Looking forward to hearing you speak at Green Acres Baptist church on 2/15/18. Do you live in Tyler, TX?
Yes, I do, Deborah. I’m looking forward to speaking at the Forerunners Luncheon on Thursday. I hope you’ll come and introduce yourself while we’re there. I love getting to meet readers face to face!
Kids eat $1.99 Wednesday at Buffalo Wild Wings all day 12 and under…
Thanks for letting me know. I’ve added it to my list!
Do u homeschool?
Yes, we do.
Dear Jennifer and Family,
I have been checking on your blog for the last few years after I found out about it from your book, Love Your Husband, that I ordered from Above Rubies. That I loved and have recommended to many friends, by the way.
I have a question about what you did with your dyslexic students. I am a homeschooling mom of 7 children ages 12 to 1. My fourth grade son has been struggling for sometime now and I have taken him to eye docs and a reading specialist with lots of improvement, but he is still struggling. I saw on your recommendations of curriculum page that you suggest the book The Gift of Dyslexia. I was wondering if you ever went to a Davis center? Or did you just implement the book on your own. Do you have any other suggestions? I am feeling so tired and overwhelmed. It has been suggested to me by a friend to have him tested by our local schools to get an IEP, and then she said I would be eligible for some scholarships to help with tutoring, but I’m hesitant to do that for many reasons. If I may ask, have you ever resourced the local schools to help your struggling reader?
I did just order Funnix, in hopes it give him the boast he needs.
Thank you in advance.
Danielle
Hi, Danielle. We never went to a Davis center personally, although we had friends who did with favorable results. We just implemented the principles the author described on our own. We also never worked with the school system — probably because we shared some of your same reservations — but, again, we have had friends who went that route and were pleased with the results they got by doing so.
Funnix and the Workbook for Dyslexics I linked on our curriculum page was enough to get our struggling readers reading well. Most of them still aren’t inclined to do a lot of pleasure reading — not nearly as much as, say, family members for whom reading came more naturally — but they have qll been proficient enough at reading to succeed in college and in their chosen careers.
So don’t lose heart! Kids are all different, with different strengths and weaknesses, but if you patiently and faithfully keep chipping away at this important skill, I’m confident reading will eventually “click” for your child, too!
Love your blog!But we need more recipes from you!!!!We make your cinnamon rolls all the time and love them !!!!Thanks for sharing!We are always looking for large family size recipes!
Thanks, Mamma H! You can find a very old listing of our family’s favorite recipes on this page. Sorry there are no photographs of these dishes. I’ll do my best to add some in the near future.
You may notice I’ve also added a new Recipe Section to my menu bar, complete with drop down categories. The contents of those categories are admittedly sparse right now, but the structure is in place, which will make the recipes much easier to find once I do get them posted.
Hi there, I am the father of a family of 14. Our twelve kids range from 17 years to 11 months. We recently moved, and are in the process of re-adjusting our chore schedule. Your list of age-appropriate chores will come in very handy. I’m looking forward to checking out the rest of your site. God Bless You all!
So glad to hear it, Dave. We’re in the process of readjusting chores ourselves, as we do every year about this time, to give the kids a running start on the new year!
Hi, I saw your Montessori list on age appropriate chores and responsibilities. I found it quite beneficial. We started discussing what would be the right age to light matches for birthday candles for example.
Also, there was mention of cooking and cleaning. What would be your recommended age to use knives. Butter knives for halving apples and sharp knives for cutting veggies like broccoli and carrots?
Thanks for your suggestions.
Of course, it all really depends on the individual child and on how closely you intend to supervise. My nine-year-old has helped with both those things within the past couple of weeks, but I was standing right beside him watching his progress both times. I wouldn’t “assign” these chores to a younger child, but when they are begging to help, I want to encourage that enthusiasm by either letting them do what they are volunteering to do (even if it means holding their hand and guiding them through the motions) or finding a similar but more appropriate task they can do alongside me: “I’m going to chop the potatoes, but you could peel the carrots for me” or “I can light the candles on the birthday cake, but would you get out the ice cream?”
I was looking for another site and happened to stumble upon your website. And I must say, that this is the greatest family site I have laid eyes upon. I’m a single mother of four, and I’m a Christian that home schools as well. Oh how I wish I could have had the help of this site twenty years ago! You guys are such a blessing to all the single as well as married couples out here today whose houses may need a little help in the area of structure. My children now are all grown up attending college, but I just wanted to stop by, and leave a GOD BLESS YOU!! and want to THANK GOD, for your help to the many others out here, who may stumble upon your site as well. May the Lord keep you and your family always.