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Homeschool Coffee BreakAuthor: Kerry Beck
Homeschool Coffee Break helps you stop overwhelm and gain confidence so you know you're doing enough with your kids' education. Our top-notch interviews, practical tips & tricks, and real solutions will give you confidence in your homeschool. Language: en Genres: Education, Education for Kids, How To, Kids & Family Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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184: Hidden Skill Your Kids Need Before College or Career
Tuesday, 28 April, 2026
Your kids can pass a test — but can they evaluate an idea, make a wise decision, or stand for truth when no one is watching? If that question makes you pause, this episode is exactly what you need to hear.We are breaking down why the skills of critical thinking matter more than any answer in a textbook.. I’m also sharing 1 powerful habit that changes everything about how your kids learn and think:✅The 1 daily habit that builds skills of critical thinking in any subject✅Whether memorizing answers produces followers or leaders✅Why asking questions is more powerful than any curriculum you can buy✅What to do so you can see your kids start thinking✅What it looks like when your child can finally evaluate ideas on their ownGrab the free resources mentioned in this episode and start building thinkers in your homeschool today.Resources for You FREE Read Aloud Magic FREE Notebooking Pages Become a VIP when you join the Raising Leaders Not Followers VIP Wait List. . . . - Get extra perks as a VIP in May!Show Notes:Your Child Doesn't Need to Know the Answer — They Need to Know How to ThinkYour child doesn't need to just know the answer. They need to know how to think and make decisions. A kid who can memorize facts but can't evaluate ideas is going to struggle in college, in work, and in life. Let's talk about a way to solve this problem today.What Are You Actually Training Your Kids For?I know you want the best for your kids. You want them to be prepared for the real world. You want them to have strong faith and discernment. But you're worried your kids may not be ready. You're tired of the idea that more school automatically means more success — that the more we do in school, the more successful they're going to be. These are myths.Your goal shouldn't just be that your kid can pass a test. A test just memorizes — it analyzes facts. For me, our goal was that our kids would follow Jesus, think clearly and biblically, and make wise decisions when we weren't around. We wanted to prepare them for real life.Schools teach answers. But leaders evaluate ideas. The problem is answers aren't enough. Schools teach to the test — it's the conveyor belt. Everyone does the same thing and gets a test to see if they've memorized all the answers. And it produces followers. Followers who just wait for direction. Followers who are waiting for approval or waiting for a worksheet to turn in.Thinkers and leaders — that's what I wanted for my kids. Not necessarily the president of the United States, but kids who lead in their own life, in their home, in their family. If your child has only been trained to fill in the blanks, don't be surprised when they struggle to take ownership and they're just waiting for someone to tell them what to do.So my question to you is — what are you training your children for?Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Courage to Think for YourselfI want to share a story about a man named Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a German pastor and theologian during Nazi rule. The surrounding culture was demanding conformity, fear, and silence. But he refused to follow. He was going to stand for truth. He kept asking what was right before God — not what was safe or popular.Bonhoeffer did not let the culture tell him what was true. He was surrounded by pressure, but he chose his own conviction. That is what discernment looks like.I don't remember the entire story, but I think it's important that we raise our kids to not have blind compliance to what everyone's telling them to do — but the courage to stand for truth. Spiritually, yes, but also in what they're learning. The history books are being rewritten, and we need to have discernment to know what is truth and what is not.Kids learn in school that it's just about the right answer, not the right question. They're afraid to be wrong. Discernment is both spiritual and practical. And kids need to learn how to pause, reflect, and ask what matters — and make sure their thinking is biblically based.Susanna Wesley Raised ThinkersSusanna Wesley was the mother of John Wesley and Charles Wesley. She home educated her children in the 1600s and was known for setting aside time to teach each of her kids individually rather than just letting them drift. She emphasized spiritual formation, discipline, and thoughtful thinking. She would ask questions.John Wesley went on to start the Methodist church. Charles Wesley wrote somewhere between 6,500 and 9,000 hymns. I can't imagine writing a hymn — that takes a lot of thinking ability.Susanna Wesley's home became a place where children learned to think about God, truth, and obedience with purpose. She wasn't just managing a household. She was shaping her children in character and in thinking. She didn't raise them to comply. She trained them to think, to question, and to live under God's truth.Again — what are you training your kids for? Just to do what mom tells them to do? Or to think critically and biblically?The One Habit That Changes Everything: QuestionsOkay, how do you actually do this? It's really one habit that changes everything — questions. You can use questions in any subject area.When I started using questions, it helped me relax and not be so worried about a checklist. I didn't even need curriculum for every subject because we could read books and ask questions. When I was a school teacher, I was supposed to follow the curriculum and couldn't really veer off of it — and that didn't encourage thinking on the part of my students. When I started homeschooling and started using questions, it changed everything. I was much more relaxed and much more intentional. My kids could take ownership by following their interests.I remember Hunter was into sports, and we were studying Roman history — which he didn't love at the time. But he did love sports, so we let him write a paper on Derek Jeter, one of the greatest shortstops in baseball. He learned about baseball science, math, history — all of it. And you can always ask questions like — why does this matter? What am I missing? What does this tell me about God, people, or truth? Did this person act the way God would want them to act? Did they have honor? And then — now that you've done all this, what are we going to do with this information?How to Start Using Questions This WeekTake one subject you're doing this week. Instead of a worksheet, ask one question about that topic. Keep it simple. Don't overteach. Let the conversation do the work.And here's my trick — when you ask a question, do not answer your own question. Ask another question. You know what happens when there's quiet and you can't handle it? You give them the answer. And what are you training your kids to do? To wait until mom answers her own question, and then we can move on because I don't have to think.Allow some time for quiet and for them to think. If they don't know the answer, ask a different question until you can begin a conversation. This is not a system or a lot of extra things to do. It is a way of life.This is how I teach my grandkids. This is how I taught my kids — in science, literature, music, art, math, history, character building, even cleaning the house. Why do I have to do this? Well, why do you think you have to do this? Turn everything into a question and let them come up with the answers. It's not about your children having the right answer. It's about asking the right question.What This Produces in Your KidsImagine your kids as confident decision makers. Kids who recognize truth. Teenagers who can question lies because they've been thinking on their own. Young adults who know how to act without panicking. Faith that lasts beyond your home.One of my students, Tracy Smith, said it so well — I love the idea of getting off the conveyor belt. Our kids are not cookie cutters. They all have unique thoughts, ideas, and talents that God has given them. If they are not given the opportunity to explore those, their gifts and offerings to this world are stifled. We need to allow them the chance to come to their individual conclusions — and they will give the world something to think about instead of the world telling them what to think.Another student, Rose, said after taking our leadership course — this helped me see how I could teach my kids to think logically. She was encouraged by the real life stories she could relate to, and she said the methods were transformational.You are not alone. These are methods that work. They are real and you can achieve them.The two free tools from last week — the Read Aloud Magic e-book and the free notebooking pages — combined with this idea of questions are three tools that can help you raise your kids to think well and think on their own. Grab those links in the show notes.And stay close to my emails and this podcast because I've got a boot camp coming up that is going to show you how to implement all of this in a real homeschool life. I can't wait to share more details. If you want to get on the waitlist, the link is in the show notes.
