Podcast Episode 06: Growing Children of GOD: Integrating FAITH Into Our Homeschool

Pip: Welcome back to Pollywog’s Place Blog, where the curriculum planning is done, the Bible verses are cited by chapter and verse, and the school year has a theme for every single month.

Mara: Susie at Pollywog’s Place Blog has mapped out a full year of faith-integrated homeschooling, and today we’re walking through how she’s woven biblical principles into every subject — from financial literacy in January all the way through to December math.

Pip: Let’s start with the plan itself — and it is a plan.

Growing Children of GOD: Weaving Faith Into Every Subject

Mara: The core question here is how you make faith feel like a natural part of learning rather than a separate subject bolted on — and the answer is a month-by-month structure that aligns each academic subject with what the family is already doing that time of year.

Pip: The post puts it directly: “It’s not a race, but there is a big goal ahead… our children’s futures are in our hands, and we must hand them over to GOD and ask HIM to guide us in the way we should go and show us what we should be teaching them.”

Mara: That framing matters because it sets the tone for everything that follows. This isn’t a rigid syllabus — it’s a set of habits the family is trying to build until they become, as the post says, “like second nature.”

Pip: And the structure does a lot of the heavy lifting there. January is financial literacy because the family is already organizing bills and budgets — so biblical stewardship, tithing, and verses on contentment get folded into something they’re doing anyway. The lesson arrives on the back of real life.

Mara: February shifts to fine arts, tied to handmade gifts and sacred art. The post suggests studying hymns, exploring art inspired by Bible stories, and connecting creative gifts to First Peter four-ten — using whatever talent you have to serve others.

Pip: March brings health and physical education, which lands right as things warm up in Florida — and Lent begins. So the body-as-temple conversation and sportsmanship virtues get their moment alongside spring cleaning.

Mara: April opens into creation science and nature journaling, with Earth Day providing a natural hook for environmental stewardship. May uses American Sign Language as the foreign language focus, connecting it to Pentecost and the idea that learning another language is a way to share faith across cultures.

Pip: ASL is genuinely practical — the post notes you can communicate with a family member across a noisy room without making a scene, which is a skill with immediate real-world value.

Mara: June through December keeps the same logic running. Community service in June, home economics and hospitality in July, responsible digital citizenship in August, homesteading and harvest preservation in September. October is language arts built around faith-based literature and Scripture copywork, November is history framed as what the post calls a “Redemptive Narrative,” and December wraps with mathematics — doubling and tripling holiday recipes counts as real math practice.

Pip: Fibonacci sequence as evidence of God’s design in December is the kind of curriculum move that makes a kid actually look at a pinecone differently.

Mara: The post closes by inviting readers to suggest additions — the outline is offered as a starting point, not a finished document, and the family expects to rotate and adjust the topics across future years.

Pip: A living curriculum, which is probably the only kind that survives contact with actual children.


Mara: The throughline across all of this is that faith doesn’t need its own separate hour — it fits inside the subjects that are already there.

Pip: Next time, we’ll see what else is growing at Pollywog’s Place.

You can read the post HERE:

Growing Children of GOD: Integrating FAITH Into Our Homeschool

Walking in the GOODNESS of GOD Devotional

I am hoping to make a new devotional for each month this year… that’s a big challenge, but it is something that has been on my heart. For AUGUST, our monthly theme will be GOODNESS. We will be trying to find ways to show a little more GOODNESS through routines and habits.

Last month’s theme was SELF-CONTROL and let me tell you that LIFE sure has a way of putting our lessons to the test but GOD is GOOD and HE has seen us through some difficulties and HE can do the same for you!

Here is the FREE printable, if you’d like to join us:

Continue reading “Walking in the GOODNESS of GOD Devotional”

Podcast Episode 04: God uses cracked pots

Pip: Welcome back to Pollywog’s Place Blog — where the cracks in the clay are apparently the whole point.

Mara: Susie at Pollywog’s Place Blog has been writing about something that cuts pretty close to home for a lot of people — what it means to feel broken, flawed, and still worthy of purpose. Let’s start with that question.

God uses cracked pots

Pip: The central tension here is one most people recognize immediately — the gap between who you think you should be and who you actually are, and whether that gap disqualifies you from anything that matters.

Mara: The post opens with a verse from Jeremiah 18:4 that frames everything that follows: “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”

Pip: So the upshot is: being marred isn’t the end of the story. The potter doesn’t discard the clay — he works with it again. That reframe is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Mara: The post names exactly what that marring looks like in practice — comparison, the “if onlys,” doubting your abilities. Things like wishing you had more money, were a better mom, looked different. The internal list most people carry quietly.

Pip: And then it pivots somewhere unexpected. It isn’t just that God tolerates your cracks — the argument is that the cracks are actually the mechanism. Light gets out through them.

Mara: That’s stated directly: “His light will shine out brighter and brighter with every crack. So in a sense, the more cracked and broken we become as we surrender our will to His will, then the more He will be able to use us for His glory.”

Pip: Which reframes shame entirely. The crack isn’t evidence of failure — it’s the opening.

Mara: The post also points to the parable of the cracked pot — a separate story linked in the piece — which illustrates the same idea through a water-bearer whose leaking pot waters wildflowers along the path without knowing it.

Pip: Useful without being aware of it. That’s a quietly generous image.

Mara: The closing call is practical: don’t hide the cracks, don’t be ashamed of the flaws, ask for help accepting them. The promise attached is that something more beautiful gets made in the process.


Pip: Broken clay, wildflowers, light through cracks — there’s a whole theology of imperfection sitting in this one.

Mara: And more from Pollywog’s Place to come. See you next time.

You can read the post HERE:

God uses cracked pots

Podcast Episode 03: Biblical Worth, Home, And Cherished Women

Pip: Welcome to Pollywog’s Place Blog — where the questions are ancient and the stakes are genuinely personal.

Mara: Susie at Pollywog’s Place Blog has been writing about things that actually matter at home and in the heart — what it means to know your own worth, and what it looks like to tend a household with intention. Let’s start with identity and what scripture says you deserve.

Biblical Worth And Identity

Mara: The posts in this segment are asking a question that sounds simple but cuts deep: do you actually believe you are worth something, and does that belief shape who you let into your life?

Pip: The anchor text opens with Proverbs 3:15, and then the post speaks directly to daughters: “You deserve to be loved, but not just loved like the general idea of love, you deserve to be cherished.”

Mara: That distinction matters. The post is not talking about settling for affection that shows up occasionally — it is talking about being someone’s active priority, the person they protect and keep in their thoughts.

Pip: And the post is practical about it. Don’t chase, don’t lower your standards to accommodate someone else’s excuses, and don’t assume you can change a person — that kind of change, the post argues, comes from above, not from patience or pressure.

Mara: The companion piece, “Cherished,” works through exactly what that word means in practice. It defines cherishing as making another person your priority relationship — shown through daily small acts, touch, listening, encouragement, and showing respect in public as well as in private.

Pip: So the two posts are really one argument in two directions: know what you deserve, and then actually demonstrate it when you’re in a relationship.

Mara: That thread — worth informing behavior, not just self-esteem — carries right into how those values play out inside a home.

Home And Family Stewardship

Pip: If the first segment was about knowing your value, this one is about what you do with it once you’re building a life — specifically, what it means to take a home seriously as a responsibility, not just a location.

Mara: “Keeper of The Home” opens with Proverbs 24:3-4, then states the core claim plainly: “We are responsible for our homes and that our homes and families should be a priority for us. It means that we are each responsible for setting the tone of our homes.”

Pip: Setting the tone. That is a bigger job than it sounds — it covers what comes in, what goes out, whether people inside feel safe, and whether guests find rest there.

Mara: The post is also honest about the gap between the ideal and the reality. It names the experience of being a single mother working multiple part-time jobs and still holding the household’s emotional climate as the first priority. The practical sections — meal planning, cleaning routines, budgeting, time management — are offered as tools, not judgments.

Pip: It reads less like a lifestyle prescription and more like someone handing you the manual they wish they’d had at twenty-two.

Mara: The post closes by framing all of it as intentional work. A keeper of the home is not something you drift into — it is a decision made deliberately, then built on through routines, prayer, and the goal of passing those habits forward to the next generation.

Pip: Worth knowing. Cherished at home.


Mara: Both threads come back to the same idea — that what you believe about your value shapes everything downstream, from the relationships you accept to the household you build.

Pip: And apparently the work is never quite finished. Next time, more from Pollywog’s Place.

You can read these posts HERE:

Cherished

You are worth more than rubies

Keeper of the Home

Walking in SELF-CONTROL Devotional

I am hoping to make a new devotional for each month this year… that’s a big challenge, but it is something that has been on my heart. For JULY, our monthly theme will be SELF-CONTROL. We will be trying to find ways to show a little more SELF-CONTROL through routines and habits.

Here is the FREE printable, if you’d like to join us:

Continue reading “Walking in SELF-CONTROL Devotional”