Guardians of Time

by Heather Haupt
Apr. 13, 2026

[Editor’s Note: We are excited to have Heather joining us as a Featured Speaker at CHEA’s Parenting & Homeschool Convention, July 10-11 in Downey. This is just a preview of what Heather will be sharing with us in July.]

Parents: Gatekeepers of Time

“Where did he run off to now?” I wondered. Having told this son of mine that we would finish that spelling lesson after our quiet afternoon reading time, I was somehow surprised when he was nowhere to be found. Kids have a way of doing that. I was feeling just a bit annoyed as I sought him out that day, and the feelings only intensified when I found a pile of cardboard scraps on the ground with open scissors nearby. I glared at the mess, as I rehearsed my “clean-up speech” in my head. Soon enough, I found the culprit on both fronts wielding a new cardboard sword at some imaginary foe in our backyard. 

I have a soft spot for boy battles and the site of this new one was enough to help me calm down before walking outside. As I approached him, he turned to me with a grin. “Mom, I am Esteban from The King’s Fifth.” Inspired by his reading, he had grabbed cardboard to fashion a Spanish rapier for himself replete with an intricate cardboard and duct-tape hilt. As he stopped his duel, bits and pieces of the story gushed out. This son, who is not all that talkative, couldn’t stop relaying the battles as well as the angst of journeying with this boy, Esteban, who had opposed greed, succumbed to it, and then came out from that dark period in his life.

The urgency of the spelling lesson faded into the background as we talked about exploration, the lust of money, and choosing the right path. Once he ran out of words and I finished admiring his intricate sword creation, we did make our way inside to finish the other “school” and clean up that mess. Along the way, I found myself thankful for the flexibility we had to pursue this bunny trail.

We live in hurried times where a busy schedule is worn like a badge of honor. But in our busyness, we miss the processing and the inculcating of the lessons we are learning. We miss out on those lessons our children discover on their own. There is beauty in slowing down. In a world screaming to have your children running from activity to activity, parents have the power to say no. You have the opportunity to intentionally determine your own family’s schedule. As a homeschooling parent, you have even greater flexibility. Sometimes this means saying no to good things so you can pursue what is better. Sometimes this means saying no to DOING, so your children have time to simply BE.

You are the gatekeeper of time, the protector of childhood, the encourager of deep thinking.

You accomplish this by creating time for the following three pursuits:  

1. Time to Read

As guardians of our children’s time, we need to carve out time to read. Reading is a slow activity and in this fast-paced world where we are in constant search of stimulation, reading can oftentimes find itself on the backburner. We need to model this slowing down by reading ourselves and establish a home culture where reading is prioritized. It is when our kids marinate in the rich stories from the past that they formulate the ideas and principles necessary to guide them in the future. This means that we want to not only create time to read, but look to find great books for our children to feast on. For instance, instead of handing our sons the potty-humor infused books marketed to boys today, we find grand tales of adventure that inspire their moral imagination and help them become the brave men of tomorrow. Enjoying the slow art of reading means they have time to really embrace and process what they are reading. Books like St. George and the Dragon not only tell an exciting story, but they also communicate that our children can defeat the dragons that they will meet in their lifetime whether those dragons come in the form of general life struggles or standing against injustice and protecting the weak. 

2. Time to Play

Protecting childhood means providing time and the encouragement to play. It is in play that the lessons learned through reading or conversations with the people around them are solidified. Learning and playing go hand-in-hand. Sometimes we might participate or initiate this play as part of more formal education such as when we have them dramatize the revolving of the earth around the sun, or act out a scene from Macbeth. Other times, it is accomplished simply by saying no to electronics and letting them use their imaginations to make up their own worlds. If your kids are anything like mine, they will probably take what they are learning into their play. I have the fondest memories of the hours and hours my sisters and I spent together with our paper dolls working out relational skills, developing empathy, and keeping each other accountable for historical accuracy with whatever era we were imitating. I’ll never forget the days my boys spent playing with ice cubes and their sea animals as they replicated life in the Antarctic ocean regions while I cooked dinner.

3. Time to Ponder

One of the great gifts we give our children is time to process and time to ponder. Young children ponder most frequently through play. As children get older, it can take the form of daydreaming. When we create time in their lives to simply BE, they have the opportunity to ponder great mysteries and work creatively towards solutions to problems they encounter. We give them time to ponder when we slow down our lives to walk beside them and talk about the issues they are facing and hear about the things they are learning about. These are moments that we cannot manufacture on our own, but ones that crop up in the daily living out of our lives together. This gift of unhurried conversation allows them to really wrestle with ideas and process what they are learning.

As the guardians of your family’s time, you get to decide what that looks like for your own family in each season you walk through. In our home, we have adopted a knight-training mindset that recognizes that our children are in training now for the adventure of life and that it is our job to not only train them, but allow them time to grow and develop - time to read great books, play hard, and to think deeply. In doing so, we give our children a great gift that will go with them for the rest of their lives.

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