Archive for the ‘Parenting’ Category

A friend shared this on her Facebook page, and after reading it I decided it was something I needed to do, as well. Click the graphic to read the original post over at Hannah’s Harvest.

This is my modification of the explanation my friend posted:

I have spent an indecent amount of time on Facebook, and other various websites, during 2011. Only a small percentage of that time was truly nourishing to my soul. With the intention of reconnecting to my kids and husband, and to the soul-nourishing activities here in my home, I am going to come online only once a day, for 30 minutes, to check Facebook, email, blogs, etc., from December 20th – 31st.

If you need me, call or text me. I’m not turning off my phone.

I am practically twitching already just making the decision. What will I be like tomorrow?? But I believe that this ‘Reset’ is necessary for me, and will end up feeling very much a gift.

Would you like to join me in this Reset? I double-dog dare you!

Blogging will continue. Although that is technically “online” as well, it is not a significant amount of time, nor is it a mindless waste of my time and energy.

I have made various decisions to “spend less time online” and so forth. But somehow, with no specifics, and no accountability, it has never really taken hold.

Rather than going off Facebook altogether, which I have debated, this seems like a good way to, well, reset my thinking and behavior patterns. And it comes at a perfect time, when we are celebrating the birth of Christ, and enjoying time with family and friends.

Merry Christmas!

(A follow up to my earlier post, Advent Begins!)

NOTE: If you haven’t started an Advent activity yet, I’d still recommend grabbing a copy of Truth in the Tinsel: An Advent Experience for Little Hands (it’s only $4.99!) — there are a couple of great options for condensed schedules that let you get in all the most important elements.

We are on the full 24 day schedule, although we have fallen a couple of days behind. I am hoping/planning to at least get/stay caught up to within one day, so that we can finish on Christmas.

The kids have had a lot of fun cutting, coloring, gluing, and painting.

Most of the projects have been fairly flat, so it was simple to just glue them onto pages for their Advent Books. Some required a bit of creativity… And tools.

Luckily, I have a handy helper. Wolf took two of the contour clothespins and sliced them down into four flat “person forms” (plus some scrap). These were then gleefully decorated as Mary (Day #5) and Joseph (Day #9).

These turned out to be the kids’ favorite projects so far.

We’re having a great time reading through the story of Christ in child-size bites, and the crafts have been enjoyed by all – even the craft-phobic mama.

Today did not start off well.

I had a raging migraine. After two doses of my migraine prescription, and assorted home remedies, I had barely reached the stage where I felt like I wasn’t going to keel over.

The kids were scheduled to go to the Build and Grow clinic at Lowe’s. Normally I would have just cancelled the outing, but during the first three weekends in December they do a three-part train project. So missing today would have meant losing out on that whole series.

Conscripting Nick to drive, we packed up and went.

As always, the kids had a fabulous time building their project. And of course they enjoyed the face-painting and balloon sculptures by the resident clown, Scoops.

Afterwards, we were swinging by WalMart for some glue.

Now, going to WalMart on a Saturday is high on my “forbidden” list. And with a migraine, it was even less appealing. But we needed glue for our Advent projects (yeah, I have some somewhere, but it must still be packed), and I didn’t want to fall three more days behind by waiting until Monday.

As Nick drove past the first set of doors, we noticed the Salvation Army bell-ringer. Since they are so ubiquitous, and I don’t have any particular emotional attachment to the Salvation Army, they are pretty easy to ignore.

The we pulled up towards the second set of doors. We saw two very young Marines, and two equally young Sailors, standing in their dress uniforms.

They are harder to ignore. (See my post about Matt Broehm)

Nick waited in the car as the Littles and I went up to the store. As we approached, one of the Marines was explaining their Toys for Tots collection to a woman who had just come out of WalMart.

I asked him if he would mind explaining it to my kids.

He crouched down to their level, and told them in a simple and caring way that they were collecting toys to give to little boys and girls who didn’t have a mom and dad to get presents for them at Christmas.

As he finished, the other woman turned to me and asked if we were going into the store. When I said that we were, she held out $20, and asked if I would be willing to buy some toys for the collection while we were shopping.

I agreed, and had Jewel take charge of the money.

We had a great time inside, shopping for things that were a good value, so that the needy children could get as much as possible. With the $20 we were able to get two multi-packs of Hot Wheels cars, and a nice set of mini dolls and clothes in a case. The kids were delighted to put the toys in the collection box (and pose with the young military men) as we left.

Personally, I kept getting teary-eyed over the fact that a complete stranger would hand me $20 and a charge like that. Really, at WalMart, do people often hand cash to strangers?

What a blessing!

I’m sure part of her trust was simply the fact that I had two little kids, and we were showing interest in the Toys for Tots. But combined with past experiences, I tend to think that my manner of dress also contributed to her level of comfort.

Our silent witness makes an impact when we least expect it.

Migraine or no, I wouldn’t have missed that experience for the world.

We are so excited to be doing an Advent devotional this year! I’ve been trying to get my act together enough to do this for a couple of years now.

I was delighted to find a friend’s recommendation on Facebook, and I eagerly purchased (inexpensively!) Truth in the Tinsel: An Advent Experience for Little Hands.

The book has an easily broken-down shopping list of supplies – most of which are things you’re likely to have around the house anyway (or can substitute for such things).

Each day has a Scripture reading, tagged to a “clue” that the kids find in their Advent Calendar (several options for how to do that).

Then there’s a fun craft project for the kids to do, along with some other discussion ideas for you to use (or not, or as you see fit).

The projects are set up to be done as a series of Christmas Tree ornaments, but for a variety of reasons, we’ve decided not to go that route.

We’re going to “flatten” everything, and mount each artwork on a sheet of paper. Then each of the kids is going to assemble their 24 projects into an Advent Book (in a 3-ring binder, to give it some protection), which can be stored away in their memory box, or enjoyed again next year, or whatever other use we can think up!

The photo is the Littles at work on Day 1 – a candle, for Jesus, the Light of the World.

I’m not going to post our project each day, partially out of respect for the book’s copyright (go buy one, I tell you!). I’ll post perhaps weekly or so, with the highlights.

Who else is doing something special for Advent?

Yes, it’s that time of year – St. Nicholas is coming!

No, I don’t mean December 25th.

CHRISTmas is when we celebrate Jesus’ birthday, of course!

I mean the Feast of St. Nicholas, on December 6th.

If you’re interested in what we do, and why we do it, let me direct you back to a few earlier posts on the subject, rather that reinventing the wheel this year (both on this blog and on our earlier family blog, Life on the Road):

• Last year’s post, St. Nicholas is Coming
• Who is this St. Nick guy, anyway?
• Less Presents, More Presence

I was hoping we’d be able to take up an Advent tradition this year… But of course rather than being settled in Biloxi after being here for over a year, instead we’ve moved again. Though still in Biloxi, I’m also still unpacking!

Maybe I can at least make a start of it. Any suggestions?

You may recall that I’m using Sonlight for the Littles, working together, and it is my current plan (accepting fully that things may change) to continue to use this base method for a number of years to come – perhaps until Jewel hits High School age.

This year, though, she is in 1st Grade, while R.T. is just 3, and not officially being schooled at all. But as I’m sure many of you recognize, he’s very anxious to “do school” with his big sister, so he sits with us for the first half of the school day.

We are using Core P 4/5 – yes, its primary designation is as Preschool for 4 and 5 year olds. This is “too old” for R.T. and “too young” for Jewel… but looking at the path over the next few years, this seemed like the right starting point to strike a balance. Obviously, I’ve made some adjustments for each of them.

I was pleased to get some tips – and some reinforcement – from a recent post on Sonlight’s blog, Practical Pointers: Combining with a single core.

• We do not use the Bible Memory Verses listed in the Core, instead focusing on Jewel’s AWANA memory work for the week.
• All of us do the basic activities of the Core together: Bible, storybook reading, Readiness Skills (I bought a second set of the “Developing the Early Learner” workbooks so that they each have one), Science (this will probably be separate later, but for now it’s fine), World Cultures, Song of the Week, and Developmental Activities.
• We’re also adding Music – all three of us are going to learn to play piano. So far we’re at the most basic stages, and we have John Thompson’s Easiest Piano Course ready to go.

That’s the end of the shared experiences for the “formal” part of the day. Naturally we also do all the other fun parts of “schooling” together, from field trips, to housekeeping, to bread baking, to tree-house building…

• Jewel is also doing the Language Arts program for Grade K Readers. This includes Phonics / Spelling, Vocabulary Development, and Creative Expression segments.
• We’re utilizing the optional Go For the Code workbooks (phonics)
• She enjoys A Reason For Handwriting (having switched after trying Handwriting Without Tears, which was just not a good fit for us).
• And she’s working quickly through the Horizons Math K.

Although she is 1st Grade by age, we did not do a lot with these writing-focused subjects last year, and this is the correct starting point for her. Presumably we will get “caught up” to her age-designated place (or beyond) at some point in the process. Coming from a “Better Late Than Early” kind of place, this is not something I worry about.

We got far off track with the schedule I was planning for the year with our recent move, so we are only on the third week of Sonlight’s schedule. I was pleased with how easy it was for all of us to to get comfortable with this curriculum and schedule.

You know it’s good when the kids ask to do school on Saturdays!

Jewel had the New Testament books of the Bible in her AWANA memory work for last year, and we fumbled through that somehow.

But this year she needs to memorize the Old Testament (as well as re-reciting the New Testament), and can also earn a badge from Keepers at Home for that work.

After hearing several folks talk about various songs and jingles they used to help memorize the books, I went on a search.

There are many, many YouTube videos that have the “Books of the Bible” to music. To a lot of different kinds of music, I might add.

I listened to a lot of them. A LOT.

Many of them didn’t seem like they would really help the memorization, since they sounded more like someone took a tune and fitted the books of the Bible into it (often somewhat awkwardly).

I was delighted when I found this video, from the Bigsby Show:

Catchy. Easy to understand. The kids and I both like it (this was a point of considerable discrepancy on many of the videos). And?

It sounds like they wrote a song to fit the books (rather than the other way around)! Yay!

We started out listening to the YouTube video frequently, but it wasn’t long before I hopped over to The Bigsby Show website and purchased a copy of the CD so we could listen in the car. (This is not a sponsored post, in case you were wondering!)

Parenthetical note: Could I have burned a CD from the YouTube thing? Probably so. But I appreciate what they do, and they need financial support to continue their work. Artists deserve to be rewarded for the fruits of their labors just like anyone else. {off soapbox}

Jewel is now totally comfortable with her New Testament, and just ironing out a few minor prophets in the Old Testament.

And much to my delight… R.T. is almost there, too! Pretty impressive, for three.

Anyhow, learning the books of the Bible is a daunting (but important!) task for people of any age, so I wanted to share this resource that we have found to be invaluable.

And… The other songs on the CD are really neat! Catchy, cute songs with interesting views of Moses, Noah, Jonah, plus other fun (Christian) messages. Definately a CD we will continue to listen to even when we have all 66 books down pat.

Very cute way to share a great message!

I’m sure everyone has read articles about kids lives being “too busy” – since even the popular media from time to time decides to point out that no six year-old needs to go to school, ballet, cheerleading, History Day club, practice for the play, sing in the choir, and volunteer at the senior center – and do her chores.

But that’s not what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about the overwhelming sensory inputs that our kids are bombarded with. All the time.

Since we’ve changed out lifestyle over the last dozen years or so, I’ve begun to notice it myself. Of the rare occasion we go out to a movie, it seems too big and flashy, and far too loud. I wouldn’t even consider going to a music concert that involves amplifiers. Heck, even dinner at most restaurants is unpleasantly loud.

And that’s for my “mature” (in the developmental sense only, folks), adult brain. What about little people?

Well, guess what? The Canadian publication The Globe and Mail would like to tell you Why SpongeBob is a bad influence — and they’re not talking about potty humor or disrespectful attitudes. It’s over-stimulating in a sensory, well, sense.

Interestingly, I read this article on Monday morning, after having been utterly blown away by this point on Sunday evening at AWANA.

Let me be clear: We like the AWANA program. We like the church where we take our kids for AWANA. We like the AWANA teachers. This is not a criticism of any of those things.

Here, in fact, is Jewel at the awards night after her first year as an AWANA Cubby, back at First Baptist Church in Homestead, Florida. (as it turned out, she missed her second Cubby year because of moving and logistics. She rejoined for Sparks last year, though, and just started her second Sparks book!)

Jewel was eagerly anticipating the start of the new years’ Sparks classes, and a chance to see all her friends again. (This is a nice tie-in for her, since we no longer attend there and she doesn’t get to see those folks weekly in Sunday School).

Earlier, R.T. had said he was not interested in joining AWANA this year. As the time drew closer, though, he decided that he would like to give it a try, provided that Wolf or I remained with him. Being us, that was an easy condition to meet.

I filled out the registration paperwork, and we went into the designated classroom. When all was said and done there were THIRTY Cubbies in the room, along with some ten or so teachers (a couple of whom, at any given time, were taking attendance, processing registrations, etc.).

So the child to teacher ratio was not at all bad. And the children were about as well-behaved and calm as I think a group of thirty three- and four-year-olds is likely to be. It was not at all the case that they were “running wild”…

But somehow, still, it was madness.

It was loud. Especially when they were playing before things got started; but it was never what you might call “quiet.”

And there was activity, and movement, and, and, and…

R.T. clung to my leg and would not even consider going to play. The fact that he, too, was visiting with former Sunday School chums didn’t matter at all.

He wouldn’t sing along, clap along, or venture and answer to a question. He was totally withdrawn.

For most of the evening, the children were split into three groups of ten. This reduced the noise level in each separate room to a dull roar.

For the first rotation, game time, R.T. remained stuck to me like a limpet, and cried at the leader’s suggestion that he might want to run around with them.

Second rotation was snack time. R.T. enjoyed his snack (with me sitting beside him), enjoyed the break (it was quieter with everyone eating!), and surprised the leader who came by to check his “memory verse” (which they were doing as “repeat after me”) by saying the complete verse and citation by memory from the teacher’s introduction at the beginning of class. He’s a good memorizer, my R.T., and has been practicing for quite a while now.

He remained calmer during craft time, happily coloring in his Cubby puppet. And when we regrouped in the main classroom for closing, he was willing to stand up and sing (as long as I was right there).

Now, I don’t think it’s all a bad thing. And I do think there’s good in learning to cope in different (even if somewhat unpleasant) circumstances. But… He’s THREE.

I guess with so many people sending their kids off to Day Care from birth on up, our society has lost site of just how young, immature (in every sense of the word), and needy these little people are.

The Lord made the world for us, knowing what was best… Gradual sunrise, birdsong…

Maybe we all need to slow down, back up, turn it off.

A young filmmaker made a movie based on just that question, and it’s called (surprise) Divided.

His question is why our Christian young people are leaving the church at an alarming rate. Why are the much touted – oh yeah, and expensive – “youth ministries” failing?

Through interviews with youth, with youth pastors, and other Christian scholars, he explores what’s going wrong, what the Bible has to say, and what we need to do.

This is something that we talk about often, and feel very strongly about. God calls Fathers to disciple their children, and calls believers (all of them) to gather together in worship.

Get a cup of tea, take an hour, and watch this important movie.

It’s available free online until September 15th – just click the graphic below. (The DVD is also for sale).