My homeschooling mentor...

... is Charlotte Mason. In the 1800s she established a biblically-based teacher training school in the Lake District of England. Need I say more? (Why do I like everything that comes out of the Lake District?) Her books are the kind where you read one sentence and chew on it for a week. So, I'm only on page 16 of Home Education. But her relevance for today caused me to laugh out loud:

[on the faults of a dry, mechanical education]:
Many a little girl, especially, leaves the home schoolroom with a distaste for all manner of learning, an aversion to mental effort, which lasts her lifetime, and that is why she grows up to read little but trashy novels, and to talk all day about her clothes.

I'm so thankful that because I was homeschooled, this was not my fate.  

Three Best Books for Parents

I've been thinking about getting back to blogging about books. My lifelong dream of owning a bookstore has to start small, and this blog has sort of been lagging of late... so maybe I need to get back to the business of telling you what I've been reading and why, and what I think of what I've been reading.

These three titles have come to mind, not because I've read them recently, but because they've influenced my thinking about parenting in a major way. And, I've been thinking about parenting a lot recently, not just because I'm surrounded by children at home, at work, and at church; but also because I've never seen such an epidemic of people wanting babies so desperately but not having a clue what to do with them afterwards.

Here are three of my favorites that deal with three areas of childrearing. If I could, I would hand them to every parent I know, although some of them are obviously more relevant in specific age groups.

1. Education. Nothing quite revolutionized my thinking about homeschooling until I read Susan Schaeffer MacCaulay's For the Children's Sake. Also recommended is everything Charlotte Mason ever wrote and the blog called Ordo Amoris where Cindy Rollins posts regularly.

2. Family life
If Edith Schaeffer were alive today I think I would ask her to come to tea. And then I would take notes! Thankfully, although she is no longer with us, she did leave us her books. What is a Family by Edith Schaeffer is about how I want my family to be. How I want people to feel when they walk in my door, and the atmosphere I want my children to be raised in. Don't mind the dated cover. Buy a copy anyway.

3. Parenting in a digital age
Oh my goodness, every parent needs to know what to do about this. I haven't read anything quite so eye-opening as Talking Back to Facebook by James P. Steyer. When it comes to limiting media, limiting screen time, and not allowing certain things to be watched, this book is a great starting place and it's applicable for all ages. Although it is not written from a Christian viewpoint, yet it is all relevant. This has helped us more than anything to educate our children about digital responsibility. It has helped us set screen limits, limits on social media, and we even used their media contract for Jessie and us to sign before she got her own facebook page. THIS IS IMPORTANT, PARENTS!!

Endnote: If there's a common thread though all of these, and if you're looking for one place to start today, it's this: Turn of your screens and spend time with your children doing something creative, educational, spiritual, or just plain fun. Don't let media raise your children. Eat dinner together today!

I can think but I can't cook... random kid quotes for August

Last night I made supper, which is kind-of out of the ordinary (Tim's the cook). Tim was not feeling well and also came home late, so I thought I would cook chicken and dumplings to surprise him. I can never get the recipe quite right. Either the chicken is tender and the dumplings are tough, or vice versa. Needless to say, the kids were amazed that I was cooking. Apparently they were hesitant about the food quality.

At supper, David prayed, "Lord, please help Daddy get better, and the food, too."

This morning, TJ tried an experiment on me involving math patterns, countries, and animals. It started, "Pick a number from 1 - 5" and involved various steps of multiplication, choosing letters, etc.
Apparently a huge percentage of people guess predictable answers making it easy to work your magic by guessing their answer.

TJ tried it on me twice to no avail. He couldn't guess what I was thinking.

"TJ, you might as well stop," said Jessie. "Mommy just has an irregular mind."

Mommy's brain skills: 1  Mommy's cooking skills: 0

Worldview

"As Christians, we are not only to know the right world view, the world view that tells us the truth of what is, but consciously to act upon that world view so as to influence society in all its parts and facets across the whole spectrum of life, as much as we can to the extent of our individual and collective ability." - Francis Schaeffer, in How Should We Then Live?

My other son is funny too.

Okay, enough about David. I'm sure you want to hear about TJ instead. T.J. is 12, he's a musical genius. He's also very serious about the Bible, so his comedy is not biblical (unlike David). He has a few quirks, though. One of them is this:

Whenever we are preparing to take a long trip by car, the day before we leave, TJ makes a phone call.

He doesn't actually dial anyone, but he does pick up the phone. He then proceeds to have a lengthy, serious conversation with a man called "Dan".

Remember, TJ is TWELVE YEARS OLD. And he's serious about these phone calls. He makes them before EVERY TRIP. It doesn't matter who is listening. Sometimes we're in the room, sometimes we're in another room (usually laughing so hard we have to stuff pillows in our faces). He picks up the phone, and paces around the kitchen while he talks.

The conversation goes something like this:

"Hello, Dan?

Hey man. Yes, I'd like to reserve a seat please.

[slight pause]

I'd like the back seat, driver's side.

[pause]

Yes. yes. Okay, thanks. That would be great.

7:30 in the morning, yes.

Okay.

Do you need my credit card number?

Oh, no charge? That's great, thanks.

7:30 tomorrow, thanks."

He then hangs up the phone, writes "reserved" on a piece of paper, and goes to the van and puts it on his seat. He comes in the house, completely serious, like nothing has really happened. Usually he gets a volley of questions from his brother, sister or parents.

David [8]: "Why do you get to sit wherever you want to?"

TJ: "I made a reservation."

David: "Why can't I sit there?"

TJ: "You didn't make a reservation."

Jessie: "TJ, you can't just call and make a reservation and sit wherever you want to."

TJ: "Yes I can, I have a confirmation number."

Jessie: "Who did you call, really?"

TJ: "I called Dan."

David: "Who is Dan?"

Mommy: "Yeah, who do you call, TJ?"

TJ: "I call the Reservation Service and I talk to Dan."

Tim: "Who is Dan?"

TJ [totally straight-faced]: "I don't know much about him really. I'm not his friend on Facebook or anything. Come to think of it, I don't even know his last name. I just call him to make reservations."

Mom: "Why doesn't he charge? How do you pay him."

TJ: "I pay him with leftover snacks from the van."

Mom: "Let me get this straight. You call Dan the Van Man and he gives you a reservation for a seat and all you pay him with is snacks?"

TJ: "Yep. And whatever you do, don't put this on Facebook."

hee hee hee.

David tells us about King Herod's worms

Once again, David reinterprets the Bible for us during our morning devotions. When should I stop his foolishness? Maybe when he gets older, it won't be so cute?

So, we're reading the story in Acts chapter 12 where Herod is persecuting the church. He has just killed James, put Peter in prison, and now he is about to address the people. David was supposed to narrate the part where Herod gives a great speech, then the people call him a god, he is struck down by an angel, eaten by worms and dies. David says:

D: "Herod does bad things.
He says bad words.
Then the angel struck him down.
And worms ate him. AND THAT IS WHY I KEEP TELLING YOU I'M AFRAID OF WORMS!!"

Me: "It wasn't earthworms. It was probably worms that eat meat, like maggots."

D: "Oh. What are maggots?"

M: "Fly larvae. Go on. What did Herod say that was bad?"

D: "That he was a king?"

M: "He was a king. But he gave a great speech and the people called him more than a king, and it was bad. What did they call him?"

D: "The Pulp?" [Pope]

M: No.

D: "Oh yeah, they said he was a god. And then the worms came out of the ground with guitars and ate him up."

M: "Yes, they said he was a god and he didn't deny it..... wait, I don't remember anything about guitars."

D: "Did I say guitars? I meant they came up out of the ground holding little knives and forks."

M: Okay. David, what lesson can we learn from this story?"

D: "When people say you are a god, you should tell them you are not a god. Stay away from worms. And don't even let two little flies into your house."

Jessie and TJ are snickering. And once again I think, at least they will always remember Acts chapter 12!

Morning Devotions Fail

Okay, so my children are not always the Bible scholars that you think they are. They DO say lots of great stuff, and we DO talk about the Bible a lot, and sometimes their insights blow me away.

Sometimes, like this morning, it just ends up in pure silliness. At the risk of blasphemy, I'll let you in on this morning's Bible time.

We're reading the story of the resurrection and ascension from Luke 24. David's turn came to narrate back to me a portion of the scripture. He choose to "re-tell" the passage about the resurrection.

With a snow hat on his head, he sat politely on the couch, but what came out of his mouth was not what I was expecting:

"So, some people came to the tomb looking for Jesus because they had spices for Him.

When they got inside, they couldn't find Him!

But there was a brilliant light all over the place so they ran back outside to see where the light was coming from! And then they saw an angel and the angel said to them:

"What are YOU doing here? GO AWAY! He's not here, but you can leave a message!"

So they ran back to get their phones, and when they found them they called Jesus and said, "Where are you? We have spices for you!"

[So at this point I'm trying to stop David and get him back on track, but he continues despite my objections, and really really fast he says.....]

"So Jesus went up to heaven and as soon as He gets there He hears the phone ringing and He picks it up and hears, 'JESUS where are you? WE HAVE YOUR SPICES!!"

So Jesus has to come down and get the spices and then go back to Heaven."

..... and I'm sitting there with my mouth open like, "What?"

Sigh.