Educating Our Children

We have had our four children in Christian school, public school, and home school.  We started home schooling when the youngest began kindergarten and the oldest started 10th grade.    They all went on to college; three have bachelor degrees; one has an associate of arts degree and is presently working on a bachelor degree.

Recently, someone who is starting to home school in the fall, asked about socialization when you home school.  This is the number one question people ask when the subject of home schooling comes up.  My answer is that socialization is not always a positive thing.  What about the negative behaviors that children pick up from one another?

When you home school, you have more control over who your children  socialize with. We always enjoyed having friends over to our house. While still having them socialized, we could monitor any negative socialization going on and deal with it immediately before a bad behavior took root.   Sunday School and other church activities provided the majority of our children’s socialization. There were also extracurricular activities such as ball, dance, etc.

Whether we home school, use public school, or send them to Christian school, our responsibility as parents is still to teach our children as we go:

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (NKJV)
And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. [7] You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. [8] You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. [9] You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Make every situation a teaching moment with your children!!

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We Have this Moment as Mom to Make a Memory

I can’t believe our little girl has graduated college.  Where did the last 22 yrs go. For that matter the last 32 years since God first made me a mom.

Deuteronomy 6 says we are to teach our children “at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again.”   This indicates that we are to spend much time with our children.  Don’t waste one moment with them  because they don’t stop growing while we are busy doing other things.

I am so thankful for all the tea parties, for bedtime prayers and tucking in, for snuggle times we had, books we read and Bible stories we talked about.

I am thankful for all the tents we made inside with sheets and the huts we built outside, for nerf wars and sock wars.

I am thankful for the picnics and the lazy summer days swinging together as we pretended to take some sunglasses to the sun.

I am thankful for the pretending with dolls and GI Joes, for the hours watching Mister Rogers and eating peanut butter sandwiches.

I am thankful for all the masking tape we put on the floor making Dawsville, and for all the messes with flour, and playing snake pit or avalanche with all the pillows.

I am thankful for the Daws family Christmas traditions, the birthday celebrations, the popcorn and movie nights, the playdough devotions.

I am thankful for the Disney trips, the camping trips, and the walks in the park and in the neighborhood.

I am thankful for fun times with all our varied animals through the years. (frogs, newts, gerbils, iguanas, snakes, fish, bunnies, ferrets, turtles, dogs, and cats)

I am thankful for the hours of homeschooling and even the struggles with math, for the time making costumes for Halloween or Christmas plays or just because we wanted to play civil war or Star Trek in the backyard and really dress the part.

You know, I don’t have a very impressive resume.  I have not spent the last 32 years teaching at a major university, or meeting with heads of state, or making major business deals.  I don’t have awards or degrees on my wall, but I have 32 years of making memories with my children,  and  nothing I could have been doing with the prime of my life could have ever been more important or rewarding than this!!

Thank you, God, for  calling me to the most important and awesome  profession in the world
– being Jenny’s, Jon’s, Jer’s, and Josh’s Mom!

Building Memories
By Sandra D. Romans

So much to do – I have no time
To listen now, I say,
And hurry back to the chores
That always fill my day.

No time to listen? A small voice
Seemed to whisper in my ear…
Soon your little ones will be gone
And you’ll wish to hold them near.

I left my broom – the chores undone
And found them under the apple tree.
I held them close and listened while
They shared their love and we built a memory.

“Your children love you, they want to play with you. How long do you think that lasts? . . .  We have a few special years with our children, when they’re the ones that want us around. After that you’re going to be running after them for a bit of attention. It’s so fast . . . It’s a few years Peter and it’s over. And you are not being careful. And you are missing it.”  from Hook

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY

Galatians 6:9 (NLT)
So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.

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Following God’s Dream

I was reading a book to my two year old class this week about a rooster who wanted to see the world, so he set out one morning on his adventure.  As he went along, he met other animals and invited them to join him.  When the sun went down they got hungry, cold,  and sleepy.   Then they all began to, one by one,  go back home.

Having just said goodbye to my son who left for his adventure, I liked the fact that they all decided to go back home . . . that sounded good to me.  But at the end of the story, all the rooster did when he got home was eat a good meal of grain and go to sleep and only dream about a trip around the world.

God has a “dream” for each of us – “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”  (Jeremiah 29:11) We need to encourage our children that even though they might get hungry, cold, sleepy, or whatever, they should still follow the dream God has for them.  This might not be pleasant for us as parents.  But as my brother-in-law once said as his daughter was moving to another country to work with a missionary, “I would rather have her in the center of God’s will in a foreign country than here at home out of God’s will.”

I have decided I don’t want my children just dreaming about their adventure in life like the rooster in the story.  I want them living it to the fullest even if that means they are not at home.  I want them following the passions that God has uniquely placed within each of them, even if it is sometimes difficult for them . . . and for me. (Someone may need to remind me I said this in the days ahead!)

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God’s Grace is Sufficient

Two weeks ago another one of our children left home.  He moved 2300 miles away!!  Now Billy nor I have ever been the type of parent who couldn’t wait for the children to get out of the house and be on their own.  I started dreading the empty nest the day our oldest, Josh, was born.  I have thoroughly enjoyed every single minute with my children.  So as we drove out to California with Jer, enjoying God’s beautiful world, we were dreading the goodbye scene at the airport at the end of the week.

As the children were growing up I would think about the time in the future that they would leave home and I would burst into tears;  I didn’t have the grace at that point to deal with their leaving because I didn’t need grace for that then.  But God is always just on time and He has proved that once again in my life, for as I  have needed to deal with this separation,  He has poured out His grace to enable me to do so.    Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)


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Teaching Honesty

Honesty is “being careful of what you say and do so others can trust you”.  As usual God is our example.  Many times in Scripture God says, “I have said it; I will perform it.”  Hebrews 10:23 says “Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.”

We are encouraged throughout Scripture to be honest:

Proverbs 11:1  The Lord hates cheating, but he delights in honesty.
2 Chron. 18:15  … say nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord
Ephes. 4:15  …speaking the truth in love…

In teaching our children honesty, we must be an example to them.  Always do what you say you will do.  If you make a promise, keep it; and never make a threat in disciplining that you can not follow through with if they disobey (example: I will throw you out the window if you scream one more time)  Children need the security of knowing they can trust Mom and Dad.  A child’s healthy relationship with his parents paves the way for a healthy relationship with God.  We are God’s representative to them and need to show them they can trust us and Him.

Tell your children stories of men and women in history who told the truth and those that didn’t and suffered the consequences.  Here are a few book or website suggestions:

Who Can Trust You, Kangaroo? (Sweet Pickles Series)
Abe’s Honest Words: The Life of Abraham Lincoln
The Son Who Said He Wouldn’t (Arch Books)
George Washington and the Cherry Tree

The following is a song with signing about honesty:

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