I was recently trying to decide what to talk about for a devotional at the bridal shower. The bride works for one of my favorite grocery stores. Perhaps you’re fortunate enough to live near one of the 418 Trader Joe’s in the world. I decided to do a little research about this chain of stores. For several years Trader Joe’s has ranked first or second as consumers’ favorite grocery store. (Who wouldn’t […]
Read More →Category: Positive character building
Too Fast.
Do you have little children — you know, those charming, unpredictable, exhausting little ones that always lead people to say, “Oh, they grow up so fast. Enjoy these days while you can”? I remember sweet white-haired ladies and elderly gentlemen saying those sorts of things to me while our six young children and I all marched through grocery stores or poured one-by-one out of the van. Those comments were so […]
Read More →Little Weeds
I’ve been catching up on weeding in the garden the last couple evenings. The garden’s a nice place to be, even if I am bent over picking little weeds out from between even littler seedlings. The hum of the traffic on the highway provides a backdrop for the birds singing, the neighbor’s tractor mowing, and our dog begging to get out of his kennel so he can trample over all […]
Read More →Advice for homeschool graduates
‘Tis the season to celebrate graduations. Young people from your friends and relatives, and maybe even one of your own children, are advancing from one phase of education on to the next exciting season of their lives. Much advice could be given to young people launching on a new phase of life, but here are three key practices that will get them off to a strong start as adults. It’s […]
Read More →Helping Our Children See God’s Love
“We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) If we want our children to love God, one of the most important things we can do is to help them understand how much He loves them. Try this little project to help you teach your children about God’s love: Ask your children to point out every evidence of God’s love that they notice throughout the day. They may need […]
Read More →Leading Our Children to God
Part of my husband’s and my courtship consisted of sitting on tiny chairs in the children’s section of a bookstore, reading pictures books to each other. We were homeschool curriculum junkies before we even had children. We went to a homeschool convention when I was expecting our first child. So we were pretty hyped about schooling our own children. When we had the opportunity, we asked a friend who was […]
Read More →On Training the Will of the Child
Post by Daniel Forster I love the feel and smell of old books. I’m in the middle of reading one right now. It has a plain brown cloth cover, with small gold letters on the spine: THE CHILDREN FOR CHRIST ———— ANDREW MURRAY Inside the cover, there’s a note from 1952, when my great great grandfather gave the book to his youngest daughter. There’s another note from 2006 when my […]
Read More →When One Member Suffers . . .
“If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Cor. 12:26). When one of our little ones stubs his toe, his whole body hurts along with that toe. If a child has a sliver in his foot, his entire body suffers. So it’s not hard to help our children understand how much we all hurt when we see our brothers and sisters in Christ hurting. […]
Read More →Bedtime.
Bedtime. It can be a challenge. About the time you think you have them all settled for the night, a just-potty-trained toddler has to go! The little guy in the crib starts calling for a “bah”, a spider calls across the wall, or a little girl is suddenly desperate for a drink — and then desperate for the bathroom thirty minutes later. Is there a way to simplify the bedtime ordeal? I […]
Read More →Teaching Tools for Good Friday
Tomorrow is Good Friday, the day we remember Christ’s death on the cross. Tomorrow is another opportunity to remind our children again of the gospel. Here are a few ideas for the day: Spend part of the day reading aloud the account of Jesus’s betrayal, trial, scourging, and crucifixion. Perhaps you could read different portions at breakfast, lunch, nap times, dinner, and bedtime. Start at Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke […]
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