Everyone Agrees - Seize the Day! - Teaching Tuesdays

All the experts -secular and Christian- agree that we need to seize the days when our children are young.  "Children's lifelong morals and values are determined at an early age." (Most say before the age of 6.) This quote is the main focus on the homepage of a secular site for online stories that teaches morals. The stories are great for entertaining little ones and teaching very basic morals at the same time. Go to myyoungchild.org for more info.

The older your kids get, the less influence you have over them. Quit making excuses! Make the moments count! Mold your wet cement! These moments are fleeting! I think you get the point. You don't have to make some grand detailed curriculumn to teach your kids character. It can be as simple as explaining to them why you do what you do while you are doing it, celebrating the holidays from a Christian perspective, or reading them a story with a Christian message or moral before bedtime.
Now, let us all go and seize the day! 

Time is Running Out! -Wise Wednesdays



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      Sometimes we are tempted to simply distract and entertain our very young children, thinking that we are simply supposed to love on them and help them survive until they can understand deeper concepts and really start learning. A Mother's Heart: A Look at Values, Vision, and Character for Christian Mothers by Jean Fleming not only reminds me that training in the early years are crucial to the developement of our child's worldview, but also gives insight and info about ways we can impress important biblical qualities in our little bundles of wet cement.
"A mother's presence throughout infancy and the entire preschool stage is important because more learning takes place in the child's first five years than in any comparable period of life. Experts agree that as much as eighty-five percent of a child's character is developed by age five, and the way a child is raised in the early years accounts for at least twenty points of his IQ." - Jean Fleming

I almost hyperventilated when I read this statement for the first time. Thank goodness Christ is here to give us strength and guidance in this tremendous task of training children. Time is running out to train your child while their cement is still wet. Seize every moment. I would love to hear any input you have about ways to seize every moment, or about how critical the "little years" are.

Critical School Decisions! - Wise Wednesdays

         
          Dr. James Dobson is so full of wisdom about child training.  I wanted to share with you this bit of crucial information to those of you with young children- especially those of you who are making choices about kindergarten. When Dobson was asked, "When is the most critical period in the spiritual training of young children?" He responded with,
          "I believe the fifth year of a child's life is the most critical. Up to that time, he believes in God because his parents tell him it is the thing to do.  At about five or six years of age he comes to a fork in the road... At that point, he may "buy it" and put his feet down onto a more solid foundation - or he may start to doubt it, laying the basis for rejection..."
           Surround those kiddos with people who love Jesus.  My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Hale made Jesus real to me, and then my mom explained the details. Pray over those school decisions. God has directed us to put both my girls are in public school for now, but I thank Jesus for my Christian school teacher Mrs. Hale.