Inside the Mind of a 7 yr. Old Boy

Take a good look at this face.

This is the boy who has told me on more than one occasion, with a grin on his face and a twinkle in his eye, "Mom, I like to give you trouble!" 

There is something about boys that is so mischievous and fun.  The thing about boys is that you never know what they're thinking or what they are going to say or do.

Let me give you a few examples from the past week.

During a school lesson Breck asked, "Mom, how do we know that God created the world?"  This child NEVER asks easy questions. 

"Well, to start with you have to understand that everything in life has a beginning.  God is the only One who had no beginning.  So the world had to have a beginning."

"That's not true, Mom."  "A fence that goes in a circle has no beginning or ending."

At which point I picked him up and threw him out the window!

I decided one day this week to have a "kindness contest" to see which one of the children could be the kindest to each other, with the winner receiving a prize at the end of the day.  They both did admirably well and I was impressed.  But toward evening Breck came to me with his head drooping and said to me with a big sigh, "Mom, being kind is haaaard!"  He had managed to get through the day with only hitting his sister on the head with a shoe one time.  

We were studying in history about how pretty much the entire world thought that the end of the world would be 1000 AD.  (which by the way, if you're keeping track, didn't happen)  This brought on a discussion of the end of the world and how it really would end.  I told them the Bible says that the world will someday be burned with fire and God will make us a new Heaven and earth.

Fast forward to that evening:

Autumn comes in crying because her older brother with his newly-acquired information about the end of the world has informed her that God is going to burn her alive with the world, which as you can imagine, did not go over too well with her!! 

It is a pretty normal occurance for me and Leland to share a hug and kiss when he returns home from work.  I imagine this is pretty normal for many households.  Breck has watched us do this since he was born, but last night when he walked into the kitchen and found us hugging, he ran down the hallway yelling, "Autumn, do you want to see something dis.gust.ing?????  Mom and Dad are hugging!!" 

I guess we've reached that age.  Sometime soon I expect to hear him say that he won't sit by his sister at the dinner table because she has cooties!

Boys are a handful trying delightful!  They definitely keep things interesting, and I suspect they make God smile just a bit.

"School is Boring!" said the 5-yr. old

Autumn turned 5 years old this summer, thus ushering her into the school age world.  A week ago I asked her if she was excited about starting school this year.  "No," she said.  I was shocked!  How could she not be excited about that?  I thought all kids were excited about starting school for the first time.


"Why aren't you excited about starting school?" I asked.

"School is boring," was her answer.

Now I'm in a mental sweat.  As an avid homeschool Mom, I am adamant that school should NOT be boring.  School may be exciting, fun, challenging, even hard, but NEVER boring!!  So I calmly collect my emotions and cried, "How can you think school is boring when you've never even been to school yet??!!!"  Ok.  So I wasn't so calm. 

"I've heard the other kids talk," she said in a very bored, grown-up way, "and they all say its boring." 

I heaved a sigh of relief-that's all, not some deep-seated inhibition against school! 

"Well, you wait and see, school is fun and you're going to love it!"

Fast-forward to last night after our first day of school.  I'm sitting on her bed as she prepares to go to sleep.  "So, what did you think of your first day of school?" I asked. 

"It was fun!" she said, beaming.

Then, "You were right!"

My big school-girl!

Life's Lessons- Willingly or Unwillingly

My blog has been strangely silent the last few months, but trust me- I have VERY good reasons.  Our life went from cruising along at a somewhat moderate pace (as moderately as you can get with three kids) to a neck-breaking fast pace.  I won't try to catalogue everything that has happened since May as the post would be too long and too dull and boring for any of you to read.  Instead I'll share some things that I have learned over the past few months (willingly or unwillingly!)

About Weddings:

1. Planning a wedding is harder and takes more time than you think.
2. If you plan a wedding, you must be very flexible-because anything can change at the last moment: for instance an out-door wedding can suddenly become an in-door wedding, leaving you with 2 hr. to get everything ready for rehearsal!
3. I will never plan another wedding. No.  Not even under Chinese torture!

About Lightning:

1. Children should not play outside in the rain.
2. If you have to go out in the rain, try not to go into an open, unprotected field, walk around in water and hold up an umbrella like a lightning rod.
3. God is more powerful than lightning!
(If at this point you have no idea what I'm talking about, google "four children struck by lightning" and you'll soon see what I'm talking about.  If you go to Youtube you will probably find a video with Leland in it...his day in the sun) :)

About Flying:

1. If you wish to prevent your children from crying and making a scene, don't forget the gum! (I am validated as my kids were not the only ones crying)
2. Flying is boring for children, or so I was told many times!
3. Flying is not for pregnant women.
4. If a pregnant woman has to fly, she should NOT sit in the very last row where she feels every sway, bump and air turbulent!

About Camps:

1. Song Evangelism is hard work!!
2. After 40 services in a row your kids will hate church, as I overheard one emphatic little girl put it.
3. Nausea, vomiting, migraine headaches and dehydration are a bad combination-especially if you're the song evangelist.
4. Collapsing on the platform is undignified, unladylike and ungraceful and should be avoided if possible.
5. I will never give my kids pedialite.  Leland made me drink the stuff.  *sigh* Yes, I complied.   WELL! He's bigger than I am!!
6. If you notice scratches and lacerations on your child's stomach, it might be because they jumped out  a tabernacle window.
7. Camp food can actually be good, especially if you're in the state of Washington where they serve you thick, fresh salmon steaks!
8. "There's no place like home, Auntie Em."

About God:

1. God is not hindered by or worried about my weaknesses.
2. God is bigger than I think he is and is able to do more for me than I think. 

Lastly:

One grin and hug from a 15 month old who had to stay with Grandma and Grandpa is worth a fortune!!

Ok. Enough already!  (His Mommy really missed him.)

Don't Give Your Kids Twaddle!!!!! Part 2 (Textbooks or Books?)

I can't talk about the issue of twaddle without talking about textbooks.  People, some of the worst twaddle is found in the textbooks we give our children to read.  (Please stay with me, I don't mean to offend anyone.)  Textbooks are among the least interesting and literary pieces of writing available.  Textbooks are filled with facts, places, names and dates-not interesting, literary writing.

One of the problems with using textbooks is that textbooks don't inspire.  The point of education is not to cram all the information possible into a child's heads in twelve years and then hope that they will remember it all.  Twelve years is a relatively short time of their lives and it is impossible for them to learn everything there is to learn.  The point of education is to foster a LOVE for learning, a LOVE for reading.  If my child is inspired in his reading he will love reading and love learning and that will last a lifetime.  Think about most of the textbooks you used in school...did they captivate your imagination, thrill you and make you want to read more, or did they bore you to tears?  If you would not want to read it, why give it to your child to read?  Instead, give your child a thrilling book and he will devour it.

We learn best from stories.  Humans have selective memory, which is why you can remember vividly a scene from when you were four years old but can't remember what you had for dinner last night.  Hey, I'm lucky to remember what I had for lunch today!  Why do we remember some things and not others?  It all has to do with emotion.  We remember things that impact us emotionally.  What happened to you when you were four impacted you emotionally and your dinner last night didn't.  Its that simple.  That is why the use of stories and good books in learning is SOOOOO important.  Children will NOT remember boring facts. They will, however remember a good story, and in remembering the story they will remember the facts that went along with it.

Jesus taught this way.  I am in no way a Bible scholar, but I think it was pretty rare for Jesus to teach anything without telling a story.  In hearing the story his listeners made an emotional connection and through that remembered the teaching.  That is why preachers use illustrations while they are preaching.  They know that unless the audience connects emotionally with their sermon, the likelyhood of them remembering it all the way out to their cars is pretty slim.

Let me give you an example.  Breck loves our Geography time.  Its not because he has an obsession with maps or even because I'm a great geography teacher, truth be told, I'm rather poor at geography.  He loves it because of the BOOK we are using.  The book, "Paddle to the Sea" by Holling C. Holling, is the story of a Canadian Indian boy who carves out of a piece of wood a canoe with an Indian in it.  He names the canoe "Paddle to the Sea" and sets it on top of the snow-covered mountain so that as the snow melts it will carry Paddle to the river and from there to the Great Lakes and on out to the Sea.  As you read the adventures of Paddle not only do you learn about all the geography surrounding the Great Lakes, but you also learn about logging, how saw mills work, the coast guard and how they help to rescue people from ship wrecks, the Soo Locks, how it works and why it was built, freighter ships, forest fires, tides, winter on the Great Lakes and soooo much more.  Its Geography Plus and its written in an interesting and literary manner.  And Breck LOVES it!  He has made an emotional connection with the little canoe and will remember the facts as he remembers the story.  What a great way to learn!!

So tell me, which way would YOU rather learn?

Don't Give Your Kids Twaddle!!!!! Part 1

People may say that Dog is man's best friend, but they are wrong.  Books are man's best friend.  There is nothing better to do on a cold day than to curl up in a chair with a hot cup of tea and a good, worn book... ahhhh, bliss.

I can hardly begin to state the importance of books in our lives.  Books mold our thought processes.  From the earliest years, through fairy tales we learn of good versus evil; we learn about morality: right and wrong.  We form our opinions and beliefs.

Books also teach us how to read, write and speak and therefore are (or should be) the foundation of a child's education.  I can not underemphasis the importance of choosing the right books to give our children to read.

I am not just talking about getting books that are morally correct.  I'm talking about something that Charlotte Mason called "twaddle."   An outdated word, to be sure, but give the lady a break, she lived over 100 yr. ago!   Twaddle is simple language, incomplete sentences, unimaginative writing, "UNLITERARY" writing..... you get the idea.  We've all seen this type of writing.  The library is full of such books.  That's why its important to be selective.

Here is an example from a reading book I had picked up for Breck and had not checked over carefully:

"Rushing down the highway, rolling down the road. Truck Stop."


What was that?  That's not a sentence.  Breck was totally confused.  He could tell that  "rushing down the highway, rolling down the road" was not a complete thought.  Needless to say, we will not be finishing the book.


On the other hand, here is an example of good literary writing by Rudyard Kipling.  This is taken from the beginning of one chapter from his book, "Just So Stories."

"Once upon a most early time was a Neolithic man.  He was not a Jute or an Angle, or even a Dravidian, which he might well have been, Best Beloved, but never mind why.  He was a Primitive, and he lived cavily in a Cave, and he wore very few clothes, and he couldn't read and he couldn't write and he didn't want to, and except when he was hungry he was quite happy.  His name was Tegumai Bopsulai, and that means, 'Man-who-does-not-put-his-foot-forward-in-a-hurry'; but we, O Best Beloved, will call him Tegumai, for short.  And his wife's name was Teshumai Tewindrow, and that means, 'Lady-who-asks-a-very-many-questions'; but we, O best Beloved, will call her Teshumai, for short.  And his little girl-daughter's name was Taffimai Metallumai, and that means, 'Small-person-without-any-manners-who-ought-to-be-spanked'; but I"m going to call her Taffy  And she was Tegumai Bopsulai's Best Beloved and her own Mummy's Best Beloved, and she was not spanked half as much as was good for her; and they were all three very happy."

That's good writing.

All I'm saying is think about what you give your children to feast their minds upon.  What you read is what you become and for what you will develop an appetite.  I regularly read books to my children that are hard for them to understand.  Sometimes I have to stop every sentence or two to explain what is happening or explain new words that they don't understand.  THAT'S OKAY!  They are learning.  Their minds are being challenged and are expanding with new understanding every day.

There is one more reason for not allowing a constant diet of fluffy material, and that is because the main reason we teach our children to read is so they can read the greatest literary masterpiece ever written-the Bible.  How can children be expected to grow up and read the Bible consistently, revere it, love it, and at least somewhat understand it if they have been fed twaddle all their lives.  I'm afraid I've been around far too many Christians who stumbled around trying to read a passage from the Bible.  The Bible is a difficult book to read, so we better be preparing our children.


Something to think about.

Try A Little Tenderness

In honor of Valentine's Day here is one of my all-time favorite love songs.  I have so many that its hard to say which on is my favorite, so this is ONE of my favorites.  This song just gets me every time I hear it.  I become a pile of mush every time.  And Michael Buble is just....well, pretty awesome.

Oh, and if you're interested in seeing him up close and personal you can get a front row ticket at Conseco Field House this summer for only $1,700.00  That's just a tad over my budget, so I'll have to watch on youtube.

Happy Valentine's Day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68yM87fcktE&feature=related

Mattise, Van Gogh or Picasso?

I believe that every child can learn to draw.  Its just like learning to read, sure it might come easier for some than for others, but they can all be taught.  I am constantly amazed at the creativity and artistic abilities of children.  All they need is a little guidance

Here are some pictures that my kids have drawn in art class this year (all but one are Breck's).  Breck says that he either wants to be a carpet-installer like his Dad or an artist when he grows up.  I think he has a good start on the artist.

The first two pictures are flowers in a vase.

The next picture is of his favorite hero...Larry Boy.

Space.

A Boy's Face.

Autumn saw her big brother drawing a face and decided she should draw one too.  Autumn loves color...LOTS of color.  I absolutely love this picture.  It really has quite a lot of emotion in it.

I swear it looks as good as some stuff that I've seen in art galleries!  Do we still have child labor laws?

JOKE, people, a joke!