by Donna | Jul 8, 2011
“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” Deuteronomy 6:7
We are about to move out of the “when you rise up” portion of our Deuteronomy verses about teaching our kids God’s Word and ways all the time….but I want to leave you with a few more links about the morning before we do.
I have always loved our morning schedules. Not because they were so regimented or so early–but because everybody always knew what to expect. I like to say that for twenty-eight years, we have done nearly the exact same thing for the first two hours of every weekday–year round. There is something comforting (and less chaos producing) to know what the schedule or routine will be.
I guarantee instant improvement in your day when you look at the first block of time of each day and get it how you want it. (No, the time will not always be the same; the exact order might change a bit (devos then breakfast; chores then devos…)…but the framework will be in place for a successful day.
1. Doing most important chores first: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2011/01/daily-habit-7-do-most-important-chores.html
2. The day starts the night before–two posts beginning here: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/08/day-224-organizationpersonal.html
3. A few morning routine posts start here: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/01/day-eighteen-develop-morning-routines.html
For more on morning organization, devotions, etc., go to blogspot, go to the index, and look under organization, schedules, devotions, faith teaching…
by Donna | Jun 27, 2011
How is your summer going? Feeling like you are not meeting the goals you set out with a couple of weeks ago? Everything going smoothly?
One of the best things that we have done in the summertime is utilize the lessened school schedule and more down time to teach chores thoroughly, start new routines, etc. If you are one of “those kinds” of moms and are interested in getting started on chores, etc., read on!
Last year I did literally weeks of chore posts. I will give those to you gradually over this week to help you see how you can set up chore schedules, what age appropriate chores are, and more. Stay tuned–and invite your friends! 🙂
1. We’ll start with whose job is the housework–this should get moms thinking about the immense responsibility it is to keep up a household–and the sheer reality that very few women have that much “extra time” to do all of the work themselves–
https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/04/day-one-hundred-three-choreswhose-job.html
2. Thinking of getting a new chore schedule going in your home? Check out this link about factors to consider in creating chore schedules in your home: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/04/day-one-hundred-four-factors-that.html
3. And then two posts of general chore tips:
a. https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/04/day-one-hundred-five-chore-tips.html
b. https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/04/day-one-hundred-six-chorestips-for.html
Happy choring! And believe me when I say that chores are not just for getting things done around the home–they have helped make our adult children the amazing, productive, accomplished people that they are today! 🙂
by Donna | Jun 19, 2011
“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” Deuteronomy 6:7
In our last post, we described our morning (and after nap) times with our toddlers. TodayMy B I will give you links to some of our favorite early children’s books/Bibles. See our blog at https://www.positiveparenting3-6-5blogspot.com/ for more reviews of resouces to use to teach your children the Bible and character!
“My Bible Friends” https://www.kidenergy.com/14-002.html
“Leading Little Ones to God” https://www.sonlight.com/BB01.html
“The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes” https://www.moodypublishers.com/pub_productDetail.aspx?id=41823&pid=53160
“Bible Time Nursery Rhyme” https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Time-Nursery-Rhyme-Book/dp/089081404X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306172724&sr=1-1
“Christian Mother Goose” https://www.christianmothergoose.com/
“My First Hymnal’ https://www.rainbowchristianstore.com/product.asp?sku=0634056727
“The Beginner’s Bible” https://beginnersbible.com/
“The Early Reader’s Bible” https://www.christianbook.com/the-early-readers-bible-revised/v-beers/9780310701392/pd/07062
by Donna | Jun 15, 2011
“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” Deuteronomy 6:7
When our babies got to be about six months old or so—and then throughout their toddlerhood—we seldom rocked them to sleep. If the baby was still nursing, I would nurse, rock, sing, oftentimes read, etc. then frequently put the baby in bed awake. (It should be noted that this was after a gentle introduction to the world with frequent nursings and close physical contact for the first few months.) When the baby was being weaned, the first feeding to go was often the afternoon nursing—and it was replaced with the baby’s own special story and song time.
While we seldom rocked our babies to sleep after six months or so, they were almost always gotten out of bed following naps and in the mornings with “rockies and reading.” This post is falling under “when you rise up,” but could also fall under “when you sit in your house” (after baby’s nap). “Rockies and reading” time is an opportunity to do many amazing things in parenting of these little ones: (1) Help them start their day or late afternoon/evening cheerfully; (2) Give them a little bonding time of their own (when other siblings do not need or “get” Mommy; (3) Start their Bible teaching, read aloud times, and love for learning at an early age; (4) Build memories that will warm your heart when your three youngest children are eighteen, sixteen, and twelve (!).
We had two baskets for our babies: the baby toy basket and the baby book basket (more on that in “character training” through chores in the morning later on). The baby book basket held cardboard, cloth, and plastic coated books for Baby. Several of these were Bible story books, and I read from these every day for as long as Baby would sit there and look at them with me, rocked, sang songs, did rhymes, and bonded when I got the toddler out of bed in the mornings or after naps. Our toddlers never missed being rocked to sleep with “rockies and readings” a couple of times a day! Smile…
Tomorrow: links for some of my favorite “early Bible books” for toddlers.
by Donna | Jun 15, 2011
Sorry it took me a while to come back to this. I have had some other things that I wanted to get up too. So much to say, so little time to say it! Smile…
Anyway, I first want to give you a link to a freebie offered by Graham Family Ministries to help you in creating summer goals/summer fun lists/charts for your kids. It is simple to go into the document and make it whatever fits your needs—reading goals, fun activities goals, summer school workbook goals, household goals—use it in whatever way helps you!
Editable Summer Time Chart: https://www.school4jesus.com/summertime-fun-chart-freebie
Then I will leave you with a short list of the literally hundreds of goals that we had for our Summer School Goals through the years…so many good memories. So grateful for the wonderful years I have had with my kids!!!
Note: Each goal had a certain number of boxes with it—and each time that goal was done one time, a box was filled in with a sticker. The kids could choose each day what to work on—but to help them see the big picture, I had how many hours total each goal would take to complete it the number of times allotted—and how many total “sessions” each one would take (i.e. if child was supposed to read ten 20 chapter chapter books, that would be 100 goals of 2 chapters at a time, etc.).
1. Read a chapter (or two) out of a chapter book.
2. Read a Bob Book aloud to brother or sister.
3. Cook a new recipe from scratch.
4. Organize one shelf of the living room bookcase.
5. Trip to the library.
6. 15 mins jumping on the tramp.
7. 10 laps of swimming at the pool.
8. 2 pages in summer skills book
9. 30 mins of craft activity
10. Organize a closet with Mom for 30 minutes.
11. Weed garden for 20 mins.
12. 1 Geosafar card at 90% accuracy.
13. 2 math drill pages
14. 1 game of chess with Dad
15. Reading Bible aloud to Mom—1 chapter each
16. Read a picture book to a little
17. Listen to talking book for 30 mins
18. Color one page in educational coloring book
19. 60 mins of sewing outfits for American Girl Dolls
20. 60 mins of Lego play
P.S. Technically, this blog post could have fallen much later in the year under Responsibility or Diligence or Industriousness or Organization–these types of activities have helped my kids learn so many valuable character qualities and skills!
by Donna | Jun 9, 2011
This will be the final installment of the links from last year about helping your child with reading during the summer. I pray that you and your son or daughter have an amazing summer building those reading skills and making memories!
Introducing readability levels: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/06/day-175-summertime-beginning-reading.html
Readability levels—I of IV: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/06/day-176-summertime-beginning-reading.html
Reading with your “already-reading” child to build fluency and keep skills fresh: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/07/day-188-summertimereading-with-your.html
“What” to read with your child this summer: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/07/day-189-summertimewhat-to-read-with.html
