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The post July Wondering Wednesday Schedule appeared first on Character Ink.

Today we answer reader’s questions about how to create a love for learning in your home! This audio presentation is actually one that we did as a keynote address this spring in British Columbia, so I’ll let the description from the program speak for itself!

Don’t forget to contact us with questions that you would like to see answered!

“Ray and Donna Reish draw on their thirty years of home schooling-and developing a love for learning in their seven children—to help home school parents see how they can have children who love learning and enjoy home schooling. They include information on the importance of beginning early in developing a love for learning (as opposed to a disdain for multiple workbooks at a young age); the influence of free time and frivolities on love for learning; the value of reading aloud; building comprehension to build enjoyment of learning; how hands on learning encourages a love for learning; modeling love for learning; creating learning memories; the fun and value of family learning times; how to develop a home school lifestyle; the effects of peers on love for learning; developing study skills; spiritual training at various times; teaching multiple children and multiple learning styles; and much more.”

Download the podcast notes here.

Listen to previous podcasts here.

 
Links:

When You Want Mamas to Feel Great

Two Things to Teach Kids When They See an Emergency

[Series] 52 Weeks of Talking to Our Kids

[Podcast] 30 Tips from 30 Years
 

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The post [Podcast] Creating a Love for Learning appeared first on Character Ink.

Subscribe to our Wondering Wednesday episodes on iTunes and YouTube!

Have a question you are wondering about for a future Wondering Wednesday?  Email Donna here.

Not signed up for our Freebie Fridays?  You can do that here! 🙂

Subscribe in iTunes and on YouTube!

The post June’s Wondering Wednesdays & Freebie Fridays appeared first on Character Ink.

Ray and Donna Reish, of Character Ink Press and Raising Kids With Character Parenting Seminar, bring you their Top 30 Tips From 30 Years of Homeschooling. They delve into areas of prioritizing, character training, heart training, housework, little kids, school, and time management. Speaking from their hearts, they love to help parents in general, and homeschoolers specifically, be successful in their parenting.

Download the podcast notes here.

Listen to previous podcasts here.

The post [Podcast] 30 Tips from 30 Years of Homeschooling appeared first on Character Ink.

Welcome to another episode of Wondering Wednesday! We have been recording our Kelowna, BC convention sessions for you for upcoming Wondering Wednesday sessions, but we are swamped with preparations, so we will have those for you in coming weeks!

In the meantime, spring is the perfect time to start collecting activities, toys, and books for room time with your littles, so this week’s WW is a re-run of the podcast about Room Time.

 

 
Here are the details:

“Donna Reish, writer, speaker, and teacher at Character Ink Press and Raising Kids With Character blog and seminar, brings this Wondering Wednesday podcast about utilizing room time with toddlers and preschoolers. In this episode, Donna describes the benefits of room time, how to begin this daily, potential problems and solutions, and ideas for activities to use for room time. She also explains the importance of utilizing this opportunity to increase focusing skills, Independence, creativity, resourcefulness, and attentiveness.”

Love me some littles! Teach them to obey and be content—and you will enjoy this age so much more!

Love and hope,
Donna

Download the podcast notes here.

Listen to previous podcasts here.

The post [Podcast Rerun] Room Time With Toddlers & Preschoolers appeared first on Character Ink.

Welcome to another Wondering Wednesday podcast episode! In this audio presentation, Donna Reish (of Character Ink Press and Raising Kids With Character) answers questions about faith and character training for young children. Donna begins with the Five W’s and One H of Character Training, reminding parents that we must first have it in our hearts before we can give it to our children. She then delves into laying some foundations with toddlers. Finally, she talks about the four places and times that Deuteronomy tells us to teach our kids God’s Word and ways: when you rise up; when you sit in your house; when you walk by the way; and when you lie down. She gives examples and activities for each time period—focusing on getting to our children’s hearts with unconditional love, intentionality, prioritizing, and selflessness.

Click here to download the printable handout.

Subscribe to our Wondering Wednesday podcasts in iTunes.

 
Click here to see our previous podcasts!

The post Podcast: Faith and Character Building for Littles appeared first on Character Ink.

Make your home a center—a center for learning, a center for growing up together, a center for spiritual formation, a center for relationship building, a center for caring—and your kids will know that you want to spend time with them. There is nothing that can stop a child who knew his parents loved to be with him!

EARLY YEARS

1. Malachi time/Daddy tuck in—the beginning of a long tradition of availability to our children
2. Who has their shoes on/never go alone! Smile
3. Little snatches of time—kitchen time,
4. Date night

MIDDLE YEARS and UP

1. Continue Malachi time (be careful of squeakiest wheels!)
2. Dinner time
3. Terrific Tuesday/Wonderful Wednesday/Super Saturday! (Note: Invest in olders for trickle down effect!)
4. Family meetings/living room time (three or four evenings at home together each week?)
5. Twalks
6. Half birthdays
7. Bible talks
8. Drive time
9. Penny for your thoughts; a nickel for a hug; and a dime if you tell me that you love me—and other object lessons
10. “My Day”
11. Drive time to activities
12. Consistent/frequent traditions

TEENS and YOUNG ADULTS

1. Who’s available on their cell phone?
2. Texting
3. FB Messaging/emailing
4. Driving practice
5. Half birthdays and other special dates
6. When you “sit” in your house (Deut 5)
7. Hanging out (emphasizing availability)
8. The way to our teens’ hearts—through their stomachs Smile
9. Vacations and Staycations
10. Watching and listening (videos and audios)

AVAILABILITY

Your secret parenting weapon! Make yourself available. Change YOUR schedule. Drop the busy-ness. Add the heart-focused parenting that is needed to raise tweens and teens well.

MY DAY Notes

(1) Special focus—I tried to praise, affirm, spend more time with, tie heart strings more, etc. for that child on that day—without the child actually knowing it!

(2) Sitting in the front seat if we went anywhere (Because we only went places one or two days a week during the day during the week when my older children were little, we had to alternate whose day it was each week because otherwise, for example, the Monday or Tuesday child would seldom get to sit in the front seat since we seldom went anywhere early in the week.)

(3) Sitting closest to Mom during morning read aloud and afternoon story time

(4) Saying the prayer during breakfast and lunch

(5) Getting to choose two stories instead of one at story time (and getting their stories read first and last)

(6) Getting to have a longer talk time (Malachi time) with Dad that night before bed

(7) Helping Mom cook dinner that day (before they could cook meals entirely by themselves)

(8) Doing an extra job from the job jar

(9) Taking a morning or afternoon “twalk” (talk and walk) with Mom

Links

Podcasts:

• Ten Tips for Staying Close During Intense Parenting Times
• Teens: The Recipe for Rebellion and Ingredients for Intimacy

Blog Posts:

• Four Things Teens and Young Adults Need
• Teaching Children to Ask Questions
• The One Parenting Practice That Changes Everything
• A is for Affirmation

Listen to the podcast here!

The post Podcast Notes for “Ways To Spend More Time With Your Kids” appeared first on Character Ink.

Donna Reish, Character Ink Press author of fifty language arts/writing curriculum books and co-author/presenter of Raising Kids With Character parenting seminar (and blog), presents suggestions on how to spend more time with your kids in the upcoming year. On this Wondering Wednesday podcast episode, Donna answers parents questions about how to squeeze in more “kid time” in the midst of busy-ness, how to make each child feel special in large families, and more. Drawing on thirty-three years of parenting experience of seven children (ages seventeen to thirty-three) in a family in which both Mom and Dad have spent countless hours building strong relationships with their kids, Donna brings insights on this topic from very young to young adults.

Download the podcast notes here.

Listen to previous podcasts here.

The post Podcast: Ways to Spend More Time With Your Kids appeared first on Character Ink.

The post January Podcast Schedule appeared first on Character Ink.

Have you subscribed to our weekly newsletters yet?!  Here’s a peek at what you’ve missed! You can get weekly newsletters delivered to your inbox by signing up here 🙂

I was recently asked what my “educational expectations” would be with a five year old. Now, this fall marks our thirtieth year of homeschooling. Through the years, we have ebbed and flowed with the trends of homeschooling just like all other long-term homeschoolers. However, there are some things that have always stayed the same for us:

(1) Teach obedience before starting school

(2) Put relationships above academics

(3) Put God first, then marriage, then children, then others

Read More!→

One way that we like to help parents determine whether a child’s behavior is of a serious nature or whether it is simply childishness that needs training, rewards, more training, follow-through, and consequences to solve it is by using the benchmark of the 4D’s.

If you have been to our Raising Kids With Character parenting seminar, you have probably heard us describe the importance of determining which behavior a child is having. This is because the behaviors that we call the 4D’s are heart-oriented and more life-affecting than those that are simply childishness such as irresponsibility, laziness, or messiness.

That is, we take the four D’s behavior more seriously and attack it with more intentionality than we would childish behavior that we can train and teach from area

It will help you to be able to discern between the two types of behaviors if you recognize and memorize the 4D’s…  Read More→

Donna Reish, author of character quality language arts and meaningful composition, answers a couple of readers questions about kindergarten. In this podcast episode, she specifically talks about what types of behaviors parents should expect from a four to six year-old child before starting formal academics and the six most important things to focus on first, including obedience, morning routines, chore times, and informal learning. She describes the optimum learning environment and gives insight as to what to look for in readiness to learn to read.

Join Donna as she describes some of the best years of parenting.  Listen HERE!

Many years ago we were able to go to many homeschooling seminars including the Christian Homeschooling Workshop by Greg Harris. I mentioned before on this blog that we came home from his seminars (basic and advanced) ready to tackle one thing at a  time out of that amazing binder of material.

One of the things that he taught us were the amazing benefits of using delight directed studies. He said that if we would focus some of our studies on things that our children love, things they were delighted in, things they were interested in, they would learn so much more easily and learning would be more fun.

I was all about waiting for readiness in my children so that they would love school. I was all about building a love for learning in our children. And delight directed studies lined up beautifully with those goals.  Read More→

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The post This Week’s Character Ink! Newsletter {July 9, 2015} appeared first on Character Ink.