Children or Kids

Kid: 1. A young goat.(Webster's Unabridged Dictionary - 1879)

Kids! They are such a blessing. They each have their own little personality, right from birth. They experience life in their younger years with such "wide-eyed wonder". And oh how they can cause us to experience such a wide range of emotions! But most importantly, we want them to learn the ways of God, to be happy, healthy, and of course, we always want nothing but the best that we can offer for them. Do you feel this way about kids?

When we become parents, I believe that we learn fairly quickly that our children will imitate just about anything -- and everything -- that we do. So as parents we learn the true value of being a role model, an example, for our children. We can even see this occur in the overall attitudes that children develop. It doesn't take too much thinking to be able to look around us today and see how this generation of "me, Me, ME!" has come about. So as true Christian mothers, we want to present Every Single Aspect of our lives to our children in which they see the Lord -- FIRST.
So here is something I would like to share, that for some of you, may be even a bit of a "shock" -- Do you know that Satanists call children "kids" for their sacrifices? They do this because Satan is identified with a goat. Do you recall the following verses of Scripture?
"When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:"(Matthew 25:31-34)
"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:"(Matthew 25:41)
So our Lord is going to separate the sheep from the goats. As God's children, He says that we are His sheep and He is our Shepherd...we are NOT His "goats". So I have often wondered, why in the world do people today insist upon calling their children, "kids"? And who would want us to do such a thing? Who would want us to identify our innocent children with young goats -- "kids"?

I would like to share something with you that our 10 year old daughter said about two years ago: "I don't want to be a goat! I want to be a sheep!! I'm a lamb, one of God's children and I'm NOT a 'kid'!!" She said this to us in reference to someone who called her a "kid". We study God's word with our children regularly, and they remember what they have read in their Holy Bibles -- and the various topics we speak of on a daily basis. So when an adult talks about "kids", our daughter is polite and does not say anything, but has told us that she says to herself, "Well, I know I'm a lamb, not a kid."


Did you ever notice...no where in God's word are children ever called -- "kids"?!


My precious visitor, which would you want running around in your house?



A house full of "kids"...
Or children?

10 Homeschooling Tips

1) Keep everything as simple as you can. Jesus wrote with a stick in the dirt, and He was the greatest teacher that ever lived. He used no curriculum or flannel graphs or lesson plans. Homeschooling can be made far more complicated than it should be. A simpler approach is much more effective.

2) Stick to the 3 R's. They form the foundation of life-long learning in every field because they are the tools of study. There will be no need to formalize any other subject if the children are doing their best in these 3, because people who are well grounded in reading, writing and math will approach other subjects boldly, independently and confidently.

3) Let the children teach themselves as much as they are able to. This teaches them responsibility, intellectual independence, and builds confidence. It's also better for the parent/child relationship because you can focus on parenting instead of playing schoolteacher.

4) Use the most direct method available. For reading, read. Forwriting, write, for math, do it, and for Bible, read it. Don't fall for catchy curriculums or methods that are really just something else for you and your child to learn.

5) Don't worry about your child's age or grade. Just let him do the best he can each day. Children grow intellectually like they do physically: in spurts. Although we may have an audience of skeptical relatives, homeschooling is not a circus, and we refuse to train our children to do tricks for people.

6) Minimize distractions in the home. Watch for excessiveness in entertainments, snacking, outings, phone conversations, internet and computer time, and the like. These sorts of things can easily get out of hand and compete with the effectiveness of a homeschool and sap the family of time and energy.

7) Seek quality over quantity. A few tapes of great music, a small case of carefully chosen books, a few special play mates, and an occasional outing is better than a large, but poor quality collection.

8) If you must document your school activities, do it after the fact. This way you will not make promises you cannot keep. If you are required to make lesson plans, be as vague as permissible. Don't let transcripts, diplomas, records and tests determine your academic plans. Focus on learning and the rest will follow.

9) Put the needs of your youngest, most vulnerable children first. If an older child gets a little behind in school, I'm sure you can forgive yourself, and catching up and regaining ground is not impossible, and simply is a part of life, and that in itself will be a valuable skill taught to them! But if something happened to the toddler while you were busy homeschooling, or if you'd missed precious nurturing moments for those who need attention the most at the moment, it's harder, if not impossible to regain those things!

10) Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul and don't neglect to seek him early...giving him the first fruits o fyour day and teach your children to do the same. I know that you are tired and that there aren't enough hours in your day, but we serve aGod who can make the sun stand still.

Schooling year round

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Schooling during the summer is going to be no easy feat. Rebecca asked me why everyone gets to take the summer off except her. We did last year and it took atleast a month to catch her back up to where she needed to be. It's a waste of time. So, this summer, both girls will do some school work each day that we are home.
Monday, they went to Magnificent Monday at church. It's like VBS in one day. The theme for this month was clown. They had a blast. The theme for next month will be baseball and I believe that we will be going to a game at the Diamond. Too cool! I haven't heard what they are doing in Aug. yet. We also have Neighborhood Bible Time all next week.
Both Rebecca and Emily, who wants to be called Emi, did almost a days worth of seatwork before gymnastics. Emily, who could do school all day long, was fine. After I explained to Bec the benefits of schooling through the summer, she was ok with it.
Tuesday, we went to the movies and saw Charlotte's Web with Dakota Fanning. I hadn't seen that one yet and it was cute. Of course Emily got bored 2/3rd of the way in but that's normal. She needs to keep her mind hopping. Again, after lunch, they both did their work. Rebecca finished what was left over from Monday and did all of Tues. lessons as well.
Yesterday, we stayed home and kind of bummed around. Both girls were done school by 1:15, did some cleaning and then Emi and I took a nap while Bec did her favorite thing, watched Scooby Doo.
Right now, Emi is playing with Brysen and Rebecca is doing a Scooby adding/ subtracting book from the Dollar Tree. She started it last night and is almost done with it.
I'll have to post an update on what they are learning at a later date. It's amazing how much their little brains soak up.

Our Mini Vacation

This weekend, we went to Virginia Beach to be a part of Laurel Johnson and Matt Szymczak's wedding. We went to Busch Gardens for a few hours before we made our way east to the water. Before the rehersal, we went to another park for the cookout and fun. The girls enjoyed the equipment. Jay and I enjoyed playing horse shoes. Here is a photo of us at First Landing State Park on the walk way out to the beach. This was taken on Fri. night before the rehersal.

Saturday, we had some free time after setting up for the reception. The pool at the hotel was freezing so we went to the beach to let the girls experience it. As you can see, they were a bit hesitant at first. They soon got over it and got wet. Jay and I didn't get in so they couldn't go too far in but that was ok with them. They'll have a blast when we go on a cruise in 2008!




Rebecca was buried to her thighs. Do you think she was worried about the sand crabs getting her?


















Ah... Here they are walking down the "aisle" for the wedding. Aren't they just the cutest? Rebecca is becoming a pro at being a flowergirl. This is her third time and Emily's second.

Yeah! They did it! They got hitched! It was a beautiful yet simple wedding.


I didn't get any pictures of the reception but it was very nice. The food was great and it was nice to spend time with Jay's uncles, aunts and extended family.

Kids on the Internet

My kids love going to the Web, and they keep track of their passwords by writing them on Post-it notes.
The other day I noticed that their Disney password was "GoofyMickeyMinniePluto" and I asked them why it was so long.
"Because, " my son explained, "they said it had to have at least four characters."

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