In this post for the opinion pages of the New York Times, Meredith F. Small argues that instead of overloading small children with school work, we should be giving them age appropriate tasks that contribute to the household economy and help them to master life skills. I like it :)
Thanks to Althouse for the link.
When I was a little boy we would sometimes meet my father in the CBD after work, and he would take us to Haddons Bookshop which specialised in children’s books. A couple of years ago we started our own family tradition which was very similar: every now and then on a Saturday morning we would head into town, go to Borders for a coffee and then a wander around. Each child would be allowed to choose a book.
Last Saturday was the last hurrah for this family tradition, which will (hopefully) be remembered by at least some of the older children. Borders is closing down. Yes, even the big bookstores in Australia are now closing. The trend which was depicted in this terrible movie has now come to an end, as a decline in reading and the shift to e-books seems to be taking a toll.
By way of consolation, we had Yum Cha after visiting Borders for the last time, and then managed to find a few absolute bargains in the State Library’s bookstore:
The kids books are all 50c at this bookstore and a lot of them are in almost mint condition, apart from the library stickers, etc.
Steve
In this post, Kevin DeYoung provides a great defintion of parenting, from Andrew Ferguson:
You fulfill yourself by denying yourself, preparing the people you can’t live without to live without you.
Oh, and did I mention that there is a funny picture too?
Steve
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2011/05/28/a-good-definition-of-parenting/
Have you checked out the Doorposts blog yet? We are keen on their materials and this post about dealing with quarrels will give you a great excuse to head over there and have a look. This type of training is time-consuming but I feel that it will bear fruit in the long run.
Steve
http://www.doorposts.com/blog/2011/05/24/dealing-with-quarrels/
In the post below, Abigail speaks about the joys and challenges of being hospitable with small children at home, and provides 8 insights to keep in mind. I particularly liked the one about expecting everything to go wrong, because it will :)
Steve
http://abigailsleftovers.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/hospitality-and-small-children/
This is a wonderful book written to encourage young women to live their lives with purity and integrity. Each chapter begins with an ongoing story of a fairytale princess and her longing to meet her own prince charming which makes it a particularly enjoyable book to read. I found it be a very thorough book covering the basics of guarding your heart, respecting parents, reserving yourself for one and more - but it maintains a lovely innocence, so I felt quite happy allowing our eldest daughter (almost 12) to read it all. I really appreciated the author’s detail in explaining how God expects a young lady to guard her mind and encourages her to consider a life purpose bigger than marriage.
A 9 year old’s definition of a pay phone:
“One of those places where you call numbers”
