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Posts from the ‘Kids’ Room’ Category

Sep 10

Adulthood

A notable quirk of my children’s mother (me) is her adamant refusal to accept that any of her children were teenagers. “We never had any teenagers in our home,” she (me) would announce periodically to whoever might be listening. “We had children and we have maturing adults, but no teenagers.” Read more

May 21

It’s Summer Time!

Of course, it’s not summer yet: not for another three weeks or so, but all around the nation schools are winding down and for almost everyone that means SUMMER. . .

. . .the time when the Bobbsey Twins, the Box Car Children, and countless other serial children were able to solve riveting mysteries unencumbered by school. . .when Jim and Scout and Dill tried to make Boo come out.  . .when rural families needed children in the race to adequately prepare to survive yet another winter. . .when city families escaped festering close quarters to bask in country estates and sea air. . .when potted learning is thrust from lecture hall and classroom greenhouse to thrive in outdoor reality. Read more

Apr 20

See the Servings

A child’s world is simple: eating, sleeping, playing. From the child’s view, those simple routines provide the only options for flexing will-muscles.

For the distracted parent, those same simple venues seem to spiral into bewildering battle zones with almost no effort at all: endless food wars, extensive, detailed, rigid ritual-streams that consume hours before bedtime really happens, fearsome tantrums and  time-consuming sophisticated negotiations in return for just a few minutes of “self-directed play.”

We can’t solve all those issues at once, but a coffee scoop can help in at least one area. Read more

Apr 18

Deconstructing Priceless

I have a growing collection of  reviews of parenting memoirs: women (100% so far) who have written about their child rearing experiences. Most are entertaining. All are helpful to some degree or another. They all claim to have been desperate, at wit’s end, or deep in the throes of failure before seeing the stars. Tiger Mom was the exception. She started sure-footed in the stars and gracefully slid into reality.

Stories from those endeavoring to maintain biblical principles all along (married before children, committed to biblical family principles regardless of whether children are in the home, personal lifestyle aligned with spiritual priorities) are neither as common, nor as entertaining. They are, however, priceless gems, when you hear of one. These are not the people writing books, apparently. Today is a blip of encouragement for the slow, steady, consistent process of building an environment where scriptural interest is part of the air, flavors the mealtimes, cuddles in with bedtime stories, leads the way in family activities, and is anonymous in the flashy world of modern parenting. Read more

Apr 16

Camping Out at Home

Here’s an idea for family fun that has connections to cleaning, keeping possessions orderly, and mechanical maids and all the benefits we get from them.

Plan a camp out in your own house. The ground rules are

  • You cannot open any cupboards, drawers, or closets to get what you “forget” to take camping with you.
  • You cannot go to a store for any supplies.
  • You cannot use any electricity or running water.
  • The only convenient thing you can do is flush the toilet!
  • You need to cook outside with a camp stove or a grill. No inside cooking! If you cannot cook outside, then plan cold meals.
  • You need to keep cold items in a cooler with ice.
  • Be prepared to “leave” on your camping trip late in the afternoon. Plan to “return” the next day either before or after supper, depending on how well things are going. Read more
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