As4Me

Two children both wanted the F-22 cup at breakfast this morning. Since David went to get the cups, I allowed him to choose how to divide them up. I prefer to encourage them to be unselfish, rather than requiring it, since I think it means more when they have a choice. Sometimes I do ask [...]

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This morning, baby (18 months) cried because Bethel picked up the book she had put down. She wanted the book back.
I was faced immediately with the thought that I had to choose what lesson I wanted to teach.

I could have dealt with screaming to get what she wants.
I could have dealt with helping her [...]

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This morning all three children were jumping onto our big beanbag from the stepstool. Laurel has recently learned how to jump, and happily falls into the bag while mom looks away and pretends not to be afraid. Her new skill has caused some tension, though. She’s slow, and it’s hard for the older children to [...]

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Lee grew up with garden tomatoes and has been encouraging a summer garden adventure, so for the last few weeks, we’ve been cultivating some tomato seedlings inside. The other day I came into the kitchen to inspect the plants, and discovered them all missing.
Upon questioning, none of my children have admitted any responsibility. We are [...]

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As I chopped up some onion yesterday, I thought about Bethel. She’s asking if she can continue what she’s doing, when I ask her to obey, instead of telling me, or ignoring me. She’s not bursting into tears when I tell her to do something, most of the time. We still are working on these [...]

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Last night we were driving back from El Paso, where Lee had some training over the weekend. There’s a border patrol stop on the way home, and the children were fascinated by the dogs that were walking by each car that stopped.
We explained that they were looking for drugs. We had to explain what “drugs” [...]

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Last week one Pastor gave an alert that a curriculum his church uses omits the Easter Story, the crucifixion and the resurrection. The authors gave two reasons; the first was that the Easter story is too violent for preschoolers. We talked about this objection on Friday. The second objection was that preschoolers don’t understand death [...]

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(An interruption to the normal blogging train of thought, since I want to remember.)
A few weeks ago, I started playing and singing songs about the cross and the resurrection. I was a little worried, because all the children seemed to know about Easter was bunnies and egg hunts. It’s hard not to get excited when [...]

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Authors of a Sunday school curriculum explained recently why they were omitting the Crucifixion and Resurrection from their preschool curriculum. They made this choice for two reasons: first, that the crucifixion is too violent for preschoolers, and second, preschoolers are unable to grasp what it means to die and be raised again.
Apart from the emotional [...]

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Yesterday while I was reading to the children, Bethel (age 3) was climbing on the beanbag behind me and stepping (actually jumping) on my hair. I told her to stop jumping on the beanbag, and started to finish the page I was reading, when I felt her jumping again.
She was disciplined, and was told that [...]

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