Teaching Children Faith

I've been thinking about my decision making and how much or how little faith plays into it. I wonder if I show the behavior I want and expect them to exhibit as adults. I wonder if I talk about the internal dialog and prayer in my head, just enough to show them the underlying things that happen prior to making a decision. They are young yet, but I know they watch what I do (or don't do) more than what I say.

 

photo credit: jemasmith

Here are some more thoughts about faith.

Teaching Children Faith :: BeyondWordsDesigns
beyondwordsdesigns.com

"Do you want to know what used to keep me up at night? The one thing that would consume me with its gravity? Its a little thing that I like to call ~ Faith. How do I teach my children about it? We are commissioned by God to ..."

Teaching Children Practical Prayer: Helping Kids Value Real Faith ...
suite101.com

"Teaching children how to pray in real life situations reinforces the importance of prayer. Practical prayer can be used as a tool for spiritual growth for children."

Flathead Mama: Great tool for teaching kids about faith!
flatheadmama.blogspot.com

"Great tool for teaching kids about faith! As Burrito and I have worked on our at-home preschool curriculum in the last few months, we have had a Bible verse memorization song each week. Some of the songs have just been ..."

The Purposeful Mom: Four Ideas for Teaching Scripture to Your Baby or Toddler 

"Teaching Scripture to your children is a huge part of raising your little ones in a Christian home. When we hide God's Word in our hearts, it accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent! {Isaiah 55}"

The first point in this article directly addresses my questions. Live your life as a great example of what you expect in your children.

Raising Godly Children: Evangelizing Your Children

"Evangelizing children consists not simply of verbalizing the gospel with one’s mouth, but also of exemplifying it in one’s life. "

I'll continue to think about how I can explain faith even more in our day to day life. What ideas do you have?

You Don't Want a Picky Eater?

If you are the mother of a young child (or many young children), are you concerned that he or she is going to grow up to be a picky eater? Some kids are picky as toddlers; others become picky later. But there are things you can do to minimize the picky phase of your child's life, whenever or if ever it occurs. Here are some tips and ideas.

 

photo credit: Rooey202

Breastfeed

Recent studies have shown that babies who are breastfed longer than six months are less likely to be picky eaters. And if your older baby is picky about his or her solid food, breastfeeding well into the solid food years can help make up for any nutritional deficiencies that could result from the pickiness.

Real food
There's a party game that's sometimes held at baby showers where guests sample baby foods without the benefit of labels. Guests then try to determine what the baby food is made of. The game is challenging, because the jarred baby foods all taste basically the same - bland! Whether they're orange, green, yellow or white, it's very hard to tell just what the food is.

It doesn't take much imagination to see how this could ruin a baby's taste for real food. Once they start trying new foods that aren't in jars and are hit with all that flavor, it's no wonder they refuse the food!

Many experts and nutritionists recommend giving babies small, softened portions of regular food, as long as it is not too highly seasoned with spices and as long as it is not one of the common allergens. Soft fruits can easily be mashed for babies, and soft foods like avocado can be finger foods. As babies get older, they can be introduced to softened, mashed versions of whatever the adults are eating at a meal.

Keep a positive attitude and listen
Most experts agree that mealtimes should not be battles, and food should not be a source of tension or control. Punishing a child for not eating everything on his or her plate is not recommended (in this day of rampant obesity, do we really want to promote over-eating?).

Young children are attuned to their bodies' needs perhaps better than adults, who may have all kinds of emotional and psychological hang-ups about eating. If your child says he or she is full, it's not recommended that you force them to keep eating. Focus on teaching your child to listen to his or her body's cues. Many adults have to re-learn this to keep fit, so why not try to make your child's future a bit easier in this regard?

What do you do to grow a good eater?

Training Your Children Early

Sometimes, it's hard as a mother, to be consistent when training our children. I find that it's harder for me personally to follow through when I'm tired. However, I know it's an important part of my job and I know I need to stay on top of it. 


Here are some insightful comments from a 19th century magazine.

photo credit: Peter Heilmann

There is no such thing as an entirely good or an entirely bad man or woman in the world. In all there is a mixture of both good and evil, which is partly the result of natural instincts and partly of training

People often talk as if children were naturally good, which I believe to be utter nonsense. They are innocent and pure, for when they start in life they have had no opportunity to be otherwise, but all the same there is latent in their hearts the germs of both good and evil. 


Now it is the mother's part to help her child to cultivate the good and to root out the evil, and this is best done by careful discipline and training in its first ten years of life; after that the task is harder.

The old saying that “the child is the father to the man” is most true. The faults that the man has now, and which lead him to forgery, drunkenness, and revolting cruelty are the result of the growth of little faults of the child. I can imagine the foolish mother of such a man saying years ago when she found him stealing lumps of sugar, or teasing a cat or dog, "He won't do it when he is a little older," and, therefore, leaving him without rebuke or punishment.

Now the mother of such a son, if she possesses a conscience at all, cannot help saying to herself that she herself is to a large extent responsible for her son's evil deeds, for had she disciplined him in his childhood those qualities which have now borne such bitter fruit might have been nipped in the bud.

Instilling Independent Thought in Children

A habit of independent thought and action should be encouraged in children from quite early times, and when we are in the holiday season and lesson-books are set aside for the time being, the training of the moral character may be attended to by the parents themselves. Encourage children to take the initiative in their games; let the elder ones help the younger ones in constructing plans of sand castles, fortifications, rivers, etc., and impart to them such knowledge as they may have acquired of woodcraft, the names of birds, flowers, and trees.

Let the elder children have a certain amount of responsibility in looking after the younger ones, and while, of course, you keep an eye upon them to see that no serious mischief is got into, do not let them know that you are observing them, but quietly watch the action of one towards the other.

Never keep a boy " tied to his mother's apron strings." Allow him to gain quickness, and self-confidence by sparring, wrestling, and rough and tumble play with companions of his own age, as long as the little fights are not-allowed to develop evil tempers and malice. Make your boys firm and self-reliant if you can, for true courage is one of the best of all possessions. A timid man may be afraid to do what he knows is right, and may not dare to do his duty if beset by dangers and difficulties.

Adapted from a 19th Century magazine

8 Ways to Make Chores More Fun

Here are 8 surefire ways to change up the boring cleaning routine. It helps to vary the motivation to learn and do your chores well. (This sometimes applies to mom as well as to the children.)

* Make a sticker chart. Have the children pick out their favorite stickers and only use them for the chart.

* Use a rewards system, each chore= X amount of points and XY amount of points = getting to do Z. Come up with different rewards with varying amount of points. You can make the rules more complicated and allow points to banked from week to week. Or, you can keep it simpler and use the points at the end of each week.

* 15 minute dash, set the timer and see who gets the most done in 15 minutes

* Make it a challenge “I bet I can get this done before you. If you beat me I’ll make spaghetti for dinner (or other favorite dinner).

* Offer up a small allowance, money is a motivator even for kids

* Trade chore time for computer/video game/whatever time in equal amounts - 1 hour of completing chores = 1 hour of video games this week  (This can work for mom's computer time as well.)

* Make a duel scavenger hunt / cleaning chore list ~ clean this and find this, clean here and find that, clean over here and find this. 

* Do the fling.  Put a basket in the middle of the room and fling all the toys into it, or use the trash bin and fling all the trash into it, depending on what your clean goal is.

Learning to do your chores well and cheerfully is an important part of growing up. The chores one must do never go away and in fact continue to increase with age, but that doesn't mean it has to be a negative thing.

What do you do in your home to make chores more fun?