I don’t
know about you, but it seems to me that it is very difficult to provide enough
spiritual integration in our family life.
We are in a situation that we never thought we would face (but which is
quotidian for most people): our kids are going to public school. You see, we had really planned on being a homeschooling family. My wife’s parents homeschooled all five of
their kids all the way through, whereas my parents turned to homeschooling
after running into a principal who proudly informed them that he would not
allow my older brother to skip a grade in certain subjects.
We even started homeschooling and enjoyed it
amidst the chaos of fundraising for our current work. My bride taught our oldest two kids to read
by the time they were six (as in, reading a couple hundred pages a month these
days at 7 and 8) and got our third on the same track before we made the move to
Europe. Then, reality struck. The Wife and I needed to enroll in full-time
language programs. Our homeschooling
adventure was, it seemed, at an end.
Four of our kids are now enrolled in the public school system, and #5 is
in a Christian nursery during the day.
Except,
homeschooling never ends. For any
parent. You are always homeschooling,
whether you call it that or not! I
volunteer as much as I possibly can at the school. Twice a month I volunteer at the library (la bibliothèque), which is a great way to be with
my kids, work on my French, meet new people, and keep four boys there in line
that otherwise love to look up every nude drawing that they can find in the
library and then attempt to bump into whatever girl happens to be hanging
around. Seriously. More on such challenges later.
I go on
field trips (skiing next week!), and try to make the PTA meetings. My wife and I read through homework and
endless notebooks that serve different purposes in a language that we barely
function in, and God faithfully sees us through every day. But I feel a sense of loss. I liked
homeschooling, dangit! I enjoyed doing
flash cards to learn the timeline of the Bible and how it fit into the global
timeline of history. I enjoyed noodling
on the piano with my kids and showing them what I do for work as a video
editor. I still miss it, six months
later.
So, here we
are. As I type this on a school night,
tired out after a couple of hours of conjugating words and according past participles,
I’m listening to some choice Beatles tracks and thinking of what we are doing
that seems to be working. I thought that if I shared a couple
resources, maybe some of you might find something useful in this mess and maybe
give me your ideas, too. Therefore, in
no particular order, here are some of the things that we are doing to bring the
presence and knowledge of Jesus into our kids’ lives.
Prayer:
Really, can
I do anything else but start with this?
If you’re not praying for your kids, I hate to say it, but you do not
love them 100%. *Cue sound of RSS feeds
being unsubscribed* Still here? Okay.
What I mean by that is that God is the only one who loves a child more
than their own…He also knows their past, present, future and purpose better than
those parents. It is the height of
lunacy for me, as a fallible and feeble human being, to reject His offer to
take them under His care. /endsoapbox
Useful
books:
The Bible
We use this
often, but we do so in many different ways.
Even though AWANA doesn’t exist here, my mother-in-law is an AWANA
leader, so our kids say their verses to her over Skype. We also play a tabletop roleplaying game of
my concoction (yes, it is set in a Christianized Star Wars universe, so sue
me!) that has conversation options that include Scripture that the kids need to
have memorized to be able to unlock the story tangents. We are geeks for Jesus in the Shires
household. The Bible frequently comes up
during meals, and we try to ensure that each of the children has their own in a
version that they can more or less understand.
With that, I would also recommend…
I picked
these up at a conference a couple years ago to help the kids learn French, but
you can get them in English. They’re
great! The artwork is action-packed when
it needs to be and poignant in other instances.
Unlike other such projects, this one tackles theological passages as
well as narrative ones, often weaving the two together to provide context for
the children. Which, if nothing else,
gives us the opportunity to discuss with our children why context is so
important in understanding Scripture.
This
follow-up to Dr. and Mrs. Dobson’s Nightlight:
A Devotional for Couples is a great way to focus on how parenting is going
at the end of the day. The daily
readings aren’t too long, and the questions (unlike in some other devotional
books) are practical and engaging.
As I
alluded to earlier, gone are the days of elementary innocence. I was not trying to shock my dear readers in
mentioning the physically and conversationally inappropriate acts that I’m
encountering in public schools; in fact I (yet again) had to break up such an
instance today! And this is with seven and eight year olds! Pray for the students in school, and pray for
their parents, who have no doubt contributed to
this behavior in the environment they’ve created at home. And put on your big boy/girl pants and face
the fact that just because you want
the topic of sex to not come up until Junior is 15, that this is no longer a
safe assumption…and probably hasn’t been in your lifetime. Also, pick up FamilyLife’s The Story of Me series and gently,
purely, and wonderfully introduce your kids to what it means to be made in
God’s image.
Useful
tools:
I don’t
have a lot to put here at the moment, but in the past, we have enjoyed using
the Veritas packets. We went light on
the book because it was third graders (we don’t have any yet) but the CD and
the timeline cards are great for teaching kids Biblical and secular history at the
same time.
Useful
apps:
Okay, I
have a few for my iPhone; mileage may vary with Android. They are:
Saint-A-Day: We’re not Catholics, but we do believe that
God’s story didn’t end with the book of Acts and then restart with the
Reformation (oh, I went there), so we enjoy reading stories about men, women,
and children that have given their lives to serve God and share Jesus with the
world. This app is extremely readable
and understandable for our children, and we just leave theological things that
we don’t agree with out (such as praying to saints). For Protestant “saints”, we have…
We read
this a little each week. I have to
pretty heavily censor some details, but I try to make it clear how-and more
importantly, why-these believers met
their death victoriously. It’s always a
sobering read, but I think it’s important for getting your kids to not equate
serving Jesus with a comfortable middle-class life and retirement. Just make sure to read it a bit and judge
whether your kids are ready for it yet!
It’s available for free.
Somewhat
like a digital version of Veritas’ history cards, this app allows you to start
a multiplayer game at various difficulty levels (easy is plenty for our kids
right now). A card pops up with an event
and you have to compare it to a card in your “timeline” and decide whether it
occurred before or after the event on the timeline. If you’re right, the card gets added to your
timeline and you get a point. If you’re
wrong, you get a strike and your opponent gets to try to add it to their
timeline…which has different events on it.
This goes until someone either gets enough points or too many strikes
and the game ends. The first several
rounds are rough depending on how much history your kids know, but they start
to catch on as they persist.
Media:
If you’re
already familiar with Focus on the Family’s children’s program, then move
along, but if you’ve never heard of it, BOY OH BOY are you in for a treat! This radio series has been going for almost
30 years and has hundreds of incredible episodes that follow the adventures of
Whit, Connie, Eugene and dozens of other characters, good and evil, as they
learn lessons (or don’t!) about God, the Bible, and faith in the real
world. Squeaky-clean, although every now
and then they warn you that an episode is for 12 and up, it’s not just fun for
kids, it’s really engaging for adults as well!
Catch it online for free!
Another
great Focus dramatic offering, you can catch it on their website to. Listen to dramatizations such as the complete
Chronicles of Narnia, Oliver Twist, The Screwtape Letters, The
Hiding Place, Father Gilbert
Mysteries, and many more for free online or order the discs and support a
ministry that has brought talented and often famous actors together to teach
Godly lessons through performance radio.
Another
FotF ministry, Plugged In provides media reviews for movies, music, and games that
break the content down into sections like: spiritual content, sexual content,
positive content, etc. I don’t always
agree with some of the conclusions (Gladiator is the best R-rated movie ever
made, as I’m sure you would agree), but I’ve also never watch a Plugged
In-approved movie only to find that the review had misled me, and that’s saying
something these days!
Well,
that’s it for now! We have some other
items (board games, music, etc.) that I’ll add in another post sometime, but
this might be enough to get ya started!
What about you? How are you
bringing Jesus into your home in different ways? Let me know!
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