Prince Charming

Warning - this post may contain opinions which are not very popular. Today, we like to think of girls and boys being equal. That girls are as strong and tough as boys and that there is no difference between the sexes, and I believe that's not true. Okay, I admit that girls sometime have to be tougher than boys and that my little girl is willing to not only touch a tarantula but hold one (the boys were cowering 10 feet away), but in the end, we women want a protector. Not only a protector but a headship, a leader. God set this in motion when the world began. In Genesis 2:18 it says, "The the Lord God said, "It is not good for for the man to be alone; I will make a helper suitable for him." then God proceeded to make Eve. Did you catch what God said? The women was to be the helper, not the leader. ( I know, I struggle with this too - I'm mouthy and by personality a dominant) So as parents, it is our job not only to model this relationship but to teach both our girls and boys their responsibilities in this. ( I am not getting into a discussion of submitting to the extreme, I am talking about a stable relationship with Godly men and women.)

When Caileigh and Collin were two, they both were very interested in Princesses and Knights so we gave Caileigh, Princess dresses and bought the boys swords, shields and all the Knightly gear. During the course of play, we told our boys that they were to be the protector of the Princesses in their life. They must protect them from dragons and evil men and anything else that might harm them. They must have manners like Knights and open doors for ladies, to step first into danger, and to escort the Princess to ensure her safety. For Caileigh, ( who is like me, and questions obedience and submission) , we stressed that Princesses must never use tears to get her way and that she needs to listen to the trusted Knights in her life because they may know of danger that she's not aware of and that she needs to allow those trusted Knights the privilege of protecting her from harm, Daddy, of course, being the most important Knight and Protector. This sort of play has also led to manners lessons and talk of being ladies and gentlemen. My boys at 8 and 4 1/2 open doors for ladies, both members of their family and perfect strangers, which always gets noticed as being exemplary and have several offers of marriage from parents of young girls. I am going to be bold and encourage you train your boys and girls in a similar way, their future marriage may be much smoother for it.

Categories: parenting

Home Schooling Works!

Our son, Connor, took his first set of standardized tests this year as per Colorado law, which says that students starting in third grade and every other year after should be tested. As a home schooling Mom, this was a bit stressful. We knew that Connor was bright and we thought we had taught him what he needed to know but the question of how well he would do still nagged at the back of my mind. Connor, being a bit of a perfectionist, always stressed at tests and lost his self-control, so at the beginning of this school year, I began testing him daily on everything so that he would get more used to testing and lose his fear. On the days of the testing, he handled it beautifully, even though he was in a strange enviornment and surronded by 20 other kids who were also testing for the first time and very nervous. I was proud of how self-controlled he remained through out the two days. ( Yes, self-control hands even worked in this situation to help him focus on something concrete.)

We received the results back yesterday and they were even better that I had anticipated in my best case scenarios ( yes, I thought about best and worst case scenarios - after all I felt like I was being tested as well.). Connor scored higher than even the national homeschool average.

Here's a quote from one study:

In 1997, a study of 5,402 homeschool students from 1,657 families was released. It was entitled, "Strengths of Their Own: Home Schoolers Across America." The study demonstrated that homeschoolers, on the average, out-performed their counterparts in the public schools by 30 to 37 percentile points in all subjects. A significant finding when analyzing the data for 8th graders was the evidence that homeschoolers who are homeschooled two or more years score substantially higher than students who have been homeschooled one year or less. The new homeschoolers were scoring on the average in the 59th percentile compared to students homeschooled the last two or more years who scored between 86th and 92nd percentile.

All this to say that if you have not given home schooling a consideration in your educational choices for your children than perhaps you should. I know that there are other options other than home schooling but make sure you consider all the pros and cons carefully. For more information check out www.hslda.org or in Colorado www.chec.org.

Categories: parenting