April 21, 2009

Training Up A Child

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

Today I thought it would be a good idea to take a break from the books and do some real life skills training. It's amazing how much we try to "teach" our kids through books, etc. but often they can forget these lessons. Actual "training" can fall by the way-side when life gets busy and we just want to get things done. Don't get me wrong, books are very important. But I often think of all the things I had to learn as an adult that I wish I would have been trained to do as a child.

Today along with a few book related activities for school (Bible study, phonics, handwriting and science reading), we did some practical things. My oldest two girls baked a batch of cookies. That was a great lesson in math as well as planning and cleaning up after yourself. We also began a project of making aprons for the girls. Not only did this include math but also use of what you have (we used scrap fabric), research ( I found the pattern on-line), patience (sewing takes a while, no instant results here) and creativity (choosing and matching fabrics, etc.). Later on we are going to make some meatballs for dinner as well as a bunch to freeze. What better way to teach planning ahead, frugality and cooking?

What kinds of things do you do to train your children? I would love to hear!

2 comments:

vehementflame said...

Yell a lot!! And that's not training!! What a great reminder of what is important! We need to instate a 'no yelling' rule here! We have the great character training charts (based on scripture)from doorposts that we need to remember to use instead of doing the 'easy' method of fussing. you should check out their website doorposts.com.They have really neat stuff. One day a few weeks ago we took a break from the books and cleaned the house top to bottom- my son asked me if we were having 'school' that day- I said this is school! Housecleaning 101! He loved that day so much that he wrote a report aboout it later!

Michele said...

I was so blessed by the doorposts.com vendor at our homeschool convention last year. That is so sweet that your son liked cleaning house so much! That is truly a blessing!