Love. During the month of February, you can find the word on mugs, t-shirts, candy, and even written on your coffee by the local barista. We tell our spouses we love them. We command our children to love others with their words and actions. God tells us He is love. But what is love? Strictly an emotion? A passing feeling? A specific ...
Day to Day
Advice We’ve Learned Along the Way, Part 1
From the moment you find out you're becoming a parent, everyone has a word of advice for you! When well-intentioned and from someone you trust, these words of wisdom have potential to shape and direct the course you take. But if you look to social media or Google for your advice, you’ll be overwhelmed with the results! So, how do we ...
How to Engage Your Child in Meaningful Conversation
As mommas we spend much of our days talking to our kids. We tell them to come to the table, to clean up their toys, get dressed, and so on. There are so many opportunities throughout the day to communicate instructions. But what about conversations? Not the one-sided commands that we have to issue. I’m talking about the times when we get ...
Fun Play Dough Activities
Two weeks ago I shared the Best Play Dough recipe. Did you whip up a quick batch? I hope so as your children, grandchildren, and students will love to manipulate the dough between their fingers. But how else can you use the play dough? I'm glad you asked! Make Snakes and BallsRoll the play dough into thin snakes and various-sized ...
The Best Play Dough Recipe
There is just something about play dough that begs most children and adults to roll and mush it over and over in their hands. Beyond the educational value and the imaginative play, play dough is excellent for fine motor skills. Plus, it is super easy and inexpensive to make at home! And it is a suggested supply in both ...
Unique School Supplies You Need
We all know that preschoolers will use paper, broken crayons, and binders for learning. But what other learning tools should be available for little ones? I'm glad you asked. Daily Use School Supplies After the child has graduated from broken pencils, pencil grips can be accountability partners for little ones who need the extra ...
Summer Tips: Teaching Children to Serve
If I were to take a poll, I would guess that learning to be a servant is not high on most peoples' priority lists! But Jesus said in Matthew 20:26 that if we truly want to be great, we must learn to be a servant of all. Summer provides a great time to teach children to serve. See last week's summer tip on teaching a child to ...
Summer Tips: Teaching a Child to Love
As I shared last week, summer is a time that we focus on character training. I specifically look at issues of the heart based on I Corinthians 13:1-8 that we use to define how we are to love others. Love is Kind “You can always be honest with me!”“That was mean. Don’t ever say that again.” While we want our children to be honest with ...
Summer Tips: Schedule and Learning
Providing a slower schedule, I love the teachable moments summer provides in my parenting journey. It is a time to tighten up things I have let slide during the busyness of the school year and focus on areas that need specific attention. Looking back through the archives, I have pulled together some ideas to share! SUMMER ...
Maximize Your Day
Do you go to bed feeling unaccomplished? I remember when our children were little, Daddy would come home from work and kindly sit in a chair just to listen to me share what I did that day - because it definitely wasn't obvious by looking at the house! I felt like a failure as yet another day passed without noticeable accomplishment. Fast ...