Oh, I have many thoughts about this topic. As you read please remember that I'm not a teacher and the thoughts that are here are the conclusions of much thought, prayer and common sense... and some advice from friends and family who are skilled teachers.
Anymore, preschool is absolutely expected. Every teacher friend that have has informed me that kids just go to preschool these days. It's no longer a question of "if" its a question of "when" will you send your child to preschool. This is true for parents that aren't teachers. I say that cause I have friends that are teachers who are just transferring the skills that they would ordinarily use in the classroom into their homes to teach their children and let's face it, those children are probably more prepared than other kids... academically. My sister-in-law and her mother, both teachers, made a point of letting me know that Kindergarten is more like 1st grade. And that kids are expected to learn in preschool the things they used to teach in Kindergarten. I believe it!
Here's my thoughts for my own kids, specifically Andrew since he's preschool aged! Last year, when he was 3 years old, I had him all signed up for preschool, registered and everything. At the last minute, we decided to wait. The main factors in that decision were that we had just had our 3rd child and the cost was pretty crazy expensive. Also, he was just barely potty trained which was a requirement for starting. I was really happy that we waited.
This year, just recently, we received the notice that it was time to enroll him if he was starting this year. Since last year and this year, we discussed that it was probably better to wait until Andrew was 6 years old to start him in Kindergarten. The reason is just because he barely makes the cut off--by less than a month--and we just think it's going to be better if he isn't always the youngest. With that knowledge in mind, it was time for us to consider preschool for this year. Quickly I had a different dilemma. The preschool of our choice has a 3 year old class and a 4 year old/preK class. Enrolling him this year and then waiting another year for Kindergarten would put him in the same class 2 years in a row. I was informed that the preschool uses the same curriculum each year.
Our discussion about the topic and the advice of some valued friends and family, led us to explore other options for this year instead of preschool. I decided that the value of preschool this year would come more in the way of socialization than anything academic. Andrew has shown us that he is pretty bright for his age as he can do many of the things that I understand they teach the first year of preschool. Our search led us to enroll him as a member of the gym that I go to (on my hospital's campus) and allow him to participate in something called Discovery Club. Here they are exposed to many different sports, both team and individual and they instructors develop the appropriate physical and emotional skills for their age group. There is no limit to the days per week that he can attend and the cost is less than half of the cost of preschool. A huge savings!
Our plan is to enroll him in preschool next year to truly prepare him for the school setting. This year I look forward to nurturing the academic skills that he demonstrates (as I am not a skilled teacher). He's quite good on the computer and I plan to use that to his advantage as there are many teaching tools on line and in the form of CD-Rom. Otherwise, I think he will benefit from the things that the Discovery Club has to offer.
If you want to see what Discovery Club is all about check out my link to my work website (Rush Copley--on the sidebar)and then go to the Healthplex link on the site.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
Take Your Kids to Church
Many of you know that recently we made a change in churches. Which by the way, one of the hardest things to do. I have much to say about the church of America, but will save that for a future post. This post is dedicated to my thoughts about bringing children to church.
To be certain, a strength of our previous church was it's children's/youth ministry. In fact, the woman who was responsible for the leadership of this ministry was sought after by a mega church in California, where she eventually felt God was calling her. I think it's difficult for a church to develop a strong children's ministry. Difficult as it may be, I understand that research shows it's also one of the few key elements of a successful church. Of course, that makes sense. If people feel secure leaving their children for an hour or so, they'll keep coming back. Thus, a consistent group of attenders (please recognize that I am not suggesting that just because people keep coming back, that a church is "successful" or even "healthy")
We've recently attended a different church and I have found myself considering the worth of continuing to go to the effort week after week of bringing the kids to church. In the couple of times that we have attended we have been floored at the amount of Spirit-filled worship that we have witnessed as well as the types of messages that have absolutely overflowed with Truth! Forget about dancing around issues or watering down the Gospel for the sake of relatability or outreach. Honestly, Truth is Truth! That has been a huge positive point for us! However, we have had to have both Anna and Alissa in the service with us. Of course, as you can imagine, this does compromise the magnitude of the service overall for us. It has been refreshing that we are not the only ones who have their kids with them.
Okay, that being said, I have been inspired with these thoughts and the following conclusion. I thought back to when Andrew was a baby and the girls were not around yet. I brought Andrew into church during the worship time nearly every week. We were very intentional about this. We really believed in the value of having Andrew grow up seeing how to worship in the Spirit and to grow up experiencing that freedom to worship. As our lives evolved and our family grew it was easy for that value to slip away, but once again, when faced with this dilemma, it was brought into the forefront of my mind. As I sat there trying to keep Anna quiet and Eric was trying to do the same with Alissa, I thought, "Uggh, what's the point of even coming to church if we have to devote ourselves to the kids while we're here?" And quickly, it occurred to me--divinely, I suppose-- that indeed it is important for our children to understand that going to church is a value that we place a lot of importance on. And especially for the girls to witness this kind of Spirit filled worship themselves.
So, my conclusion is this: Of course sometimes it's hard to take your kids to church. And sometimes it's just easier not to do it. I'm not suggesting by any means that anyone should cross over into legalism and never skip church or feel that it is indeed appropriate to stay home occassionally, but I am suggesting that as a general rule, even if it's hard, it's better to instill the value and the discipline of going to church in our children starting at a young age.
To be certain, a strength of our previous church was it's children's/youth ministry. In fact, the woman who was responsible for the leadership of this ministry was sought after by a mega church in California, where she eventually felt God was calling her. I think it's difficult for a church to develop a strong children's ministry. Difficult as it may be, I understand that research shows it's also one of the few key elements of a successful church. Of course, that makes sense. If people feel secure leaving their children for an hour or so, they'll keep coming back. Thus, a consistent group of attenders (please recognize that I am not suggesting that just because people keep coming back, that a church is "successful" or even "healthy")
We've recently attended a different church and I have found myself considering the worth of continuing to go to the effort week after week of bringing the kids to church. In the couple of times that we have attended we have been floored at the amount of Spirit-filled worship that we have witnessed as well as the types of messages that have absolutely overflowed with Truth! Forget about dancing around issues or watering down the Gospel for the sake of relatability or outreach. Honestly, Truth is Truth! That has been a huge positive point for us! However, we have had to have both Anna and Alissa in the service with us. Of course, as you can imagine, this does compromise the magnitude of the service overall for us. It has been refreshing that we are not the only ones who have their kids with them.
Okay, that being said, I have been inspired with these thoughts and the following conclusion. I thought back to when Andrew was a baby and the girls were not around yet. I brought Andrew into church during the worship time nearly every week. We were very intentional about this. We really believed in the value of having Andrew grow up seeing how to worship in the Spirit and to grow up experiencing that freedom to worship. As our lives evolved and our family grew it was easy for that value to slip away, but once again, when faced with this dilemma, it was brought into the forefront of my mind. As I sat there trying to keep Anna quiet and Eric was trying to do the same with Alissa, I thought, "Uggh, what's the point of even coming to church if we have to devote ourselves to the kids while we're here?" And quickly, it occurred to me--divinely, I suppose-- that indeed it is important for our children to understand that going to church is a value that we place a lot of importance on. And especially for the girls to witness this kind of Spirit filled worship themselves.
So, my conclusion is this: Of course sometimes it's hard to take your kids to church. And sometimes it's just easier not to do it. I'm not suggesting by any means that anyone should cross over into legalism and never skip church or feel that it is indeed appropriate to stay home occassionally, but I am suggesting that as a general rule, even if it's hard, it's better to instill the value and the discipline of going to church in our children starting at a young age.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
A weekend Alone
I just returned home from a weekend back in Indiana. Only this time I went without my husband or kids. The purpose of my visit was to help host the baby shower for my sister in law (who, by the way, is so hugely pregnant, I almost hurt just looking at her). It was a great time, though relatively short. I was able to see my family and spend some long over due time with my best friend. All in all, a worth while trip.
I have to admit, that many times, I didn't know what to do with myself without having my kids at my side. I found myself wanting to remind everyone to keep the volume down for sleeping kids (of which there were none). For as nice as it was to have a little freedom, I missed family like crazy. I returned home before noon today, mostly to settle in to watch the Bears game with my hubby. He had prepared some fabulous game day food. It's game time!
It's worth saying that I've had so much in mind that I've wanted to post blogs about and I intend to do so. I have a running list of blogs to post, so stay posted. I think they'll be good ones!
GO BEARS! Kickoff is in 10 minutes!
I have to admit, that many times, I didn't know what to do with myself without having my kids at my side. I found myself wanting to remind everyone to keep the volume down for sleeping kids (of which there were none). For as nice as it was to have a little freedom, I missed family like crazy. I returned home before noon today, mostly to settle in to watch the Bears game with my hubby. He had prepared some fabulous game day food. It's game time!
It's worth saying that I've had so much in mind that I've wanted to post blogs about and I intend to do so. I have a running list of blogs to post, so stay posted. I think they'll be good ones!
GO BEARS! Kickoff is in 10 minutes!
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
After Christmas
So, when we returned home from our holiday travels we knew we were going to have to do some rearranging in order to get all the new toys in the house. It occurred to me, even before Christmas began, that if we never phased toys out as we brought new ones in, our house would literally be taken over with toys. This is the only problem with generosity. A friend of mine shared with me once that her sister's family adopted a tradition at holidays that each child would be charged with choosing a toy that they didn't play with much anymore and they put them together to give to the underprivledged. I think this is such a good idea. This year was the first year that our oldest, Andrew (3 1/2) started to ask why I was moving some things out into the garage or bagging them up. I think as the kids get older I'd like to adopt this practice to promote giving.
Not only did we get on a rampage with minimizing the toys in our house, we are more like on a general rampage of downsizing for the sake of both comfort and aesthetics as we begin to think more seriously about how the house will show to potential buyers. While this prospect is still in the future a bit, we'd like to enjoy the changes we make a little instead of just doing things to sell the house. On the horizon we have: replacing the dining room set of table and hutch with bar stools for our bar and a much smaller table. The set we have now belonged to my grandmother and is a beautiful set, just too big for our little space. Eventually we'd like to get some painting done and redone and replace our floors. Ahhh, if money were no object...
Since I'm on the subject of changes, it's worth noting that we also changed the bedroom arrangement for the kids again. Since the last update on this I'm pretty sure that we had Anna and Andrew sharing Andrew's room. This worked out really nicely and was fun for us to see their friendship blossom, but it got to where they would play so late into the night that they were literally losing sleep. So, then we thought we'd move Alissa in with Andrew since he really loved having a roommate and I forgot to mention that near the end of the Andrew/Anna era, Anna really starting into these crying sessions every night. We thought it best to leave her in a room alone for a while. Andrew loved having the baby in with him. It was only a week or so before we traveled for the holidays where the girls shared a room and did fabulously. So, when we returned home we finally moved everyone into the room they belong in. The girls are in their cute pink room with their correct names on the wall and Andrew is once again flying solo in his cool racing stripe room (also with his name on the wall). So far so good!
Not only did we get on a rampage with minimizing the toys in our house, we are more like on a general rampage of downsizing for the sake of both comfort and aesthetics as we begin to think more seriously about how the house will show to potential buyers. While this prospect is still in the future a bit, we'd like to enjoy the changes we make a little instead of just doing things to sell the house. On the horizon we have: replacing the dining room set of table and hutch with bar stools for our bar and a much smaller table. The set we have now belonged to my grandmother and is a beautiful set, just too big for our little space. Eventually we'd like to get some painting done and redone and replace our floors. Ahhh, if money were no object...
Since I'm on the subject of changes, it's worth noting that we also changed the bedroom arrangement for the kids again. Since the last update on this I'm pretty sure that we had Anna and Andrew sharing Andrew's room. This worked out really nicely and was fun for us to see their friendship blossom, but it got to where they would play so late into the night that they were literally losing sleep. So, then we thought we'd move Alissa in with Andrew since he really loved having a roommate and I forgot to mention that near the end of the Andrew/Anna era, Anna really starting into these crying sessions every night. We thought it best to leave her in a room alone for a while. Andrew loved having the baby in with him. It was only a week or so before we traveled for the holidays where the girls shared a room and did fabulously. So, when we returned home we finally moved everyone into the room they belong in. The girls are in their cute pink room with their correct names on the wall and Andrew is once again flying solo in his cool racing stripe room (also with his name on the wall). So far so good!
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
A New Year
Happy New Year! 2007! Ahh, reflecting on the year past and looking ahead to the new year. Even if you claim to be someone who doesn't do the "resolutions" thing, I am willing to bet that you don't truly escape the hype of the new year. Personally, I try to not get too caught up in the hype, but inevitably, I do to some degree. I think that I try to do reverse psychology on myself, which doesn't work out very well. I guess that I try to get over the idea that resolutions are just for the new year, not the whole year through and therefore, I try to pretend that mine are not new year's resolutions, but something different. Let's be honest, mine are the same as everyone else's! Every year, I resolve to do better with eating and exercise. I usually have some sort of plan and waxes and wanes throughout the year. And inevitably by the end of the year, it's time to revamp the plan for yet another new year's resolution. This year is no different. The differences this year are:
1) I have list of resolutions, not just one or two
2) I'm not pregnant or getting ready to deliver a baby
Here's some of my list for 2007:
* Keep my blog updated weekly (at least)
* Build into the kids (in all ways)
* Get caught up on my kids' scrapbooks
* Get serious about eating right and exercising
* Work hard on learning more about neuro science for work
* Do better with keeping up with my friends from different states
* Work on getting the house ready to sell
* Take TIME to connect and invest in a new church
* Grow my Spiritual disciplines (this should top the list)
So much to do... so little time. Another one of my problems! I'm impatient and therefore I get bored easily. If something doesn't work quickly, it's likely that I'll begin to lose interest. Shedding a little more light on why I have such an issue with losing weight. It really comes down to discipline and resolve. How bad do I want it? and How much an I willing to work to get it? And so the list goes on! I'm sure I'll be updating the progress of my list as the year goes on!
Happy New Year and Happy resolving!
1) I have list of resolutions, not just one or two
2) I'm not pregnant or getting ready to deliver a baby
Here's some of my list for 2007:
* Keep my blog updated weekly (at least)
* Build into the kids (in all ways)
* Get caught up on my kids' scrapbooks
* Get serious about eating right and exercising
* Work hard on learning more about neuro science for work
* Do better with keeping up with my friends from different states
* Work on getting the house ready to sell
* Take TIME to connect and invest in a new church
* Grow my Spiritual disciplines (this should top the list)
So much to do... so little time. Another one of my problems! I'm impatient and therefore I get bored easily. If something doesn't work quickly, it's likely that I'll begin to lose interest. Shedding a little more light on why I have such an issue with losing weight. It really comes down to discipline and resolve. How bad do I want it? and How much an I willing to work to get it? And so the list goes on! I'm sure I'll be updating the progress of my list as the year goes on!
Happy New Year and Happy resolving!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
