Category Archive

9 Bad Reasons For Not Teaching Your Child How To Do A Task

1.      It will take longer of my time to teach him than to actually do it. (Think long term.)

2.      Even after I teach her and no longer need to help them it will take her longer than it takes me. (Does this matter?)

3.      He might not do it perfectly. (You don’t do it perfectly either and he’ll get better)

4.      I might find out she’s better than me at this. (You’ll get over it.)

5.      He might break something (Okay, this is bad dependant on what they might break)

6.      It might turn out that she is too young to do this task. (This won’t happen very often)

7.      It might turn out that he doesn’t have this skill and never will (He needs to learn this lesson).

8.      I don’t want to be a slave driver. (Consider: what percentage of your life is non-work? And what percentage of your child’s life is play).

9.      She might not feel like doing it. (This is another lesson she needs to learn).

All humans want to be useful and appreciated for what they do. Your child is a human.

Do you have any other reasons? I have left a couple off to see if you can come up with them.

What successes have you had teaching your child to do some important task? What have you been surprised to learn they can do?

* Pictured: Adelyn (age 8 ) in the kitchen.

Last year my wife directed one of our church’s children’s choirs and for this our family was given a gift card to Chili’s (Thanks, Mr. Shull!) So last night as part of our 12 days of Christmas celebration, we decided to use the card.

Now I am on record that our family generally eschews using the kids menu, so when our server came around, I asked her what their biggest burger was. As it turns out, she said there was an available item that is no longer on the menu* and it turns out, it’s this:

. . .  so we ordered four of them.

It turned out great. These things are messy and twice the size of some of my kids opened mouths, but we cut them up and the kids went after them. And the best part is, I hardly had to pay a tip because the gift card made our meal’s charge so low**.

This was more food and significantly cheaper than getting them all children’s meals. I recommend it.

* You may be wondering why such an awesome item is no longer on the menu – does this answer your question?

** Kidding!

Okay, it looks like the Jamisons are going to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyages Of The Dawn Treader in about 45 minutes and here are my feelings before we go. (I have intentionally not read any reviews but I have seen three previews . . unfortunately)

Here’s what I’m afraid I’ll see:
– Good guys being foolish or wrong-headed needlessly.
– Big departures from the written story
– Eustace being worse that he is in the book.
– Material too scary for my kids

Here’s what I hope I’ll see:
– Very little of the White witch. (She was in the preview, which is disappointing. I hope her appearance is extremely short)
– Lots of what’s in the book.

Here’s what I hope to see in the book but am almost sure that I won’t
– A Lamb turning into a Lion. I can’t imagine this staying in.

I’ll let you know!

Hi, I actually wrote a full post about this historic day in our relationship, but Debbie said “Here, let me write it.”

I’m glad she did.

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This year, December 3rd is on Friday, as it was in 1993. December 3rd is a day I always commemorate because December 3, 1993 was a life-changing day for me.

Scott and I had been friends for a long time; we had even dated for a year or so during the five years we had known each other.  But now I was quasi-dating a different guy from Bethel Seminary who was planning on coming to my Minnesota Chorale concert the next weekend.  So Scott and I were “just friends,” but planning on attending the Bethel College Festival of Christmas together.

I had been dreading that Friday morning, however, because I was to finally give the long-feared sermon for the preaching class that I had put off for as long as possible during my years at Bethel Seminary.  As I walked down the stairs that morning to leave my home, I remember being really nervous and thinking, “I want to talk to Scott,” then gasped as I wondered why I wanted to talk to Scott, rather than my “boyfriend.”  That was weird; oh well.

I was giddy with relief when my sermon was finally over, and that afternoon was like the day before Christmas break as I looked forward to meeting Scott for supper before the Festival of Christmas.  I would tell him all about my “preaching” because he found everything I talked about interesting.

Scott and I had a very enjoyable supper, then headed on over to Bethel College where we ran into Scott’s aunt and uncle who eyed us curiously while talking with us politely.  “Oh, no,” I thought, “now they’re going to think we’re dating again!”  On to our seats, where we listened to heavenly music from Handel’s Messiah.

Suddenly, during the “Hallelujah Chorus,” I looked at Scott out of the corner of my eye, saw him enjoying the music as much as me, and thought, “Why didn’t I want to marry Scott?  Hmm.  Right now I can’t think of anyone I’d rather spend the rest of my life with.”  (And I had dated more than a few guys.)  And then, “Oh my goodness!  Did I just think what I think I thought?  Now what should I do?  Should I TELL him?  I’ve broken up with him TWICE already; if I’m wrong, I can’t break up with him a THIRD  time–after telling him I’ll marry him!!!

To be continued . . .

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For the record, I still think what she talks about is interesting – Scott

When buying presents, try to keep away from toys that will be mostly worthless if one piece is missing.

This includes (but is not limited to):

K’nex Rollercoasters

But does not include Legos

or Bionicles (which I recommend).

Update:  Welcome Challies People!  Care to subscribe? You know how.

As I’ve noted before, I like to keep track of things. Several years ago I started logging all of our family’s gas purchases. I’m pretty sure I’m the first person to ever think of doing that. In the history of the world.

In any case, I thought you might be interested in seeing the cost per gallon for a typical family living. We live in the Northern Suburbs of the Twin Cities of Minnesota. This for the past five years (starting Nov 2005).

And if you want to see the Excel File Behind The Data . . .

So . . . do you remember those beautiful days in the fall of 2008?

Again, since I just put up my Piper quotes it seems like a good time to post some from his grandson.

Orison is almost 6. Used By Permission.

Everything I Ever Needed To Know I Learned From A Boy Named Orison

• Dad, you’ll carry the Christmas tree. Mommy, you’ll carry the Advent calendar. And I’ll carry the boxes. Ready… set… go!
• The Cymbal means that fellowship is about to start.
• I miss you [Mom]. I hope you’re having a good time. Dad! Why did you laugh about it? I’m serious.
• Why is the night sad? Cause’ we gotta go to bed.
• We wish you a merry Christmas and all that you have.
• Do you want to come color in my dinosaur coloring book and think about when they died?
• Daddy, when I’m asleep and you check on me before you go to bed, will you please say, “I’m here.”
• [My ponytail] keeps the hair outa my face. You gonna put it on twitter?
• I’m so high I can’t tell.
• “Private Predges” (Pride and Prejudice) was way before cars. Why did they ride horses all the time? And why didn’t they say giddyup? They just said “Drive on.”
• I really want some crackers. I really want some crackers. Now my story is all told.
• I meant like pillaging a town. He fell on his pillaging a town.*
• He was standing in the tub. I didn’t [hit him]. I helped him sit down.
• Did you know that cold milk and cold milk makes cold milk colder?
• Speed skating is easy, as long as it doesn’t get me in pain.
• Hi Jayhawks, I’m hoping to come to one of your shows.
• I do like Billy Bragg more than Jayhawks. . .Oh. . . I mean I like it as much as Jayhawks.
• God makes people. Satan makes trouble.
• When I’m 65 and I still live with you. . .
• Love between a woman and a man is a nature good thing

And one final oddly poignant Orison quote:

Here. I have 2 hands. One is for Mama and one is for Felicity, cuz mama’s not here and Felicity’s dead.

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* Bonus points if you know what his original word was.

Here are two more, in case you’re interested:

Orison Quotes 1

Orison Quotes 2

At the beginning 2010, the JamFam, after setting a record of 92 picnic in 2009, made the goal of 100 picnics this year.

If all goes according to plan (and if it is God’s will) we will be going on our 100th picnic on Sunday (Oct 17). And we would love to share this historic picnic with others.

If you have a free afternoon on Sunday and would like to join us, please email or call us.

We’ll bring dessert!

For those of you who are interested (and I hope many of you are) you can now purchase the Fighter Verse Song Set E (which our team has been working on for nearly a year) from the Children Desiring God Website.

It’s good stuff! And if you don’t like the style of one song, just wait – you’ll like the next one.  You’ll learn the Word of God and so will your kids.

So earlier this year we were invited by Uncle Vern and Aunt Kathy to go to the Minnesota Zoo with them. As it turns out, it’s actually cheaper for our family to get a yearly membership than to get tickets for ourselves once.  So that’s what we did.

Fairly early in our visit we went to see the Prairie Dogs. They’re so cute and funny as they scamper around, aren’t they? But look closer:

Bottom Left: Two ‘cute and cuddly’ prairie dogs.

Top Left: A distant Bison out on the hill

In Front of the Rock on the Left: The Results from the last time a bison wandered into the prairie dog den.

Moral: Hope you and your kids aren’t there to witness this bloody slaughter when it happens again.

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And then, of course we went to see the large aquarium.

Wait a second, how did she get in there!