Continuing on from the renewed focus post, I also have a renewed focus for how I am spending time with my children. I am a stay at home mom now, and I want to make sure I am using this time wisely. That definitely isn't going to happen for me if I don't make a plan. One of the things I asked for for Christmas were a number of books that you will find on the "Book Recommendations by Martha" tab at the top of the blog. I added the whole list to my Amazon Wish List, and I received "The Young Peacemakers", "Bubbles, Balloons and Chocolate", and "Character Building". I was really excited to get these books, but the next challenge was determining when and how I was going to use these. So one morning while all 3 kids were in school and I had 3 hours to myself, I built a plan for the entire year of how we were going to go through all of these. I tend to be lazy and undisciplined in many regards, but if I have made a plan, I'm usually good to go. I'd like to share our plan with you in case it might inspire you to do some of the same if you feel like it my be valuable in your home.
On Tuesday afternoons, at 1pm my middle child comes home from preschool (my youngest also comes home from preschool at that time, but this is her naptime so perfect time for me to sit one on one with the 5 year old). This is the time I set aside to do the Young Peacemaker teaching with him, and so far it is going very well. Also on Tuesdays, when my 7 year old gets home from school at 3, we also go through it. It's 30 minutes to an hour, depending on their attention span and what I am teaching that day. They have been loving it, and I scheduled out the whole year so by the end of the year we will have gone through the whole book.
On Wednesday evenings, instead of our normal daily devotional that we do together, we are going through the Character Building book. There are 12 character traits in the book, and 4 sections per character trait, which works out perfect for one a week, and one trait per month. It's quick and has generated some great questions and conversations.
My 7 year old has daily reading that he has to do for school. He gets to choose what he reads, so on Wednesday afternoons, we read "The Case for Christ for Kids" during that time. This is a fantastic book that will teach more of the logic and evidence behind Jesus. We read for the 15 minute time period and then stop. Again - GREAT questions are being asked and conversation is happening about it outside of the reading time. My 7 year old really thinks through things, and I want him to have an intellectual understanding of his beliefs so that he is grounded in his faith.
I also tend to get kind of lazy about play dates, and both boys love spending time with their friends. So, we set aside each Thursday for playdates. Guerin has his at 1, and Noah has his at 3. It has been working great.
Finally, both boys are into science, and so every other Friday is science day. When Noah gets home from school, we do a science project. They really look forward to those.
There are many other things I have scheduled in, but I don't want to bore you. This is more an example of how setting a plan in place can really allow you to build so much more purpose into your conversations with your children, and provide more peace and structure in your home. Just make sure you build in a lot of breaks so that they can absorb what you are trying to teach them. I'll keep you posted on how it is all going!
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