Fun Activities for Reviewing Academic Skills While Learning About God

Fun Activities for Reviewing Academic Skills While Learning About God - Parenting Like HannahSummer break from school is approaching quickly in many parts of the country. In our area, schools let out by the end of May. Many parents are concerned about the potential loss of academic skills over the summer. On the other hand, summer should be about family time and fun. And then of course you read blogs like mine encouraging you to spend a lot of time discipling your kids towards God. How is all of this going to happen in the few weeks of summer break?

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Christian Moms and Integrity

Christian Moms and Integrity - Parenting Like HannahYou don’t hear many parenting experts talk about integrity, but I think parental integrity is vital – especially if you hope to dedicate your children to God. Integrity is more than just being honest, although that’s vital in parenting too. The other definition of integrity is someone who isn’t divided – a person who is whole. Who she says she is matches who she appears to be and most importantly matches who she is at her very core.

You can be a “good” parent and teach your children morals without being a Christian parent at your very core. I believe God calls us to be His people in the entirety of our being, not just as an extra-curricular activity we expose our kids to along with sports and scouting.

I was interested then when asked to review the book, Brazen: The Courage to Find the You That’s Been Hiding by Leeana Tankersley. The premise is promising. Women are not reaching their godly potential because they are afraid to show the world their talents, beliefs, etc. (My interpretation of her words.) It theoretically addresses the various reasons women hide parts of themselves and gives strategies for feeling free to show the inner core of your being to others.

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Teaching Kids Strategies For Avoiding Sin

Teaching Kids Strategies For Avoiding Sin - Parenting Like Hannah
A Personal Temptation!

Have you ever tried to lose weight? I don’t know about you, but it’s amazing how many tempting foods there suddenly are when I want to drop a couple of pounds. It’s so easy to give in and have that box of Girl Scout cookies, if I haven’t already planned strategies for helping me avoid it.

You can tell your kids what sins to avoid time after time. Some that don’t appeal to them will be easy for them to avoid. Others will probably tempt them their entire lives. Helping your kids not sin is more complicated than just telling them “Don’t!”. If you don’t teach them effective strategies of what to do when they are tempted, they will probably give in to the temptation on a regular basis.

So what can you teach your kids to help them avoid sinning when tempted? There are probably a lot of things, but here are some of my favorites:

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Fun Ways to Teach Kids Delayed Gratification

Fun Ways to Teach Kids Delayed Gratification - Parenting Like Hannah
In eight months or so, these little green dots will become a cup of coffee.

In Christian Kids and Delayed Gratification, we talked about the importance of Christian kids mastering the skill of delayed gratification. For them to successfully navigate the Christian life, they must be willing to give up much of what the world (and Satan) wants them to take now, in exchange for God’s Promises for the future.

Delayed gratification is not as easy to understand or master as one would think. In fact, you can repeat the original experiment with your own very young children (or yourself!) and find out how difficult it is. Try delaying eating your favorite treat the next time you have a serious craving for it. How hard is it to make yourself wait another decade, year, month, week, day or even hour before giving in to your desire to have it now?

The good news is there are lots of fun ways to help your kids understand and begin practicing delaying gratification. Here are a few of my favorites:

 

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Christian Kids and Delayed Gratification

Christian Kids and Delayed Gratification- Parenting Like HannahEvery now and then you may see an article mentioning the Stanford “marshmallow experiment”. Decades ago, researchers tested a group of young children to see if they could delay gratification. The kids were given a favorite treat and told if they would wait and not eat it for a time, they would be given a second one. If they didn’t wait and ate it immediately, they wouldn’t receive another treat.

The researchers recorded which students ate the treat immediately, which ones called the researcher back early (a third option which meant they got a second treat, but not their favorite) and which kids were able to wait the entire fifteen minutes and receive the second preferred treat.

The study didn’t stop there though. Over the years, the researchers went back to these same students and took various measures of how “successfully” they were navigating various aspects of life. Later in life, the children who had been able to delay gratification were described by others as being more competent, had higher SAT scores and even bran scans at middle age, showed two areas of their brain were more highly developed than those areas in the other subjects.

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