Session Notes

Giving Your Child the Excellence Edge:

“Manage Time. How children learn to spend their time now influences how they spend their time in school and later as adults. Assess Yourself. What children believe is true about themselves is largely determined by what others think of them.”

Answer:

“t is likely that your late-maturing youngster has not yet completed a vital neurological process involving an organic substance called myelin. At birth, the nervous system of the body is not insulated. ”

This is a good argument for homeschooling until age 7. Physically they are not ready.

Answer:

“If a youngster is particularly sharp and if he or she can learn to read without feeling undue adult pressure, it would be advantageous to teach this skill. But that’s a much bigger ”if“ than most people realize. There are some parents who find it difficult to work with their children without showing frustration over immaturity and disinterest.Furthermore, new skills should be taught at the age when they are most needed. Why invest unnecessary effort trying to teach a child to read when he has not yet learned to cross the street, tie his shoes, count to 10, or answer the telephone?”

Cautions for Parents:

“ome children are very slow to catch on to reading. Some children have a specific learning disability that makes reading harder. Some children have an attention deficit disorder and have trouble concentrating. Some are just immature and have trouble settling down to learn anything. If your child has a specific problem, it%u2019s important to get help for him. But it’s also important to communicate to him that he can learn to read; it just might take him a little longer. I’ve had students say things like, ‘I’ll never read well; I’m dyslexic.’ Except in a tiny percentage of cases, that doesn’t need to be true.’Jim Trelease, author of The Read-Aloud Handbook, writes:’Expect negative consequences if teaching your child to read becomes an obsession. Experts in psychology and education emphasize the importance of unforced learning during the formative childhood years. ‘Avoid compulsion and let early education be a matter of amusement. Young children learn by games; compulsory education cannot remain in the soul’ was the advice offered by Plato to parents.”Another big mistake is stopping reading to children too soon. The older the child, the less he is read to in the home and classroom. Parents and teachers might say, in the top fourth-grade reading group why should I read to him? The reason is that a chil’s listening level is often higher than his reading level. Children can hear and understand stories that are more complicated and more interesting than anything they could read on their own.’”

Biblical Dating: An Introduction :

“Modern dating tends to be egalitarian (no differences between men and women in spiritual or emotional ‘wiring’ or God-given roles). Biblical dating tends to be complimentarian (God has created men and women differently and has ordained each of these spiritual equals to play different and valuable roles in the church and in the family). Modern dating tends to assume that you will spend a great deal of time together (most of it alone). Biblical dating tends to encourage time spent in group activities or with other people the couple knows well. Modern dating tends to assume that you need to get to know a person more deeply than anyone else in the world to figure out whether you should be with him or her. The biblical approach suggests that real commitment to the other person should precede such a high level of intimacy.”

The first part of the article aside, the comparisons between modern and Biblical dating are helpful. They offer so principles that need to be surrendered to have the closest to God’s best.

Charleston Daily Mail

Why doesn’t the manger scene have a baby Jesus?

“We try to explain that by law we can’t do that. We have been advised by (city) council not to get into that,” said David Cunningham, superintendent of St. Albans City Park.

Instead, there is a scene that looks remarkably like depictions of the night Jesus Christ was born. There’s a star, a couple of sheep, some camels and a structure that could be taken for the barn where Mary and Joseph had their baby.

“You could call it a manger,” he said. “We call it a place for the animals. It looks like two things coming up on the sides with a roof-like structure. What it looks like depends on your imagination.

A rather brilliant observation posted via Fark.com seems to sum it up better then I ever could:

2006-11-30 04:45:09 PM IdBeCrazyIf

Number40: And to remove Christ from the mix? You gotta be kidding me!

Well… to be fair. It’s not like Christians were using Christ for anything important anyway.

Lord knows they certainly don’t actually listen to what he says.

Isn’t it interesting that a secular society can more clearly see the teachings of Jesus then the church can? Jesus came, he basically took on a religious system that controlled people’s lives (While robbing them blind) and called people to love each other while, moment by moment, listening to and following the voice of God. His disciples demanded to be put at the helm of a new system — and Jesus refused to even name the president or define it’s structure.

He was barely gone before we had a new religious system — run by a dude we call the pope, an organization we call the synod or whatever — and a new set of rules to back an organization that, once again, is usually about money. Worst of all, it’s not about love, grace or freedom.

“It’s not like Christians were using Christ for anything important anyway. Lord knows they certainly don’t actually listen to what he says.”

Yep — Guilty as charged.

BTW: The town officials are using the law to hide their real addenda. The Supreme Court long ago ruled that creches, complete with baby Jesus, do not violate the constitution, so long as they are part of an otherwise secular holiday display. The ruling basically said that Christmas is a secular shopping holiday and that cities have an interest in promoting secular shopping holidays via holiday displays.