There are many lost arts and traditions from our past that are dieing due to the lack of teaching our young children how to do the things we were taught growing up. Instead of us teaching them things that are important and the skills necessary to be self reliable and self sustainable in life , we allow the T.V., XBox and other people to raise our children in the way they believe they should be taught. Not teaching our children simple things like gardening, needle work, hands on skills that built this nation, farming and (most important) fundamental Bible teachings is destroying our nation and its youth. Those are just a few things they need taught and I am not posting on a soap box, I am just trying to bring to the realization that if we don't start focusing on the things that matter most in our lives, we may end up raising a generation of children of unequipped adults that wont know how to responded after we are gone.
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| Being taught! |
So start teaching your children things of the past, things that will help them in everyday life after we are gone. They can't move forward if we don't know and understand where they have been. Find community gardens to get them involved in, 4H, stitching clubs, Sunday school, anything to get the kids involved in something besides a "dummy box". I guess what I am saying is this, kids are the next generation, lets prepare them!
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| Some of my wife's work! |
If you have any links or sites that you can think of please list the below for all of us to go visit. After the traffic dies down on this thread I will create a link group on the side of my blog for all the links. Anything that you can think of and any area you can think of will help.
Here are a couple of ways:
Your local Church!
So get involved with the children. If you don't have a local organization for your area, start one! God Bless each of you!
Deuteronomy 11:You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
R.C.H. Lenski said "As the flower in the garden stretches toward the light of the sun, so there is in the child a mysterious inclination toward the eternal light. Have you ever noticed this mysterious thing that when you tell the smallest child about God, [he or she] never asks with strangeness and wonder, “What or who is God – I have never seen Him,” but listens with shining face to the words as though they soft loving sounds from the land of home. Or when you teach a child to fold [his or her] little hands in prayer that [he or she] does this as though it were a matter of course, as though [it was] opening for [the child] that world of which [he or she] had been dreaming with longing and anticipation. Or tell them, these little ones, the stories of the Savior, show them the pictures with scenes and personages of the Bible – how their pure eyes shine, how their little hearts beat."
Linked to:
Country Garden Showcase
On, In and around Mondays
Homesteader-blog-carnival-9
I have a couple of things to add to this post.
ReplyDeleteFirst, this brings to mind a scripture I have prayed since my own childhood. I had no one to teach me the way, but through prayer, the Lord showed me to people who were willing to mentor me in the things of God. Here is the scripture: Jer. 6: 16 KJV Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. (And I would pray, "Show me the old paths and I WILL walk therein.)
The second thing I think is helpful in training our children is AWANA. http://awana.org/on/demandware.store/Sites-Awana-Site/default/Default-Start
AWANA is a wonderful, fun program for kids from ages 3 to 6th grade, held at churches nationwide. You do not have to be a member of the church to attend the program. (My kids are attending a program away from our home church, because our church doesn't offer it.) It teaches children Bible verses with the desire that they direct their lives according to the word of God.
And I would suggest Boy Scouts. This is a great mentorship program. My son is involved, and though he has a very involved father, he is being mentored by many other great men as well. It's very positive for my son. His troop has many boys in it who don't have fathers in their lives, and I can see the positive impact it has on those boys' lives, too.
I am glad to see that you have given your all over to Jesus! It is a challenging thing when you were never brought up knowing or believing in something to understand and follow. Your story is a great example of how (as scripture says) we were chosen before the foundations of the earth to be His children. Its an example of NO matter what our circumstances, God will search us out and bring us into His flock. As the parable of the Lost Sheep shows us! Both of those programs are very good programs to get children involved in, maybe even take a neighbors child that has NO one else to take them and teach them, right? Thank you for sharing and may God continue to order your steps!
DeleteClint, this is very close to my heart. I see so many teenagers who really would like to learn some of these skills but there is no one to teach them or even encourage them to learn. Last summer my daughter and I hosted some of her friends for a Summer Sewing School. We put the projects online to share with others who want to learn some very basic machine sewing (and a little hand sewing) http://www.schneiderpeeps.com/search/label/summer%20sewing%20school
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome1 We need to do all we can to help in this area! The most important thing is to teach them the way of our Bible. But also the ways of old! Many are as you said "starving to find someone to teach them". Even if we have to put a sign in our front yard that says "Now Teaching _______ for children"! You fill in the blank with your specialty! Thanks for posting!
DeleteI completely agree and join you in making the effort to raise up a generation of thinkers and doers.
ReplyDeleteI love this post and agree with you wholeheartedly.
ReplyDeleteI'm a new GFC follower from a blog hop. I would love if you came on over and followed me back at http://iheartpears.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteWe love 4H and so do the kids! Today we had a big 4H judging Rally and BBQ, its wonderful to visit with wonderful, down to earth people get get our hands dirty in the soil! The kids need fresh air everyday! Great post:)
ReplyDeleteDeuteronomy 11:"You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."
ReplyDeleteThis is my motto. I homeschooled all my children, and still have one little bird in the nest.
Oh, and 4-H! Love the slogan, Learn by Doing.
Your philosophy and mine are one. Ditto!
Excellent post. Reminds me of what I once heard, "values must be taught, not caught." When my children were small, the Lord confronted me with Deut. 6:4-9. I gave up other things I was doing and we started homeschooling our children. We got involved in AWANA, like Crafty Cristy, but when some weird teaching was allowed in (not part of the program), we started a Keepers of the Faith club. I also found that 4-H was a wealth of resources.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for the great ideas and comments. I hope we continue to get wonderful comments on this subject and we all get involved!
ReplyDeleteThis topic is of utmost importance! I wasn't taught self sufficiency when I was growing up because my parents weren't really taught that. Thank goodness my husband was! I have learned a lot from him and have been teaching our children cooking, shopping, meal planning, gardening crocheting/knitting. My husband takes care of teaching them to build and fix things, to hunt and fish and process whatever is killed. There is a woman in our church who is wheelchair bound due to MS. She is planning on starting a lifeskills class for the youth in our church. She says that, even though her body no longer works the way it used to, her mind and her mouth are as sharp as ever! We need to seek out those with the skills we don't have and LEARN LEARN LEARN!
ReplyDeleteI'll take this a step further. When kids get into trouble, there is nothing that is done to turn them to a better direction. I've seen kids get caught doing drugs or damaging property. There may be a fine or a light community service. Why not teach them something instead. Programs where they help to grow a community garden where there can be pride in their work, a garden to donate fresh produce to food pantries, woodworking so they can repair park benches or make trail signs, learn to cook at senior centers or soup kitchen. Remember the movie, Boys Town, where the boys ran the town as barbers, cooks, gardeners, etc. They learned how to set up a society, depend on each other for help and learned like skills at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI never took Home Ec at school and nobody forced me to learn these skills which was a shame. I don't even know if our schools offer it now but I'm firmly convince it, as well as shop, should be a requirement rather than some of the strange classes I see in the curriculum these days.
I agree with you completely! I do not believe in video games, thus we do not have any in our home. We read, color, play games and spend time together while doing so. As you stated reading God's Word is the most important, which is also a daily routine. My son is in Cub Scouts, which I feel is a great organization to teach him "manly" things which I can not. My daughter and I love to garden, but I have yet to find something I want her doing outside the home yet. Food bank duties and friend play dates happen a lot around here as well. :) Stoppin by from the link up :) http://simplyhelpinghim.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteGreat post Clint...I was raised in the 60's and 70's when the message for young women coming of age was to bring home the bacon...Those years were challenging for women who wanted more freedom and choice. My mother was caught in the middle of a changing and growing society. Even though she worked she held fast to her domestic roots ( not running off and burning her bra) and taught me how to sew, cook, bake, and clean house. She has taught me so much about making a home beautiful and comfortable. I did grow up and have a very long and successful career in Hair Dressing ( which I loved ) but when our children came I had a huge change of heart and became a full time stay at home mom which eventually led to homeschooling. When our children were young we did lots of art and exploration outside, and GARDENING. Our son is a boy scout, our daughter a Rainbow Girl and we all help out on our little suburban homestead. The first story I ever wrote for Mary Janes Farm was titled Make Each Day Your Masterpiece which was inspired by my daughter's bold and fearless creativity when she was young... By the time she was eleven she could hand sew,( I taught her ) crochet and knit. She taught herself to knit with the help of a great book and my mom taught her how to crochet.
ReplyDeleteKids need to know they are loved and that you are always watching, caring and available... and that God is always on their side! I'm grateful to HIM for all of our blessings...