Parenting Resources from Parenting Made Practical {A TOS Review}

Have you ever wondered if you are missing some of the things you should be teaching your children? Even with having older children who are now out of the house, I am no expert. I wonder all the time what my children should know that I may have forgotten or not known about. So, when the opportunity arose to review What Every Child Should Know Along the Way by Gail Martin, I thought, why not? I may just receive some great insights. This book is available from Parenting Made Practical, and I received it as a member of the Homeschool Review Crew. 

I received this 151 page, paperback book along with a surprise gift of the Parent's Night Out DVD titled Taming the Lecture Bug and Getting Your Kids to Think featuring Joey and Carla Link. I will be sharing a little about the DVD later on in this review. First, let's take a look at this informative book. 

This book addresses many different life skills that your children are going to need to know as they get older. It focuses on helping parents bring up children who will live their lives for Christ, children who become arrows hopefully shot in the right direction as they go out into the world. After an introduction that discusses the very topic of aiming your children straight, and explains how to use the book, we have seven chapters that deal with many aspects of life. 

• Chapter One deals with Dynamic Devotional Living
• Chapter Two addresses Cultivating Family Unity
• Chapter Three talks about Gifts and Talents
• Chapter Four moves on to Biblical Character Traits 
• Chapter Five focuses on Manners in many different settings (and is the longest chapter)
• Chapter Six lists Practical Living Skills (including checklists and charts)
• Chapter Seven looks into Personal Safety in many different areas

The book concludes with an Epilogue and several pages of Resources. 

I love that the book starts with the spiritual aspects of life. It is upon this foundation that the practical life skills are built. Not only does it talk about having structured devotional times, but it gives ideas on how to make everyday moments focus on God. The priority is placed on cultivating a solid family unit with healthy relationships before moving into looking at how to develop each child's gifts and talents. As we begin looking at gifts and talents, we are again focused on the spiritual. We are reminded that God is the one who gave us our gifts and our talents. We need to be able to recognize them and appreciate them, and finally, we need to remember to use them for the glory of God. 

The next chapter focuses on developing biblical character traits. After reading all the way through the book on my own, I decided to start introducing the biblical character traits to the children. Each trait is defined first, and then a list of Bible verses are shared, which I decided would be great to read with the children. There are four and a half pages of traits listed, and once we get through all of them, we will be looking at different people from the Bible to see what character traits they display. There is then a section for focusing specifically on traits of godly men, and traits of godly women, along with verses to focus on for each trait.. 

As I mentioned above, the chapter on manners is the longest chapter in the book. I think this goes right along with the fact that the author writes, "I fully believe that Christians, above all others, should be the most gracious, hospitable, and mannerly group of people of the face of the earth." Honestly, I had never thought about that before, but it sure makes sense, and makes me a bit embarrassed when I read through these lists and realize I'm not all that mannerly compared to what is on the list, and my children have quite the way to go. 

After going through a list of Bible verses that address gracious living, the author lists manners under 14 different headings, such as "mannerly attitudes and actions," ""in your own home," "shopping," "traveling," "mealtimes," and many others. Many of these manners also have Bible verses next to them for reference. It's a great way to address with your children what they should be doing, though, I admit, I would have liked to see some recommended ages for when children should be able to master some of them. 

The book then moves into the practical life skills which are listed by age, and these are included in a chart that can be checked off. 

Included in these skills are things that would be considered chores, as well as such things as dressing, preparing food, and gross motor skills. I have to say, even though the children now have regular chores, there are still quite a few of these skills that the children do not do, but there are also some that the children do earlier than what is listed on the chart. I can definitely see some things that I can add to the children's chore charts and things that need to be worked on with the children. This chapter concludes with a "My Helping Hand" chart, and a "Diligent Kids Gold Start Chart."

The final chapter, which is also the second longest chapter, focuses on personal safety. After once again rooting ourselves in Bible verses that speak of safety, we are given lists for many different instances where safety needs to be focused on. Beginning with general safety, we make our way through such things as swimming, hiking, playgrounds, sharp and dangerous things, fire, and more. These are listed the same way as the manners are listed, just without Bible verses. 

I've realized as I've read through this book, that I still have a lot I need to work on, both personally, and with the children. In fact, it can be a bit overwhelming. Thankfully, we can work on it a little at a time. 

Moving on to the surprise DVD we received called Taming the Lecture Bug and Getting Your Kids to Think.

This DVD is actually a lecture given to parents by Joey and Carla Link, along with their one daughter who helps to demonstrate at one point. The main point of this presentation is to help parents recognize that we need to stop lecturing our children. We need children who grow up knowing how to do the right thing without having someone there to yell at them when they have done wrong, and who are diligent to do what they know they are supposed to do, when they are supposed to do it. It was a reminder that every time we let children get away with something, they will think they can get away with more and more. They need to know we are firm in our expectations of them, so they know what to expect. But more than that, we as parents need to learn how to help children realize what they should be doing, by asking them questions instead of lecturing or even yelling. These questions help us know where we still have work to do with training and also exposes sin in the child's heart. After reminding us that we shouldn't be lecturing our children with the questions, we are given recommended questions to ask, though the list is not exhaustive. 

I hadn't thought this video would be something I would want to review, but I was so glad it was sent as an additional bonus. I have watched it once, and really want to go through it again with my husband. 

Both of these resources are wonderful and I highly recommend them for those who would like to bring their children up as godly young men and/or women. 

These are only two of the resources that were available for review from Parenting Made Practical. The following products were also reviewed:

Taming the Lecture Bug and Getting Your Kids to Think (book)

Why Can't I Get My Kids to Behave (book)

Navigating the Rapids of Parenting (video)
Dating, Courting, and Choosing a Mate...What Works? (video)

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