People have often asked me what I did to build Sarah into such an excellent writer. How did you give Nathan, your adhd child the ability to write a blog? To write a book? Why can Joel ghost write for you and no one knows the difference? How did Joy develop her skills as a speaker and writer, so that she is so articulate on her own blogs?
I was not a perfect mom and rarely in one year accomplished my educational goals with my children. But almost every day, we had devotions and read-alouds--sometimes at night, sometimes in the morning, sometimes at tea times, but I kept baskets of books everywhere--in every room, in the bathrooms, in their bedrooms. And each year on birthdays and Christmas and other holidays, they all received books as gifts and I helped each of them build their own libraries.
"In the beginning was the Word (Jesus's name--the word) and the Word was with God and the Word was God." John 1
If God's name was "word" then words and foundations of words are so very important.
So, if you do one thing right, read, read, read to your children. It is what was the foundation of the minds of all of my children.
There is so much pressure today, (as always), to conform to cultural norms--and to try to keep up with the Joneses and all the blogs and articles that everyone else writes about what kind of curriculum to use, when to put pressure on your 5 year old to become academic.
But really, really, really--the key to giving your children mental muscle power and an advantage in any kind of education, is to read outloud to that child. All research complies with this, all teachers and writers say this, Clay and I say it emphatically in our own book. Read first--read daily---turn off media and put away work books and before you do anything else, read outloud to them--and read outloud to them until they are 30! Do not think that just because they can read at 6 that you should make them read to themselves and stop reading outloud. Read to them because you get to share in mentoring, discussing ideas, your vocabulary is bigger and you can explain things and they develop better skills in thinking and writing and communicating when you read outloud.
Here is another quotation that explains the culturally rich soul and the impoverished souls because of literacy and reading. Hope you enjoy these articles.
The poor and the affluent are not communicating because they do not have the same words. When we talk of the millions who are culturally deprived, we refer not to those who do not have access to good libraries and bookstores, or to museums and centers for the performing arts, but those deprived of the words with which everything else is built, the words that open doors.
Children without words are licked before they start. The legion of the young wordless in urban and rural slums, eight to ten years old, do not know the meaning of hundreds of words which most middle-class people assume to be familiar to much younger children.
Most of them have never seen their parents read a book or a magazine, or heard words used in other than rudimentary ways related to physical needs and functions. Thus is cultural fallout caused, the vicious circle of ignorance and poverty reinforced and perpetuated.
Children deprived of words become school dropouts; dropouts deprived of hope behave delinquently. Amateur censors blame delinquency on reading immoral books and magazines, when in fact, the inability to read anything is the basic trouble.” Peter S. Jennison
And here are the 5 winners of the book Dancing With My Father. (Sorry I was late in posting these--I was writing my book.)
Tammy McCann
Stacey
Meripng
Julie Straugh
Hippie4ever
Congratulations!
Off to Irvine, Ca to a big speech tournament with Joy. Looking forward to warmer weather.