Many adults feel that every children’s book has to teach them something. My theory is a children’s book can be just for fun.
Sometimes to helps to scold yourself, to yourself advice.
R. L. (Robert Lawrence) Stine (born 1943) is an American author who hails from Columbus, Ohio. His specialty is fiction for children and young adults.
Empathy, a parent’s ability to understand what a child is feeling, is an important and valuable ingredient of child rearing.
It is said that nature always sides with the hidden flaw. Teachers have the opposite role; to side with the hidden asset, to minimize a child’s deficiencies, intensify his experience, and enlarge his life.
Haim Ginott (1922-1973) was an Israeli-born school teacher and child psychologist. He pioneered techniques about how to converse with children.
Ice cream bell ringing?
Memory bank mistaken—
Trolley car coming
Engineer at work
Oops . . . building blocks falling down—
Right back to square one
Swallowing loose tooth
What about the Tooth Fairy?
Dreams filled with magic
Many children delight in the small and inconspicuous.
Every mystery solved brings us to the threshold of a greater one.
Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was an American marine biologist, conservationist, and writer. Many of her writings helped to advance the global environmental movement.
From Matthew 21:14-16: “The blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He cured them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that He did and heard the children crying out in the temple and saying, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ they became angry and said to Him, ‘Do you hear what these are saying?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Yes; have you never read, Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself?'”
“Please, Mommy, please! Can we listen to our records? Heather and I want to listen to a record. We don’t want to watch what’s on TV. We want to listen to records!” As I flipped through the TV stations, Taryn was jumping up and down, pulling on my arm. Heather was following her lead. They were trying to persuade me to listen to their favorite records rather than watch TV. From songs they had learned in Sunday School, they both loved listening to and singing them.
There was no way I could refuse their pleading! They were learning the lesson I’d been trying to teach them. Today, they were teaching me! There are so many more interesting and fun things to do than watch TV all day. I realized Satan is using the television more and more in the world every day. It’s become one of the main vehicles to share deception and trickery. The violence, suggestive language, actions, vanity, and other worldly issues we are shown can attack our families in very subtle ways. As these have eased themselves onto the screen and into our minds, we’ve found ourselves becoming used to them. We accept them without a fight. Things that would have upset us five or ten years ago are seen in homes every day without a thought.
God tells us to think on things that are honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. Our children must be brought up with this attitude instilled in their minds. To ignore what they watch on television is a tragic mistake. When we allow them to see cartoons or other shows filled with violence, hatred, magic, or witchcraft, we are falling short of the teaching in God’s Word. If this garbage Satan 23 is dumping on our children continually invades their minds, what effect will it have on them next week, next year, or five years from now?
What a precious reminder Taryn and Heather had given me! I praised God for the wisdom of my children as we sang the songs on their record that morning. They smiled back at me as we sang, “I am a promise. I am a possibility. I am a promise. I can be anything, anything God wants me to be.”
This devotional post is written by my wife, Colleen. It is taken from her book’s section on Devotions. She has recently been blessed with seeing her BITS ‘N’ PIECES OF MY HEART available at a Christian bookstore in the United Kingdom. God continues to light a pathway for others to read her book, as it is available on most online bookstore sites.
It now costs more to amuse a child than it once did to educate his father.
The best way to remember your wife’s birthday is to forget it once.
Herbert V. Prochnow (1897-1998) was an American banking executive, speaker, and writer.
All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today.
Whatever you do, put romance and enthusiasm into the lives of our children.
Margaret Read MacDonald (born 1940) is an American storyteller and award-winning author of children’s books.
Sun sets on another day
Evening calls, wanting its way
Family gathers around
Home now, love and peace abound
Night sky envelopes the land
Stillness breathes on high command
Supper cooking, hunger calls
Mom’s spaghetti and meatballs
All hands on deck, helping mom
Frenzy soon returns to calm
Television calling out
Favorite show brings a shout
Mom crochets, sitting nearby
Dad reads book, about Shanghai
Final chores, homework to do
Soon slumber stirs up its brew
Before the last light goes out
Prayers praise God, so devout
Originally published November, 2020.
When we feel wonder, we are immediately reminded of the purity and innocence of our childhood.
The hard must become habit. The habit must become easy. The easy must become beautiful.
Doug Henning (1947-2000) was a Canadian-born magician, illusionist, and escape artist.
God sends children for another purpose than merely to keep up the race–to enlarge our hearts, to make us unselfish, and full of kindly sympathies and affections.
Yes, in the poor man’s garden grow far more than herbs and flowers–kind thoughts, contentment, peace of mind, and joy for weary hours.
Mary Howitt (1799-1888) was an English poet. Many of her writings were directed toward younger readers. Her most famous poem captured the tale of “The Spider and the Fly.”
Big Sky Buckeye 