The Bible's Definition Of A Good Education: Part 2 - Understanding

By Jason, M.Ed., M.A.R., Headmaster

“For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.” (Proverbs 2:6, NKJV)

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10, NKJV)

Just a reminder before we begin: God calls parents to the responsibility of educating their children.  Whether you home school or send your children to a school outside your home, you are still responsible before God for how your children are being educated.  Each one of us who is called to be a parent is also called to be an educator.  This series of articles deals with “academic” things, but they are things relevant to every parent and everyone who ever hopes to be a parent-- or anyone who wants to learn anything faithfully.

In Part 1, we explored the first component of a Biblically faithful education: knowledge.  Knowledge must be the first step in learning anything. In order for us to develop understating and wisdom about a subject, we must first know it.  In order for me to understand the causes of the Civil War properly, I must first know that there was a Civil War and the major events leading up to it.  In order for me to understand the major themes and the flow of the argument of Romans, I must first know that the Book of Romans exists and I must know its basic content.  Understanding without knowledge will always be unsound and incomplete. 

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Life is Funny: But I Caaaan't...

By MAD21

For this week's Life is Funny, I want to share a conversation my hubby had with our youngest, who is three and a half.

Our daughter is going through a crying phase in her life. You know, where she cries about everything. We have gotten to the point where when she does this at night, we tell her to calm down or we will close her door. This last week, there was an evening when Daddy had to close the door. Immediately following came the screaming, crying, and knashing of teeth one would expect. But eventually she calmed down and asked Daddy to open her door... but she was still pretty disrespectful about it. So here is the conversation that followed:

[Daddy] I said, "You have to ask nicely."
[Daughter] She said, "I can't"
I said, "You have to say, "please.""
She said, "But my voice doesn't work.  It won't say it."
I said, "You can't say what?"
She said, "My voice won't say it. I can't say please."
I said, "But you just said the word."
<looooong pause>
She said, "But I caaaaan't."

You just gotta love this phase when arms, legs, and voices won't work when they are asked to do something they don't want to do.

My friend and fellow blogger Wendy at Weight..What? has a fun carnival at her blog called "Life is Funny." Every Monday we talk about something in life that we find funny. Be sure to go visit her blog to read her post along with links to other blogs who are participating.

Don't Forget

By Alan

"Don't Forget..." - this phrase is often used, especially from parents to their kids so that they remember to do something, pick up something, don't do something, or remember some life lesson.  The proper response is:

- Okay, Mom, I will.

- Oh, Mom!

- How could I forget that?

We get annoyed that we can't find our phone, that we forgot to take out the garbage, or to remember the homework due tomorrow.

But, what if you _couldn't_ forget?

What if everything was stuck forever in your head?  Good events are great to recall, but what if you remembered every minute after your grandmother died, or you couldn't forget the sadness after missing old friends, or taste of bad food.

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Advice To New Parents (And Old)

By Peter (Rediscovering the Church)

My one piece of advice to new parents is always this:

"They learn what you teach them!"

Sounds obvious, right?

Of course it is, except we very often forget how we are teaching our children.

Have you ever noticed that your children seem to have all your worst traits? As I watch my kids, I see the very worst aspects of my behavior and personality mirrored in their little lives. I see them shouting at each other and remember all the times I've raised my voice to them. I see them saying that they'll come right now and then continuing to do what they're doing for a couple of minutes and I remember all the times I say "I'll be right there" and then fail to drag myself away from my computer. I see so many things in them that I know they learned from me... yet I know that verbally I tried to teach them something different.

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Website: Kids Are Heroes

By MAD21

I stumbled across the website Kids Are Heros awhile back, and it's just plain awesome. If you know of any kids who are Making A Difference with their lives by reaching out to others--or WANT to, you should let them know. This is what they say:

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