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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Educating The Whole Child, For The Whole Of Life, For The Glory Of God

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

“The truth in its wholeness—for the whole child, for the whole of life, for the glory of God—this is what the curriculum is all about.”  (Norman E. Harper, Making Disciples)

Our lives are filled with different responsibilities and we take on different roles in fulfilling them.  I am a husband, a father, a deacon, a principal, a boss, an employee, a church member, a Sunday School teacher, a student, an American, a Marylander, a University of Maryland alumnus and fan, a friend, a neighbor, a son, a brother, an uncle, etc.  I could go on and on ad infinitum, ad nauseum.  Sometimes I am called to clean dishes, while at other times I run staff meetings.  Within the course of a day, I may go from changing a dirty diaper to writing an article for MAD21, church, or school to counseling an employee to playing with my son and so on.  The question: For which of these roles and responsibilities do I need to be educated in God’s truth?  The answer: ALL of them.

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Disturbing Fashion

By Beth

OK, so I don't want to be known as one of "those moms" who want their children to be social rejects by not having the 'right' clothes. I'm all for my kids looking nice and fitting in to a certain extent. I do make sure my daughter especially dresses in clothes that cover her enough as to not be a walking advertisement for sex, I do know how boys' minds work. She shops at the 'rght' stores, Abercrombie, Holister, American Eagle and Aeropastle when we can afford it. I don't know who decided these were the stores you had to shop at, but that's besides the point.

Somehow, I ended up on the email list for most of these stores. Probably because I have ordered things online in the past. Most advertisements are fine, geared toward the teen crowd, "look good for your boyfriend/girlfriend" kinds of things. Some of the pictures are a bit provocative but there hasn't been much that has disturbed me so much that I need to write about it, to let other parents know what these stores are saying to our kids.

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How Can Kids Search The Internet Safely, And Still Learn Something?

By MAD21

AskKids is a kid safe search engine that allows age appropriate searches of the internet for answers to common (and uncommon) questions.

This site was created by the makers of Ask.com, who decided it was not appropriate to let all answers be shown for any topic asked if children were the ones asking.  So, AskKids was born for kids age 6-12.  Every website result is hand picked for cleanliness.

The main page looks like notebook (including being able to scribble on it with pen, pencil, and highlighter, and stickers).

Top level sections include Schoolhouse, Movies, Games, Video, and Images.

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When I Fail

By MAD21

How many times have you found yourself feeling like a total failure? Especially parents who have really young kids who test their boundaries just about every minute of the day (though I guess it could be the same for parents of kids of any age!). We have two amazing little girls in our house, but there are those days. You know them... the days when they have forgotten all the things they've learned in their short years; sharing; politeness; loving one another; the importance of good attitudes; etc. We all have standards that we've set for ourselves. How many days have we not only failed our own, but also failed to meet God's?

It gets me wondering, maybe we need to step back and look at who's standards we should be following. Are we putting more pressure on ourselves than God had intended? We think we are failing ourselves and God when our children aren't making good choices in their lives, but what is really happening?

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