Raising spiritual children

I have recently been concerned about how to raise my daughter in a way that she is conscious about God and spiritual things. I came across the following article which though generic, has some good tips. Author: Frederick G. Levine Title: How to raise a spiritual child Source: BabyCenter Date last updated: November 2006 URL: http://www.babycenter.com/0_how-to-raise-a-spiritual-child_1506133.bc?intcmp=Nav_Global_MyBC_Readmore&pn=Test%20Article%20Page Abstract: Advice from Baby Centre about how to raise children to be spiritually conscious.

Gleaner newspaper article on Homeschooling

Hi everyone, Below is an article on Homeschooling that appeared in the Jamaica Gleaner today. Here you can find the experience of a Jamaican family, the Spence's who are homeschooling. The journalist focuses on the benefits of homeschooling. The specific curriulum used in this story, is the Sonlight Curriculum, www.sonlight.com. Not only, does the article provides information on the benefits of homeschooling, but it also relates the success story of the Spence's family and some of what they have done to make it successful. This really makes for good reading. For all you homeschooling mothers, especially in Jamaica, buy today's Gleaner and cut out that article for your scrapbook. Author: Emma Dalton-Brown, Gleaner Writer; Authors contact: Emmadaltonbrown@hotmail.com Title: Homeschooling - an alternative to the traditional way Date Published: Monday, September 28, 2009 URL: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090928/news/news4.html

Timothy tiger's terrible toothache

Title: Timothy Tiger's Terrible Toothache Author: Jan Wahl Illustrator: Lisa McCue Karsten Publisher: New York : Golden Book ; Racine, Wisconsin. : Western Publishing Co., Date Published: 1988. Series: A Little Golden book Edition/Format: Book : Fiction Audience: I recommend it for children 18 months and older. Language: English Place Availability: Kingston & St. Andrew Parish Library 2 Tom Redcam Drive P.O. Box 589 Kingston 3 Tel: (876) 926-3315 - 6 / 8 Fax: (876) 968-3368 Email: ksapl@hotmail.com Website: http://www.jls.gov.jm/Parish%20Libraries/Kingston/ Summary: Timothy Tiger wakes up with a toothache. His various family members all seek to try strategies to ease the pain. However, it is until he visits the dentist before the pain can go away. Commentary: This book helps children to overcome their fears of dentist appointments. Our experience: This book was a hit with my daughter (1 yr and 7 mths). It contained two major experiences that she could relate to, despite the fact that the characters were Tigers. These two experiences of which my daughter could identify with in the book were:

1. Timothy tiger's toothache experience - She could relate to having chipped her teeth as well as having a burst lip, both injuries sustained from falling accidents.
2. Grandmother coming by to visit and taking Timothy Tiger out for a ride in her car. My daughter can relate to this because her grandmother does that sometimes.

When I read about the tooth ache and dramatized the tooth hurting experience, my daughter moaned, groaned and grimaced. It was as if she had been transported into Tim's world and empathised with Tim throughout the story. The dentist experience was still foreign to her though. She has only been to the dentist once, and may not have remembered that encounter with the dental hygienist, her tools and equipment. However, my daughter on hearing about Grandma, immediately connect with the Grandmother Tiger character. She points to the character and says "Grandma, Grandma".

Scholastic Brain Play

Title: Brain play. Preschool-1st grade Author: Scholastic Inc. Publisher: New York: Scholastic Inc., Date published: 2005. Edition/Format: Computer file : CD for computer Language: English Place of Purchase: Watt's New Liguanea 160 Old Hope Road Kingston 6 Tel: (876) 970-0192 / 4664 Fax: (876) 977-3886 Website: http://www.wattsnewja.com/pub/ Audience: I believe this product is suitable for children 3 years and older. Summary of Product Features Dragon Tales builds math skills by helping young dragons earn their badges with early math concepts. Covers counting, number recognition, addition, spatial relationships, shapes & sizes. Clifford Phonics develops important learning skills as you join Clifford and friends at the Birdwell Island Carnival! Teaches letter & sound recognition, word families, sight words, spelling and sentence structure. I Spy Junior helps children practice thinking skills while playing unique riddles, puzzles and games. Covers problem solving, visual discrimination, memory, cause and effect, classification & sorting. Disney's Adventures In Typing with Timon and Pumbaa features 15 fun-filled lessons that improve keyboard accuracy and typing speed. Teaches finger placement, home row technique, letter recognition, accuracy and speed. Problems: Dragon Tales: Use of Dragons to teach maths. The authors make Dragons look friendly. The symbolical use of the dragon in the Bible is not one that can justify our acceptance of this creature to teach our children. Clifford Phonics: There is the mention of going to a Carnival. Though when we checked it out, the CD-ROM does not contain a carnival as we know it, but more an amusement park. Not sure if we want our children confuse with the terms. Carnival is not a positive term any at all, especially in Caribbean context or culture.

Children Bible Story Books Part 2

I have always felt called into a publishing ministry. My spiritual vocation is to be a literature evangelist. I am so glad that G-d has intersected this spiritual calling with my temporal calling. I am a Librarian and Information Specialist by training, and through this profession, I have learnt so much about publishing and the reading interests of people. When I became a parent in 2008, a new world was open to me. Now I had to be responsible for my child's spiritual and cognitive development. Reading materials were crucial, but these materials would have to be accurate. I found all the available material both Christian and non-Christian inadequate. For non-Christian mateirals, references are made to fairies or witches. For Christian materials, pagan festivals or unscriptural practices or beliefs were present. However, what has impressed me more than anything else is my experiences in a variety of Fellowships. None cater for my daughter's age range. The closest Fellowship that meet the needs of infants and toddlers is the Andrews Memorial Seventh-Day Adventist Church. So as much as I am more doctrinally diverse and liberal than the denomination, it is the one that has the best structured children programme for infants and toddlers in Jamaica (in my opinion). However, the important issue here is their quarterly and the GraceLink Curriculum. The Beginner's quarterly for me is riddled with cultural issues of irrelevance to my child. Things that she does not see in her daily life experiences, as well as images that are not culturally relevant. Further, there are some issues of human viewpoints coming out. For instance, in the Beginner's 3rd Quarter for 2009, the celebration of birthdays is raised. Clearly the Bible has only one two indication of the celebration of birthdays - Herod and Jesus. With the Jewish calendar, I am not even sure that it was flexible to celebrate birthdays (See my blog post: Reasoning on JESUS's birthday). This experience is now inspiring me to contemplate the writing of Christian reading material for toddlers and infants that will communicate the stories of the Bible in a form that is culturally relevant, that when chidlren interact with animals on a daily basis, they can remember G-d's word. Pray for this ministry and initiative. Works Cited: Beginner Bible Study Guide: Third Quarter Vol. 33 No. 3 ,2009.

Children Bible Story Books Part 1

Being a parent has made me even more appreciative of the reading needs of toddlers. However, I am most concerned about Christian toddlers. Many of the Bible story books that exist for toddlers contain the errors of modern day Christianity. To make matters worse, the children Bible story books contain images that do not culturally represent my West Indian culture. In the West Indies, acceptance of Christianity has been made difficult by the historical legacy of slavery, colonisation and exploitation. This has lead to the development of Rastafarianism which repaints the Messiah as a Negro (We know that Jesus Christ was a Semite and would look like a modern day Palestinian). Also it has lead to the development Revival or Poco Church, where African retention and spiritualism is retained and intermixed with Christian elements. I hate to see Bible story books that paint cultural images - like a white Jesus or the incorporation of Easter and Christmas concepts. Easter and Christmas are originally pagan concepts not even spoken about in the Bible. They were not festivals given to Jews and were not commanded by Scripture. They came after, based on theological interpretation and acculturation. Based on these issues, I feel spiritually desirous of creating my own Bible story books that will avoid these errors. Instead, I want children to see images of animals that are a part of the stories in the Bible. This is culturally neutral as all children from all cultures can relate to animals. It is hoped that children through reading these stories can learn about the animals and the sounds they make, as well as learn Biblical facts for future analysis and interpretation. Thus when a child is of age, they may ask questions for further information about the story behind the animal, and the adult can explain or lead them to the Bible passage. Also, I believe that G-d used the same strategy. He first cause Adam to name the animals, before he introduced Eve to him. That way Adam had to relate to animals first, before he could relate to Eve. That way Adam by seeing the animals in pairs learnt about his own social needs and need for companionship, and that animals could not fill the void. He learnt so much from watching the animals, that when Eve came, he was so excited and said "bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh" -Translation - Alas, someone that I can relate to.

Contributions

Hi all, I have been added to this blog to provide commentary on books available in Jamaica for raising children. So from time to time, you will see my commentaries on children's books that can be used by Christian mothers in Jamaica, in order to raise godly children. I will also tell what movies and books not to expose your children to and why. So look forward to new things that will benefit you in your efforts of educating your child. Seeing that I have a librarian background, I may be very detailed. Don't be turned off by the details.