Your Child's Love Language

Determining your child's love language will enable you to achieve family closeness and provide a solid emotional foundation for your child while homeschooling with your curriculum from Alpha Omega Publications®. One simple test you can use to find your child's love language is to ask your child this question:

"If I was gone on vacation for several weeks, what would you like me to do when I returned home?"


• Tell you how much I missed you. (words of affirmation)
• Bring a gift back for you. (gift giving)
• Spend the day playing together. (quality time)
• Make your favorite meal for supper. (acts of service)
• Give you a big hug and kiss. (physical touch)

Although your child may say he would like you to do all of these, ask him to pick out the one action he thinks is most important. This will allow you to pinpoint his particular love language and enable you to communicate your love to him more effectively.

So, what are some practical ways of meeting your homeschooled child's need for love? Depending on your child's particular love language you might do the following:

Words of Affirmation - Mean what you say. No flattery allowed.
• Write encouraging comments like "great job" on daily papers.
• Offer sincere compliments when he demonstrates positive character qualities with siblings.
• Be polite and use "please" and "thank you" liberally.
• Praise him verbally as often as you can for both his efforts and successes in school.
• Pray aloud with him daily and ask for God's blessing on his life.

Gift Giving - It doesn't need to be expensive, just thoughtful and age appropriate.
• Purchase items (favorite candy bar, coloring book, etc.) from dollar-value stores to use as daily rewards on schoolwork.
• Choose a gift or plan an activity he has been wanting and give it as a reward for a successful school year.
• Create a surprise love bucket. Each week, fill the bucket with educational items like art supplies, an educational computer game, a new reference book, a new notebook, or other study items.
• Make homemade gifts. These gifts may even spark an interest in carpentry, sewing, photography, gardening, and other life skills.

Quality Time - Undivided attention required. No multi-tasking allowed.
• Cherish learning together. Don't hurry through school lessons.
• Take all the time necessary to work through questions he doesn't understand.
• Plan an individual homeschool field trip covering one of his subjects.
• Skip school and plan a regular date once a month to do something fun.
• Watch a movie, play a board game, or read a book together.
• Play a seasonal sport activity together for physical education class.
• Work together on a hobby he enjoys.

Acts of Service - Be creative. Go beyond the normal duties.
• Help him paint and redecorate his room.
• Plan a special party or activity for his homeschool friends.
• Wash and wax his car.
• Volunteer to help in his Sunday school class or youth group at church.

Physical Touch - Warning! This love language is not for young children only!
• Give kisses and hugs without measure!
• Cuddle in a chair while you share a book.
• Give a backrub while he is studying at the computer or the table.
• Give a pedicure or manicure as you study lessons on health.

Are Breath Holding Spells Dangerous?

This was on my AOL headline today, "Are Breath Holding Spells Dangerous?" I had to view this article because my youngest son, Caleb, did this from age 1 to 3. We all were a nervous wreck. Everytime he did it, Noah and Isaac would run to him, start crying and they would try to "revive" him. All drs. and even the media say it is harmless, but those few 10-20 seconds your child has passed out and is the color blue stops you cold in your tracks. Caleb is now 4 and has not done it since he has been 4 AND I AM GLAD! I just wanted to blog about it because his BHS (breath holding spells) occurred around 30 different times. After he did it, I would look him in the eye and tell him that he could be damaging his brain. The more I would talk to him, the more infrequent the spells occurred, but he would still do it! I am so thankful that milestone is over at the Geary Gang's house.

Here is a portion of the news article

WENN.com
By Deborah Huso

When the "Daily Mail" released the news that singer Charlotte Church’s two-year-old daughter, Ruby, was suffering from a strange, but not uncommon childhood disorder known as Breath Holding Spells (BHS), the media had a small field day. As it turns out, however, BHS, though alarming to parents, is fairly common and not life threatening

1) Apologize quickly and sincerely as soon as you realize that you've wronged someone (particularly your parents and siblings).

2) Never feel sorry for yourself (self-pity is another form of pride).

3) Stay in control of your emotions.

4) Never burn bridges behind you, in relationships.

5) Nothing is ever gained by quitting.

6) Remember, there are more people counting on you than you realize.

7) Don't forget that God is at work, even when you can't see it. God is working right now, in ways you don't know about.

8) Love your family!

9) Meet every day with prayer, praise, and God's Word.

10) Stay connected to the hearts of your family (particularly in a time of testing). To solve a problem with another person, soften your own heart first.

11) Listen to those who love you, before making a life-changing decision.

12) A good name is more valuable than great wealth.

What do you expect?

August 3, 2009

What Do You Expect?
by Rick Warren
“Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith will it be done to you’; and their sight was restored” (Matthew 9:29–30 NIV).

A friend of mine, Bruce, taught college in Oregon for awhile. When he began his first semester teaching there, he was told that the college placed students in English classes by their level of ability. Bruce was assigned to teach two “average ability” classes and one “advanced ability.” He really enjoyed teaching the advanced class: they seemed more alert, more fun, asked better questions, and, as expected, had a higher grade average than the other classes.

On the final day of the semester, Bruce commented on these differences to the other professors in the faculty lounge. He said he hoped to get more of the advanced classes next semester. But to his surprise, his department director said, “Bruce, I don’t know where you got your information but we phased out the average/advanced distinction a year ago. You’ve been teaching mixed classes all semester like the rest of us!”

Bruce couldn’t believe it! He checked his records, and sure enough, there were far more A’s and B’s in the class that he thought was full of smart kids. And he really had enjoyed teaching that class more. But the only real difference between the classes had been Bruce’s expectations of them.

You can set people up for success or failure by your expectations.

People tend to become what they think we expect them to be. If you communicate to the people around you that you expect them to be lazy, uncreative, and negative, that’s probably how they will respond to you. On the other hand, if you treat people like winners, they’re likely to become winners. Psychologists call it “The Pygmalion Effect.”

• The best salesmen expect customers to buy their product.
• The best executives expect employees to have creative ideas.
• The best speakers expect audiences to be interested.
• The best leaders expect people to want to follow.
• The best teachers expect students to learn.
Would you like to bring out the best in those around you? Here's the key: Treat them the way they could be! Don’t just “tell it like it is.” Tell it like it could be.

Jesus said, “According to your faith it will be done to you” (Matthew 9:29 NIV). What are you expecting this week from yourself . . . from others . . . from God?

Biblical Womanhood

Hello everyone. My topic today is not one that is easily intreated and you will more than likely scoff at me (and I even expect this). The Lord has taught me so much about my "role" as a woman. I had my plans, and then God exacted his plan in me...Let me tell you that they were two completely different views. I have been a homemaker, keeper of the home, housewife, or whatever society calls "us" today, for six years. Before this, I worked from the time I was in college (another blog, another day) until my third child, which is 9 years. So I have done both. I have lived my life according to society and and I have lived my life according to the Bible. The later approach has been spiritually rewarding while the prior approach was physically/monetarily rewarding. I can bodly say that I am doing what I have been called to do and I am so happy in this place.

I have an excerpt from a book entitled, "RECOVERING BIBLICAL MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD A Response to Evangelical Feminism" Edited by John Piper and Wayne Grudem

HOLD ON you are in for a bumpy ride!


Too many women rush headlong into a career outside the home, determined to waste no time or effort on housework or baby-sitting but rather seeking to achieve position and means by directing all talents and energies toward non-home professional pursuits. It is true that many “perfect jobs” may come and go during the childrearing years, but only one will absolutely never come along again—the job of rearing your own children and allowing them the increasingly rare opportunity to grow up at home.
Golda Meir, by her own testimony, devoted her adult life to the birth and rearing of Israel at the cost of her marriage. She separated from her reticent husband in pursuit of public life. To quote Mrs. Meir, “what I was made it impossible for him to have the sort of wife he wanted and needed. . . . I had to decide which came first: my duty to my husband, my home and my child or the kind of life I myself really wanted. Not for the first time—and certainly not for the last—I realized that in a conflict between my duty and my innermost desires, it was my duty that had the prior claim.”30
How sad it is for a woman to try to build her life on the notion that she is going to pursue whatever momentarily happens to gratify her needs socially, emotionally, physically, or professionally. Though the duty of wifehood and motherhood may lay claim, the desires of personal ambition and success in public service can take hold, of which the Lord warned, but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire [epithumia,Greek], he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin [hamartia, Greek, literally “missing the mark”]; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death. (James 1:14-15)

When a wife goes to work outside the home, often her husband and children go through culture shock. Suddenly the husband has added to his vocational work increased family assignments. He is frustrated over the increase in his own assignments and guilty over his wife’s increased fatigue and extended hours to keep up at home. God did give the husband the responsibility of providing for the family (Genesis 2:15). To sabotage his meeting that responsibility is often a debilitating blow to the man personally and to the marriage. A woman’s career can easily serve as a surrogate husband, as during employment hours she is ruled by her employer’s preferences. Because the wife loses much of her flexibility with the receipt of a paycheck, a husband must bend and adapt his schedule for emergencies with the children, visits to the home by repairmen, etc. This leaves two employers without totally committed employees and children without a primary caretaker utterly devoted to their personal needs and nurturing. Note the prophet’s warning, “Youths oppress my people, women rule over them. O my people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path” (Isaiah 3:12).
Many women still see the paycheck as an inadequate trade for the sights and sounds and tastes of home. Though some see their paychecks as representing independence and achievement, to be bound to paychecks requires in exchange the time formerly allotted to work for the family in private, personal ways. This is not to say that there are never times when a woman should seek employment outside her home. Nevertheless, are we coming to a day when a woman’s employment outside the home is the rule rather than the exception, leaving no one to give primary attention to the home and to producing the next generation.

WOW! I told you that it was going to be bumpy! So what do we do, women? We are taught to go out and do, do, do....but the Bible teaches us something very different. Well, when I worked, we had more money coming in, but we additionally added more bills, because more is better! right? NO IT IS NOT. What God calls you to do is better. We do not have as much money coming in today, but we have what we need...we have never lost our home or went hungry, and I have always had the peace of God deep down inside through all of these storms. My husband is the provider for our family not me...I am glad. My responsibility and my JOY is at home raising our children. I can even homeschool them, thanks to our freedom in America...Women, we are free to do as we please. Right? I don't have to answer that one! Only you can!

In the above excerpt, I put in bold this statement: but only one will absolutely never come along again—the job of rearing your own children and allowing them the increasingly rare opportunity to grow up at home. The perfect job of rearing your own children and allowing them to grow up at home will never come along again when they are grown. Thank you God, for allowing me this extreme priviledge...Thank you so much God!

Now we need an ending, right? Here it is:


Homemaking, if pursued with energy, imagination, and skills, has as much challenge and opportunity, success and failure, growth and expansion, perks and incentives as any corporation, plus something no other position offers—working for people you love most and want to please the most!
In the words of Scripture, I have found a worthy challenge:
Teach them [God’s words] to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. . . so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the Lord swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the
earth. (Deuteronomy 11:19, 21)

Homemaking—being a full-time wife and mother—is not a destructive drought of
usefulness but an overflowing oasis of opportunity; it is not a dreary cell to contain one’s talents and skills but a brilliant catalyst to channel creativity and energies into meaningful work; it is not a rope for binding one’s productivity in the marketplace, but reins for guiding one’s posterity in the home; it is not oppressive restraint of intellectual prowess for the community, but a release of wise instruction to your own household; it is not the bitter assignment of inferiority to your person, but the bright assurance of the ingenuity of
God’s plan for complementarity of the sexes, especially as worked out in God’s plan for marriage; it is neither limitation of gifts available nor stinginess in distributing the benefits of those gifts, but rather the multiplication of a mother’s legacy to the generations to come and the generous bestowal of all God meant a mother to give to those He entrusted to her care.

What do we want to leave behind for our children? I know what I am leaving behind for my children. I am talking with them, praying with them and learning from them...There is so much here..that it truly is an Oasis. It is like the Spirit in us that never runs dry and overflows.

I pray this little note helps you. I know it has helped me. Love you all, Leah