Another resource: If anyone's interested, Group is promoting their 2009 National Youth Ministry Conference in Columbus OH.
Reading Kidology's Blog Watch. Check it out! Kidology is always finding new sources of information, inspiration, and thought-provoking material and it's rich with ideas.
Here's the short list of a great bunch of reads. Websites to add to "blogs" & "resources".
Children Matter
Disciple Blog
Jonathan Cliff
and more!
Thursday, October 09, 2008
If Money Gets Tight
When money gets tight, what happens to kids? If one or two parents lose their jobs what happens to kids? What will go? As faith communities, are there ways we can prepare for that or help people prepare? Should we?
As individuals and as individual families, we haven't experienced a depression before. I don't know how much we can look back at the last one and compare. Not sure the average person spent as much money or as large a % of their income on entertainment, enrichment, and childcare as we do for our kids. Not sure families were as dependent on those things as we are today. It would be an interesting thing to find out. Think about the social side of all this, too.
As we tighten our belts, what will go? What will go in the lives of individual children and groups of children? Will they need something to fill that space? What will it be?
As individuals and as individual families, we haven't experienced a depression before. I don't know how much we can look back at the last one and compare. Not sure the average person spent as much money or as large a % of their income on entertainment, enrichment, and childcare as we do for our kids. Not sure families were as dependent on those things as we are today. It would be an interesting thing to find out. Think about the social side of all this, too.
As we tighten our belts, what will go? What will go in the lives of individual children and groups of children? Will they need something to fill that space? What will it be?
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Anonymous
from Matthew 6:1-4
"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
Some people I know who aren't part of a church, as far as I know, decided to go in together to shop and give Thanksgiving dinners to needy families this year. As a group we have no real identity.
So that got me thinking about this passage - anonymous, secret. If we give to people and make sure they know which church we come from or even who we are for that matter . . . If we give or do anything under our church logo or even "in the name of the Lord". . . (though, I understand. That's the ultimate goal) Have we done what this passage in Matthew tells us to do? Have we given in secret?
The child in me always liked the idea of God seeing and knowing in secret and knowing that He would reward me for the good things He saw me doing, especially if nobody else knew. Knowing He always knew the bad, and it wouldn't stay a secret, made me pretty careful about my choices.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Ideas
I have a friend with two very young sick kids. Not sure if you can use these for a whole classroom or not but here are some new-to-me sites if you or parents you know have sick kids home for a long time. My mom used to have what she called a rainy day box of toys or activities that we could only play with on a rainy days when we couldn't go outside. Prayer is good but consider care packages for sick families - not just a meal. Include simple crafts, games or ideas for kids who have to stay in bed.
Consider creating rainy day boxes or sick-for-a-week boxes (get-well- soon- boxes?) as a pre-flu season teen, college, parent or grandparent group activity. Parents can plan ahead. It gives other life-stage groups opportunity to think about people in a different life stage than their own. Life stage groups tend to be more"us" centered than outwardly relational. Not everyone is a parent but most of us were sick kids once.
Here are some websites. There are lots of children's magazine websites and parent magazine websites with craft and game ideas. You may even find some with specific ideas for sick kids. You may also find local sites with ideas and activities (Rochester's Kids Out and About)
[You already know Kidology has oodles of games and activities for children's ministry!]
Highlights for Kids
Wee Ones
Pockets (Upper Room) has print and play games. (paper pencil games),
Print-N-Play toys - (notice that there are restrictions.)
Pencil Paper Games for older kids
Google
paper pencil games. This site has a game called Sprouts I haven't seen before.
print and play games. This one is fun!
There are also puzzle maker sites to create cross-word puzzles and word games. But you probably already know that.
Consider creating rainy day boxes or sick-for-a-week boxes (get-well- soon- boxes?) as a pre-flu season teen, college, parent or grandparent group activity. Parents can plan ahead. It gives other life-stage groups opportunity to think about people in a different life stage than their own. Life stage groups tend to be more"us" centered than outwardly relational. Not everyone is a parent but most of us were sick kids once.
Here are some websites. There are lots of children's magazine websites and parent magazine websites with craft and game ideas. You may even find some with specific ideas for sick kids. You may also find local sites with ideas and activities (Rochester's Kids Out and About)
[You already know Kidology has oodles of games and activities for children's ministry!]
Highlights for Kids
Wee Ones
Pockets (Upper Room) has print and play games. (paper pencil games),
Print-N-Play toys - (notice that there are restrictions.)
Pencil Paper Games for older kids
paper pencil games. This site has a game called Sprouts I haven't seen before.
print and play games. This one is fun!
There are also puzzle maker sites to create cross-word puzzles and word games. But you probably already know that.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Banned Book Week?
Libraries are celebrating banned book week. This (I believe) comes from a university student publication. You can find more info if you google "banned books" or "banned book week."
In my typical rambling, indecisive, empathetic, let's look at this from everybody's perspective complicated style ...
. . . There were lots of books, TV, and videos our kids didn't have access to. We took them to the library regularly. We didn't buy a TV until my oldest was 10. When we got the TV we started with lots of controls (not dials, controls) - but that's another post. Emphasis on "started." By the time my youngest was 10 the other four complained about all the things she got to do that they never got to do - yet another post.
I believe God gives commands he expects to be obeyed. But I also believe He gave us a free will and we live with the consequences of our actions. It doesn't appear that God protects us from everything. It doesn't appear that He severely disciplines us for everything. When God does intervene in a way some would consider parental discipline, His intervention probably saves us from a worse fate. But I don't see God as terribly consistent unless you look at the effectiveness of random reward (ie. slot machines) and punishment. I see Him as patient, faithful, constant but not necessarily consistent. So I asked my husband how he sees God's reward and punishment system He said, "That's why God created parents."
I value the freedom of speech and freedom to choose (so far) available to parents, individuals, and organizations in this country. I think that if we value our own freedom we will be very careful what freedoms we take from others. As much as I recoil from big government and government controls, and people I don't agree with telling me what to do I'm also grateful for law enforcement that allows me to live a relatively safe existence. I don't particularly want to live in an anarchy.
When the kids' high school (an upstate NY city high school, ethnically diverse) was celebrating 100 years I had the priviledge of reading 100 years worth of student written school newspapers? Alot of them were missing but there were enough in the cabinets to see how high school humor and perspective changed over 100 years. Let's just say that the first 80+ years of high school humor was a far cry from what we would consider politically correct today. Culturally different. Most of those papers came out with a minimum of faculty oversight (censorship). They valued freedom of speech but apparently it was tempered with a measure of respect. I don't appreciate humor at someone else's expense but it's fun to be around people who know and care about each other enough that they can laugh together.
Banned books. Just because something appears in a book doesn't mean the book is condoning the behavior. There are fantasies and sci fi stories that people disapprove of for what seem to be obvious reasons but in their disapproval miss the ideas that the author is exploring in ways that can't be explored in more literal genres. Our God is a supernatural God. He is unseen and acts in ways that aren't "natural". There are also evil forces. I understand that a certain story about two male penguins raising a baby penguin is actually based on a true (as in non-fiction, it happened among penguins) story. Is it about life-style? Is it about caring? Is it both? Are you willing to read a controversial book with your child and talk about it? That kind of parent-child interaction starts the moment you pick up a book and look at pictures with your baby.
What we read, see, and hear influences how we think but sometimes depicting stories from real life complete with consequences makes a stronger impression, a stronger deterrent, than telling someone "don't do it". You can say scripture's full of "don't do it"s but it's also full of stories with consequences - stories most of our children (and teens) never hear, by the way - stories that would be banned in Christian schools.
But not every real life situation with all its graphic detail (or Bible story) is age appropriate for every child and household.
There comes a time when we can't protect our kids and the "when" of that may vary depending on child, family, circumstances, and life beyond our control. That moment may not be the same for every family or even every child in a family. Until that time, if I'm a parent, I have a job to do. Both parents and teachers have the priviledge and responsibility to teach kids how to choose and make wise choices. Kids need their parents and their teachers to be on the same team, not pulling them in different directions.
Sometimes you follow your head and sometimes you follow your heart. Sometimes you listen to someone older and wiser. Sometimes you go digging for information and read it from different perspectives. We want to teach children to choose wisely and give them the support network to do that. As we give them more and more freedom to choose, we have to be willing to respect their choices . If we find ourselves disagreeing with those choices maybe we need to back up and ask ourselves why they made those choices.
We also have to remember that they won't be living in and raising their children in the same world we grew up in. Someday they may find themselves having to make choices we never dreamed of - God forbid. They need the tools to do that.
There's a time to look at the tree and a time to look at the forest. Freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and a parents' right to choose are (to me) valuable freedoms. My most basic thought and feeling - I better be darned careful before I take those freedoms away from someone else, if I expect someone else to extend the same courtesy to me.
What do you think?
In my typical rambling, indecisive, empathetic, let's look at this from everybody's perspective complicated style ...
. . . There were lots of books, TV, and videos our kids didn't have access to. We took them to the library regularly. We didn't buy a TV until my oldest was 10. When we got the TV we started with lots of controls (not dials, controls) - but that's another post. Emphasis on "started." By the time my youngest was 10 the other four complained about all the things she got to do that they never got to do - yet another post.
I believe God gives commands he expects to be obeyed. But I also believe He gave us a free will and we live with the consequences of our actions. It doesn't appear that God protects us from everything. It doesn't appear that He severely disciplines us for everything. When God does intervene in a way some would consider parental discipline, His intervention probably saves us from a worse fate. But I don't see God as terribly consistent unless you look at the effectiveness of random reward (ie. slot machines) and punishment. I see Him as patient, faithful, constant but not necessarily consistent. So I asked my husband how he sees God's reward and punishment system He said, "That's why God created parents."
I value the freedom of speech and freedom to choose (so far) available to parents, individuals, and organizations in this country. I think that if we value our own freedom we will be very careful what freedoms we take from others. As much as I recoil from big government and government controls, and people I don't agree with telling me what to do I'm also grateful for law enforcement that allows me to live a relatively safe existence. I don't particularly want to live in an anarchy.
When the kids' high school (an upstate NY city high school, ethnically diverse) was celebrating 100 years I had the priviledge of reading 100 years worth of student written school newspapers? Alot of them were missing but there were enough in the cabinets to see how high school humor and perspective changed over 100 years. Let's just say that the first 80+ years of high school humor was a far cry from what we would consider politically correct today. Culturally different. Most of those papers came out with a minimum of faculty oversight (censorship). They valued freedom of speech but apparently it was tempered with a measure of respect. I don't appreciate humor at someone else's expense but it's fun to be around people who know and care about each other enough that they can laugh together.
Banned books. Just because something appears in a book doesn't mean the book is condoning the behavior. There are fantasies and sci fi stories that people disapprove of for what seem to be obvious reasons but in their disapproval miss the ideas that the author is exploring in ways that can't be explored in more literal genres. Our God is a supernatural God. He is unseen and acts in ways that aren't "natural". There are also evil forces. I understand that a certain story about two male penguins raising a baby penguin is actually based on a true (as in non-fiction, it happened among penguins) story. Is it about life-style? Is it about caring? Is it both? Are you willing to read a controversial book with your child and talk about it? That kind of parent-child interaction starts the moment you pick up a book and look at pictures with your baby.
What we read, see, and hear influences how we think but sometimes depicting stories from real life complete with consequences makes a stronger impression, a stronger deterrent, than telling someone "don't do it". You can say scripture's full of "don't do it"s but it's also full of stories with consequences - stories most of our children (and teens) never hear, by the way - stories that would be banned in Christian schools.
But not every real life situation with all its graphic detail (or Bible story) is age appropriate for every child and household.
There comes a time when we can't protect our kids and the "when" of that may vary depending on child, family, circumstances, and life beyond our control. That moment may not be the same for every family or even every child in a family. Until that time, if I'm a parent, I have a job to do. Both parents and teachers have the priviledge and responsibility to teach kids how to choose and make wise choices. Kids need their parents and their teachers to be on the same team, not pulling them in different directions.
Sometimes you follow your head and sometimes you follow your heart. Sometimes you listen to someone older and wiser. Sometimes you go digging for information and read it from different perspectives. We want to teach children to choose wisely and give them the support network to do that. As we give them more and more freedom to choose, we have to be willing to respect their choices . If we find ourselves disagreeing with those choices maybe we need to back up and ask ourselves why they made those choices.
We also have to remember that they won't be living in and raising their children in the same world we grew up in. Someday they may find themselves having to make choices we never dreamed of - God forbid. They need the tools to do that.
There's a time to look at the tree and a time to look at the forest. Freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and a parents' right to choose are (to me) valuable freedoms. My most basic thought and feeling - I better be darned careful before I take those freedoms away from someone else, if I expect someone else to extend the same courtesy to me.
What do you think?
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