Monthly Archives: January 2016

Understanding Teens

Uncategorized,

Train up a child…

Understanding Teens

Someone once said that raising teens is like nailing jello to the wall. It certainly is true that raising teens is difficult, but if we can understand some of the things that are happening to teens, raising them can be a little easier. There are many things to keep in mind when trying to figure out why teens do what they do. Here are a few of them:

Physical changes in teens greatly affect their behavior. Their change in size causes awkwardness. Just when they get used to the arms and legs being one size, suddenly they are longer and they bump into things. Hormone changes cause new feelings that they have never dealt with before. Acne is common among teens just as they start becoming concerned about how they look. The brain is not fully developed and teens tend to take risks that older people know better than to do.
Teens are expected to make decisions that they have not yet received factual information needed for making those decisions. They haven’t lived long enough to learn what we adults often expect them to know.
Teens have to deal with things that their parents did not have to deal with; therefore, parents often don’t know how to help them in those situations.
Many teens have been raised with no moral compass. They do not have a Spiritual foundation to give them something to fall back on when things get rough. Many of today’s teens have never been to a church.
Teens are frightened about what the future holds. They haven’t decided what to do with their lives and they hear about the condition of the world. Without a Spiritual foundation, they are confused about the purpose of living and where they fit in to the world. Teens often feel inadequate to cope with daily problems. Many teens feel hopeless and think, “What’s the use?” They see no light at the end of the tunnel and many teens contemplate suicide.
Many teens have only one parent and that parent usually works outside the home leaving the teens alone with depressing thoughts and no one to turn to for help.

There are other characteristics as well that space will not allow to be listed. From what is listed, we can easily see the trouble our teens are in and how difficult it is for them to come through this time of testing. One of the best things we can do to help our teens is to spend time with them—not to lecture, but to let them know that we understand at least part of what they are going through.

Pat’s short bio

Uncategorized

Short Biography

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

Pat first began teaching Sunday School while in 7th grade at Verona, Missouri, where she was born and raised. After high school graduation there, she attended Missouri University and graduated with honors with a degree in Vocational Home Economics and a minor in science. She later completed training and received certification for elementary teaching in New Mexico. She has taught Home Economics (including child care), kindergarten, second grade, and substitute taught at several schools at all grade levels. She was awarded the Missouri Distinguished Adult Basic Education Service Award for distinguished leadership and dedication in all aspects of Adult Basic Education in the community, region, and state. This award was given to one GED teacher in the state. She was included in “Who’s Who of American Educators” in 2007-15. She was also listed in Who’s Who of American Women and Who’s Who Among American Business Women.
Pat has recently written four books titled, “Let the Children Come” that was officially released nationwide Sept. 29, 2009, and a second book titled, “Children, Come to Me” that was released in April, 2011. Her third book, “When the Stars Fall Down”, was officially released in October, 2013. It is about the experiences she and her husband had while working with American Indians during the late 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. A fourth book, “Widening the Church Doors to Teach the Narrow Way” was released January 7, 2016.
In addition to classroom teaching, Pat has taught in churches and Sunday Schools through the years. She was Outreach Director and served as Acting Children’s Director at First Baptist Church in Albuquerque, NM, while Dr. Morris Chapman was pastor there. She also directed an Office of Navajo Economic Opportunity preschool on the Navajo reservation. She recently retired from teaching GED in Reeds Spring and taught GED classes for 15 years at Blue Eye, MO, and Shell Knob, MO. Altogether she taught GED classes more than twenty years.
Pat’s columns, “Train up a child”, and “Raising Children”, are currently published in the Crane Chronicle and the Southern Baptist Missouri newspaper, The Pathway.
Pat and her husband, Keith, who recently served on the Reeds Spring School Board, have three grown children and four grandchildren. They lost a son in 2011 who had served in the military. They celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary before Keith passed away in October, 2015.
“Our children and grandchildren have taught us a great deal and are still teaching me,” Pat says. “I look forward to sharing some of this information with others. I don’t claim to have all the answers, but perhaps my comments can be of some help. It is not easy to raise children in today’s world where children are constantly being bombarded with temptations and varying ideas of what is right and wrong.”

Pat Lamb/ Christian author, speaker
patlee@centurytel.net
www.patlambchristianauthor.com
Blog: raisingkidsonline.com
Phone (417) 338-0959

We practice what we believe; all the rest is just talk.

Being Organized Builds Confidence

Uncategorized, , ,

Train up a child…

Being Organized Builds Confidence

Probably every teacher and parent has witnessed a child at some time or another being frustrated because something could not be found. From “My dog ate my homework” to “Someone took it”, one excuse after another has been heard. Some children, believe it or not, are born as natural organizers. They are the ones who become engineers, auditors, or some similar profession. Most children, however, are not born as good organizers and must be taught how to handle things in such a way as to be in control of situations.
What can parents do to help children be better organized? They can be sure that a place is provided for a child’s belongings. They can help children let go of things no longer useful, and they can require children to put things in their proper places.
A child should, ideally, have a private room. Realistically, we know that this is not always possible. In either case, a child can be given his/her own space even if a room must be shared. Those of us who grew up in the years of the Great Depression remember covering orange crates with homemade curtains to provide shelves for books or other items. We used boxes under beds for personal things. (We even used baling wire across the corner of a room to hang our clothes since we had no closet!) Sometimes we could find old furniture to refinish for desks or dressers. It may take resourcefulness, but there are ways to provide places to put our belongings. Now, there are all shapes and sizes of plastic shelves, boxes, etc. for almost any purpose. Parents and children can determine together what is needed and figure out ways to provide for that need.
It helps to go through belongings periodically to get rid of items no longer being used. Broken things should be repaired or disposed of by giving or throwing away. Many of us are guilty of hanging on to things thinking that “some day” we will need something. Chances are that “some day” may never come. We need to be realistic about the things we keep around.
Once we have gotten rid of unneeded things and a place has been made for needed items, children should be required to put their things in the proper places. It is easy to get in a hurry and leave things lying around, but a child can get in a habit of putting things away if there is consistency in requiring the child to do so. A habit of neatness will be formed that hopefully carries through to organizing smaller things like notebooks, textbooks, desks, etc.
It is sad to see the look of hopelessness on a child’s face in a classroom when a paper can’t be found and the teacher and class are waiting for it to be produced. The child feels terrible! A child who is organized and can produce an item on demand feels proud and confident and unafraid of coping.