Monthly Archives: November 2018

Children Need Help with Gift Giving

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patlambchristianauthor.com

 

Train up a child…

 

Children Need Help with Gift Giving

 

There is so very much emphasis on the excitement of children at Christmastime and the need to make sure that children get the things they desire to make them happy.  In fact, some have even said that Christmas is for children.  Truth is, Christmas is a time to recognize the birth of our Savior and it is for everyone, but we can’t help but want to make sure that children enjoy this very special time.

It is more important for children to experience the joy of giving than it is for them to enjoy the experience of getting, and the giving can make them happier than the receiving.  Some may think that this is not possible, but if we look closely with our mind’s eye, we can see that we quite often remember the gifts we gave more than the gifts we received.  It is the same with children.  Children, however, need help in their planning and giving.  This requires time, patience, and resourcefulness.

We need to take the time to help children make a gift list. This list should include parents, teachers, grandparents, and other special people in their lives.  It takes time, also, to help the children discover resources they have available such as money or materials for making gifts.  After this is done, we help the children make or purchase gifts.

It is not easy to be patient with children when we, ourselves, are so busy trying to prepare gifts for others. Time spent making a plaster of Paris handprint, a jar of brownie mix, or a jar of soup mix takes a little time that we may not feel we have available.  Making such gifts, however, provides a time of bonding and learning and is well worth the time involved. Many ideas are available on the Internet, and just looking up those ideas is a learning experience for children.

Children learn to be resourceful and at the same time are learning to manage their money as they work to provide gifts for the ones they love.  It is difficult for children to find anything to purchase with the limited funds they have. It is nice when adults help out with this problem.  Some have provided a “Holiday Store” for children.  The children go to the store with an adult and a list of names for whom they will purchase gifts.  The list also indicates the amount of money the child has to spend.  Items that have been provided by adults are available in the store, and they are priced very low so that the children can afford them. Some items are only twenty-five cents. Those on hand who volunteer to work in the store help the children count and figure how much money each thing costs and how much change they will get in return.

Who among us does not have some treasure from the past given to us by our children?  This year I hung, once again, a wreath made of plastic bags by our youngest son when he was in elementary school.  It provides another year of remembering his love for me.  I still have ornaments made of play-doh that go on the Christmas tree. They are still feeling the joy of giving as they see their mom still being happy at having received those gifts.   Christmas truly is a time to remember that it is better to give than to receive.

Check out my new book!

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Pat Lamb’s New Book ‘My Thinking Book’ is an Enriching Compendium of Hard Questions and Truthful Answers About Faith and Life for Kids.

PRESS RELEASE UPDATED: NOV 5, 2018

“My Thinking Book” from author Pat Lamb is an engaging book for young readers who enter life abuzz with the questions about life, people, and God, a question-and-answer manual where they are not only given wise, honest, scripture-based, and age-appropriate answers for a given question each day of the year, but are also encouraged to think for themselves and grow in wisdom throughout their lives.

REEDS SPRING, Mo., November 5, 2018 (Newswire.com) – Pat Lamb, a widowed grandmother and distinguished educator for over sixty years now living in Branson, Missouri, where she is a parenting columnist for local newspapers, has completed her new book “My Thinking Book”: a helpful, stimulating book for curious young thinkers.

Pat writes, “‘Why are there wars?’ ‘If I am really good, will I go to heaven?’ ‘Why are some people mean to others?’

Children have many questions! They deserve truthful answers to their questions. As they learn the truth, a foundation of understanding is being established that will last a lifetime.

This book gives truthful answers in a concise way to stimulate thinking and conversation about many topics bothering children. What a confusing world our children are facing! Often, our efforts to make everything fun and easy simply confuse children all the more. The earlier in life children can understand answers to their questions, based on the Scripture, the easier their future will be. Children are constantly required to make decisions. Without the correct knowledge, how can they make the right decisions?

“My Thinking Book” is designed for children to read for themselves or have it read to them. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the New King James Version of the Bible. Although reading ability varies, generally, third-graders or above can read it. Parents may choose to read “My Thinking Book” to the children to provide a springboard for conversation.

A parent would do well to make “My Thinking Book” available for every child!

Pat Lamb’s new book is an instructive and much-needed guide that takes children’s prescient questions seriously and points them in the right direction for truth.

Without downplaying the complexity of life or being unnecessarily vague, Lamb speaks to children with respect, compassion, and understanding.

Readers can purchase “My Thinking Book” at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble, at www.patlambchristianauthor.com, or patlee@centurytel.net

Source: Covenant Books

Additional Links

www.patlambchristianauthor.com

e-mail: patlee@centurytel.net

 

Children Can Learn to Organize

parenting, Raising kids

Train up a child…

 

Children Can Learn to Organize

 

The Christmas season is a good time to teach children a lesson about organizing.  Even though they are more excited than usual at this time, they can still learn to take on some responsibilities to make Christmas a more pleasant time for themselves and others.

A good thing to keep in mind when parenting is to always have children take on the responsibilities for caring for themselves as they are able to do so.  Adults often mistakenly think they are helping their children by doing everything for them.  Children learn responsibility and become independent by caring for their own needs.  School children have people to whom they want to give a gift at Christmas, and they can plan and organize their time and resources to take care of those gifts, to a great extent, themselves.

There is nothing better for organizing than lists.  Children can make lists to examine their resources, remember the persons to whom they will give gifts, and dates for accomplishing tasks.

Most children have piggy banks and perhaps money from allowances.  They can list the amount of money they have along with ways to earn more money.  They may also have gifts they have received in the past that are unused that can be regifted to their friends. They can look through magazines such as “Family Fun” for ideas of gifts to make. Just thinking about resources brings an awareness to a child of the need to save their money for needed times.

Children should make lists of those persons to whom they want to give a gift. This list should include their teacher, Sunday School teacher, mom and dad, sisters and brothers. (Some schools request that gifts not be given to teachers, so this should be checked out before planning a gift.) After these “essential” gifts are taken care of, they can choose friends or other special people to whom they would like to give a gift.

If a gift is to be given to a teacher or church worker, dates should be written down as to programs, the last day of school before vacation, or the last event at church before Christmas.  It is easy to let these times slip up and not be ready.  If the family has a calendar on the refrigerator, as many families do, these dates could be posted there.

When the lists are done, the children can begin to purchase or make gifts and feel secure knowing they have all under control.  Children will enjoy Christmas much more if they feel that they have been useful in planning and giving.  This small lesson in organization will carry over into other areas of life and help the child to be more confident in years to come.  Mom and dad will feel less pressure in knowing that the child is taking responsibility for some of the tasks to be done.  When a child takes part in the planning and execution of the plans, that child builds self-esteem and learns the true meaning of giving at Christmas time.

Help Children be Truly Thankful

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Note:  My new book, “My Thinking Book”, has just been released.  It is a daily devotional book for children.  Check out: https://covenantbooks.newswire.com/news/pat-lambs-new-book-my-thinking-book-is-an-enriching-compendium-of-hard-20694242  It is available on my website shown below as well as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and bookstores throughout the country.

Train up a child—

Help Children be Truly Thankful

It is not easy to achieve a true thankfulness in children when they often do not understand that all they have is because of God.  Also, many children, in today’s time, have so many things that they do not understand what it means to do without, and the blessings they have are often taken for granted. We should, therefore, make sure that children understand that the holiday of Thanksgiving is for the purpose of being thankful to our Creator for our many blessings.  Secondly, we need to help children identify what their blessings are in order to be thankful for them.

There have been many good books written about the holiday we are about to observe.  We are fortunate, in our area, to have an excellent library where many books are available for parents to read to children, or for the children to read for themselves.  The first chapter of the book of Genesis in the Bible is a good chapter to read to children to let them know of God’s creation.  When children are told that God created everything, they are apt to say something like, “Did God make cars, too?”  It needs to be explained that God made the things that are used in making the cars, like the metal, and he also gave man the knowledge to invent them.

Once children understand the source of their blessings, they need to identify those blessings.  One way to help children be aware of their helpful conveniences is to play a “hide and thank” game.  Each day the parents could take one thing that is important to the children and hide it until the child misses it.  Keep it hidden long enough to let the child experience the inconvenience of not having it; then, give it to the child and say something like, “I’ll bet you are thankful that you have _______!”  After a few days of this, the children catch on to the fact that they have many things to be thankful for.  It has been said that “We never miss the water until the well runs dry.” That is probably true and the idea applies to many more things than just water.  I’m not sure it is possible to be truly thankful unless we know what it is to do without.

Our country has experienced many tragedies in the recent years.  Many people involved in those tragedies had perhaps never known what it was like to do without many of the things we take for granted each day.  We need to teach our children to not only be thankful for what we have, but to be prepared to do without many of those things. We have no guarantee that we will have them the rest of our lives.  Those of us who lived during the Great Depression know that it is possible to survive on much less than most of us enjoy at this time.  We have much for which to be thankful.  Let us pattern the example of thankfulness for our children. Just as we expect people to be thankful for any gift we may give them, God also expects us to be thankful for the gifts he gives to us.

 

patlee@centurytel.net

www.patlambchristianauthor.com

 

 

 

Give Your Children the Best Gift

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Train up a child…

 

Give your Children the Best Gift

 

What is the best gift you can give your children?  Many experts agree that the best thing that parents and grandparents can give children is their time.  Yet, as the holiday season approaches, we find ourselves wanting more time, and we find it more difficult to give the time to children that they need.

How can we give more time to children, and what are the benefits of doing so?

One of the easiest ways to give more time to children is to include them in the activities we do. The benefits of giving more time are many.  Three of those benefits are bonding, learning more about our children, and giving the children a feeling of worth.

As we include children in activities, they relax and open up in more ways than they normally would. Children most often say and do the things that they know their parents expect of them.  This prevents adults from knowing what they are really thinking and feeling.  When they relax in activities, they drop their guard and we find out more about them. We are often surprised to find that our children may be thinking and feeling something entirely different from what we had thought.  This gives us clues as to their needs in guidance as they grow.

As children assist in activities such as decorating, baking, making gifts, shopping, or other holiday happenings, they bond with adults in achieving the common goal of making others happy. While doing so, they can discuss how they think the recipient will respond, and they feel happy about achieving something good with their parents. Little faces light up in anticipation of the happiness they are creating, and a special closeness is achieved as feelings of accomplishment are shared.

When parents take time to include children in activities, the children feel that their parents think their ideas are valuable.  They develop a feeling of worth because mom or dad wanted them to help. The opposite is true when they are pushed aside.  Children then feel that their ideas and help are not wanted or needed.  They look to find their own activities aside from parents. Children have an inner desire to feel that they are valuable to someone.  No toy or game purchased for a child can make up for that feeling.

It is not difficult to include children in activities.  The key is to find something within the child’s ability.  There is always something they can do if it is no more than holding a finger on the ribbon while a bow is being tied.  For Thanksgiving Dinner, children can help set the table and participate in ways to help in preparation of food.  The quality of the dish is not as important as the quality of child we are raising.

There is nothing we can buy or do for our children that is any more important than spending time with them.