Do you set yearly goals with your children? What do you hope your child will know at different ages and stages of their development and growth? Would you like to raise up children for the glory of God?
Parenting Made Practical has a helpful resource to help you set and reach family development goals called What Every Child Should Know Along the Way ~ Teaching practical life skills in every stage of life.
What Every Child Should Know Along The Way
Paperback Book
151 pages
Parenting Resource
Retail $11.95 (Sale $9.95)
What Every Child Should Know Along The Way is written by Gail Martin. Gail is an experienced homeschooling mom. Gail is a college graduate in Home Economics and Nutrition. She is a bible study leader and conference speaker. She is the wife of church elder and leader Jim Martin and together they are leaders in Christian ministry for Jesus Christ helping to train and impact families, marriages, and future generations for the Kingdom of God.
Spiritual and Practical aspects of child training:
The main preface of the book is to focus on both the spiritual and practical aspects of Christian child training. The book is divided into seven chapter categories:
- Dynamic Devotional Living
- Cultivating Family Unity
- Gifts and Talents
- Biblical Character Traits
- Manners
- Practical Living Skills
- Personal Safety
Chapters:
Chapter 1: Dynamic Devotional Living
Dynamic Devotional Living explains why and how to have family devotions. Practical steps are given to set up a family prayer journal where you can list prayer requests and answers to prayer and put the date in. There is also a lot of discussion and encouragement to establish time and opportunities for structured and unstructured family devotions.
Chapter 2: Cultivating Family Unity
This chapter explains why it is important to get along and create unity in the family. It encourages family activities and spending time together and use these opportunities to build relationships.
Chapter 3: Gifts and Talents
In this chapter, we learned about what gifts and talents are, such as physical talents can be skills like singing, art, strength, athletics, etc and spiritual gifts can be things like wisdom, discernment, faith, prayer, healing, prophesy, love, etc. These gifts and talents are ordained by God in our life when he created each of us, and it matters that we learn how to use our spiritual gifts and talents with humility, determination, and dedication for the Kingdom of God.
Chapter 4: Biblical Character Traits
This chapter focuses on how to become Godly men and women and what character traits it takes to get there. It takes a closer look at specific people in the bible as our example to strive for.
Chapter 5: Manners
This chapter discusses specific manners to develop in your children and how to use them in different settings. It also teaches you how to resolve conflicts and help them maintain God’s word in their attitude and actions in many different settings and circumstances in life.
Chapter 6: Practical Living Skills
This chapter focuses on Practical Living Skills for ages 2 through Adult.
It includes a huge checklist of skills for different ages and stages of life, little posters and ideas you can put up on the wall or fridge, chore charts, and more.
Chapter 7: Personal Safety
This chapter discusses various types of personal safety everyone should know. Some of the information is general and applies to everyone and some of the information is specific to situations. Some general info for example is safety on stairs, or public bathrooms. Some specific safety info examples are: using and caring for a bike, swim safety, vehicle safety, stranger safety, internet safety, fire safety, etc.
There is a lot of safety information in this chapter. I especially liked the suggestion for creating a family emergency preparedness kit. A few years ago, we looked into how to be better prepared in our home and improve our skills to survive natural disasters such as power outages that affect access to heat, water, food, and medical aid and this book contains lots of wise and practical suggestions everyone can implement.
My favorite aspect of this chapter on personal safety is the inclusion of scriptures that point the way to Father God for our safety and security. It is honestly my favorite thing about this entire book, but especially in this chapter, to point the way to put our trust in God, as most advice in our modern world seems to trust in, and rely on, everything else but God.
Final Thoughts:
I enjoyed reading What Every Child Should Know Along The Way. This book is a wonderful resource jam packed with information to help families raise up responsible well mannered children who honor and serve Father God with their life.
This book would be wonderful to put into the hands of every teenager, everyone getting married, everyone who is pregnant, parents, and grandparents too. In the back of the book is a Resource Guide with suggestions for books for a family library, bible study helps, and lots more books and resources on parenting and home management. I will continue to use this book as a resource in my home.
“But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” Matthew 18:6-7
Raising Christian kids for the glory of God is a big challenge in the modern culture and world we live in. There are many offences in this world that can lead people, and especially children, astray. Today it seems easier to let the government, schools, TV shows, internet and computers, and pop culture raise our kids. But what is this doing to the next generation? It is easy for folks to call on police, doctors, schools, organizations, church, pastors, leaders, teachers, science, pharma, diet plans, exercise protocols, courses on self development, or government to guide them and save them in all sorts of situations, but most folks either forget or intentionally choose not to call on Father God and trust and rely on him. The result is a that most of the upcoming and maturing generations are turning away from true faith in God.
“Who is your God?” or “Who are your gods?” is the very question that encompasses a snapshot of each of our lives. We will live life according to how we answer this question. This question can be answered by another simple and profound question: “Who do you place your trust in?” Truly trusting in and relying on Father God as the ultimate one in charge of the outcome of every situation one might find one’s self in life is foundational in our Christian faith.
“Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.
And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.
Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.
Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.” Matthew 12:1b-9
Father God protects us and provides for us and He expects us to teach these truths to our children. If we don’t, we are guilty of denying him before men. Father God and His Son says in his word that we can trust Him because not one sparrow falls from a branch and not one hair falls from your head that He doesn’t know about. He sent his Son Jesus Christ the Messiah to redeem us, forgive us, to fill us with a spirit of love, power, and sound mind, and to heal our health and well being, and to save our eternal soul so we can daily walk in relationship with God. The Hebrew word for Father God is Yah or Yahuah and the Hebrew word Jesus Christ his Son is Yahusha or Yahusha HaMashiac. The Son said he came in his Father’s name to do his Father’s business. He also said if you have seen him, you have also seen the Father. Yahusha means Yahuah Saves. Father God and Jesus share the same name, Yah. See Father God always provides and He knows the end from the beginning. Father God has the ultimate control in every situation in life. He asks us to submit our life to Him and completely trust Him, because He knows what we need and has provided the way, the truth, and the life.
The most practical life skill we can teach our children is to teach them to believe and trust in Father God with their life and believe and accept the gift of salvation through His Son. Father God is the one and only true God and is who we should educate our children about, place our complete trust in, call on for every need in every situation, and give thanks to for everything.
Proverbs 22:6
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Parenting Made Practical
Parenting Made Practical (PMP) was started by parent educators who have been ministering to families for over twenty years. Parenting Made Practical has many simple practical resources to encourage parents, equip parents with tools and biblical resources and empower them to raise respectful and responsible kids for the glory of God our Father in heaven.
The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Review Crew members recently reviewed several different products from Parenting Made Practical, such as:
- What Every Child Should Know Along the Way (book)(preschool to college)
- Taming the Lecture Bug and Getting Your Kids to Think (book) (for parents of kids ages 8-high school)
- Why Can’t I Get My Kids to Behave (book) (for parents of kids ages 2-12)
- Navigating the Rapids of Parenting (Video) (for parents of kids from age 2 through college)
- Taming the Lecture Bug and Getting Your Kids to Think (Video) (for parents of kids ages 8-college)
- Dating, Courting & Choosing a Mate… What Works? (Video) (for parents of kids ages 9-college)
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Homeschool Review Crew
Be sure to read the other reviews from family on the Homeschool Review Crew to learn more about the other products available from Parenting Made Practical.
