Are You About To Blow?

Something was very wrong, very very wrong. There was steam pouring out of the back deck and a shrill whistling sound. Underneath the wooden deck was our ensuites hot water cylinder (HWC). I didn’t know much about plumbing but I knew enough that steam and whistling was not right. I tried the hot tap in the bathroom and it spluttered out extremely boiling brown water!  The plumber came and went after two or so hours. Apparently the thermostat was broken and if the pressure was not allowed to be released, the cylinder would be like a bomb and the whole room would have blown sky high!!!! Now who would block the pressure release outlet? Don’t laugh but this plumber guy has seen the destruction!!

The funny thing is that I was just like our HWC this week. We struggle and struggle with issues or just daily life and instead of releasing the “steam” (in a useful way) – we plug it up. Everyone’s plug is different. A plug is something that brings relief but only for a moment. It doesn’t deal with the underlying problem (the broken thermostat). Here is some ‘plug’ examples:

•     T.V.  -It sure feels good to watch a few mindless dramas.
•     Food and lots of it – Emotional eating has a lot to answer for!
•     Romance Novels -. A bit of escape into a fantasy world.
•     Exercise –yes this can became an addiction to some people!
•     And my plug ……………………………CHOCOLATE!

These plugs are not bad in themselves – a bit of chocolate now and then is supposed to be good for your heart, so they say. But it is when you can’t go through a day or a week without using these plugs to stop the pressure and steam. I know it from experience – the kids may be giving me a hard day and by the time it reaches 2pm my mind is telling me “you really need some chocolate – you deserve it!!”

Yep I used the chocolate plug this week! And it obviously wasn’t enough because I did blow!! What was broken? Basically I was trying to do too much by myself AND also it doesn’t help that I worried about things that I had no control over. A Big Lesson Week, for sure.

Rachel Larkin

A Secret to Gaining Healthier Kids

Hi there,

Here is a FREE article on gaining healthier kids. Click – A Secret to Gaining Healthier Kids

Don’t forget about the FREE offer to join my mailing list – click the link to join- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BecomingBeautiful/

This is where members are sent articles, tips and hints on Becoming Beautiful. Currently we are dealing with beautifying our words.

Rachel Larkin

No Worries Mate!

Hi There!

There is a common expression where I live (“down under”) -It is No Worries!.

Some people use it all the time – its sort of means, ‘don’t be concerned, I’ve got it covered’ or ‘it’s not worth being concerned about – no problem or no drama’.

You know what? – we can say “No Worries” to anybody who seems concerned about your homeschool program or lifestyle!, if we are leaning on God’s wisdom and guidance.

He is extremely interested in everything that goes on in our homes, from training the kids in how to wash and wipe the dishes to treating each other with kindness (instead of having a punch up! yes – I have boys).
In fact God actually has the perfect promise for homeschooling parents, He is so interested in our children that He promises to teach them everything they need to know!

Here it is -

Isaiah 54v13
“All your sons will be taught by the Lord…”
Wow! – that certainly takes the heat out of things, I can really say “No Worries!” God has got it covered. I just need to listen to his promptings and go with the flow.

But it gets better -God adds an extra cherry on the top of this promise -

“…and great will be your children’s peace”

God certianly thinks of everything – He will not only teach my boys (through me and circumstances) but also pour peace into their minds and hearts. If my home has an underlying atmosphere of peace not discord then their hearts will be teachable and life will definitely be NO WORRIES!

Rachel Larkin currently resides in New Zealand with her soul mate, Noel and their three awesome boys (aged 9 to 5). Rachel worked in the corporate world for ten years as a Chartered Accountant before coming home to homeschool her children. She has a passion for inspiring and encouraging women to partake of all that God has for them. Check out her website: http://www.Rachel-Larkin.com for more encouraging articles and Freebies.

Six Vital Things……

Here are My Six Vital Things to include in your kid’s day-

1. Meaningful work
2. Imaginative play
3. Good books
4. Beauty (art,music, nature)
5. Ideas to ponder and discuss
6. Prayer

What do you consider important?
Comments are welcome!

Rachel Larkin

Discovering your Child’s Passion

By Rachel Larkin

When we pulled our oldest boy out of school, the words “Mum I’m bored” was heard frequently in our home. He had only one year of state schooling and was already infected with the boredom disease. Schooling seemed to have taken away his ability to have ideas and plugged up his creativity. He wasn’t able to stop, relax and enjoy spending hours on a project or hobby. I guess the school routine didn’t allow for periods of thinking and ideas and tinkering time. Boys need tinkering time!

So I had to come up with a way to get the thinking of ideas going, ideas of what to make and ideas of what to do. We spent the first year of our home educating journey getting to know one another again. Just enjoying reading a book, going on field trips together and getting to know our local area. Over this time several interests and passions started to emerge, it was exciting to see his mind become active and the sparkle in his eyes when we discovered something new.

He developed a love of climbing Auckland’s volcanoes. We captured our volcano discoveries on film and he gathered information as we went. It was interesting to stand back and ponder what was motivating his love of mountains. At first I thought it was the act of climbing them but he always wanted to get to the top and wasn’t really concerned with the process of the climb. I then thought that it was the mountain itself and was directing him to books on rocks and the history of volcanos but it wasn’t really any of that, he showed an interest but it wasn’t his passion it wasn’t what was driving him. His underlying motivation was…. what he saw when he got to the top of the mountain!! – The cityscape below him, the roads interlocking, the busyness of the cars, the people like ants scurrying around, the areas of industrial factories compared to the residential streets. That was what was interesting him.

From this experience (which took place over a year) he has developed his passion of cities and has moved onto road maps. At the age of six and a half he had very advanced mapping skills, owned his own copies of the Auckland street map and the road code. He would have passed the road code test if he was allowed to sit it.!

How can mum spark an interest in her child? A start would be having a “productive free time” list. This is a list of activities that are fun and educational and may be the start of an interest or hobby for your child. I found various “productive free time” lists on the internet where other mums had composed a list of possible productive activities for their home educated children. I sat down with my son and together we went through the lists and came up with our own. The list was printed double spaced and we cut each item into a long strip. We placed the long strips into a special box. When we had reached a point in the day when he didn’t know what to do with himself he had to pick two or three pieces of paper from the box and decide on one activity.

Later on, when his decision making skills were more developed, the box was put aside and we had the printed list on the wall and he independently made a choice. The “productive free time” list had its place for a season and now we don’t seem to need it as the boys are fuelling their own passions.

Click to see the Larkin Family’s Productive Free Time List

Sowing Generously in Life

“Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” 2 Corinthians 9 v 6

How do we sow generously into the lives of our children?

Here are a couple of ideas:

• Get alongside your children and together learn how to do a chore. It’s a process. Show them each part of the chore over a period of time. The secret to training your children in a particular household chore is:

“You watch me do it, we do it together, you do it”

This may take one month or it may take a year depending on the child and the job. Be prepared for your child not to “get it” on the 1st time or the 2nd time or the 20th! It’s a process. Don’t get angry at them; make it a fun time, one on one with your child.

• See your child through Gods eyes.

A child bears the marks of the creator God on his or her soul, the imago dei, the image of God. Your child’s mind is preformatted and already loaded with an infinitely complex program, ready run out of the box, and just waiting for your instructions.

It’s not your responsibility to program your child, but rather to run the program that God has already put there. (excerpt from “Heartfelt Discipline” by Clay Clarkson)

In order to sow generously into your children’s hearts and lives you have to discover what “program” God has placed in your child by-

*Prayerfully discovering what your child’s love language is. Do they respond to

· receiving gifts? or

· words of encouragement? or

· an act of service? or

· physical touch? or

· quality time from you?

A helpful book in this area is “The five love languages of children” by Chapman & Campbell

• Find out what their learning style is.

If your child is having difficulties at school, don’t be in a hurry to label them with a learning difficulty. In most cases they may just have a different learning style to what schools cater to.

Learning in the school system is set up for an Auditory Sequential Learner, where the child learns by listening to the teacher up the front He also learns easily with a sequential format, where we start at one point and then move onto the next stage or point then the next and so on.

A Visual Spatial Learner may not be catered for in this environment, where they need to see and observe what the teacher is talking about. A Spatial Learner also would rather see the big picture, why are we learning this particular point? Where does it fit into the scheme of things?, before they can learn the details.

A very informative website on visual spatial children is www.visualspatial.org. The book “Upside-down Brilliance” by Linda Kreger Silverman has a very detailed list of resources to help this type of child and is highly recommended