On My Way To Heaven

Homeschooling One Child – Part III

Friday again, a great day to sit and read and learn from another homeschooling mom and about her beautiful journey teaching her precious daughter. Eileen Lawyer, is my friend and guest on this series, which you will be able to follow for several Fridays.

We have addressed laying the foundation (part I), and enjoying God while doing so (part II). Today, let us consider how to make our child a delight to be with.

Mike and I have been asked, “How did you teach Rachel how to play with others?”

When Rachel was little we played together…a lot. Not in the sense that I was washing dishes in the ‘big’ sink and she was next to me washing her plastic dishes in the ‘little’ sink (however, we did do this), but rather, the down-on-the-floor kind of playing: dressing her dollies; choosing which Beanie Babies we would play with that day; playing Hot and Cold when we hid her ‘pretty’ rocks; or even choosing marbles.

It is important in these early years, that you do not always let your child choose her doll or toy first. (Of course, if you have a son, the same applies to his trucks, soldiers, etc.) You may not actually care which one you play with and are happy to let her pick first, but you need to care. By that I mean that teaching your child to share, to let someone else go first, is part of loving your neighbor. Make an effort to take turns with which one of you gets to pick first. “I went first yesterday, Rachel, how about if you pick first today?” Then your child will see that giving to one another is good and normal, and that’s how we play.

There are numerous opportunities to apply this – who picks which way to turn at the end of your driveway for your walk? Or, which book shall we read together? Take turns, but take care that you portray a sense of ‘you first’ so that you both will always be giving to the other. (Kind of like marriage, huh?) When your children visit their grandparents, it is a delight to watch them ask Grandma to ‘go first’, or for them to tell Grandpa that he can pick which game to play.

And, the time to teach this is not when your child meets little Susie at the park and a tug-of-war ensues over swings or sand toys. That’s when it should be put into practice. The training for sharing, for being kind to one another, occurs at home. The years to come will be all the more pleasurable if sharing is taught early on.

Years ago, when my husband was pasturing a church in another state, we invited a family over to have dinner with us. They had a couple of children around Rachel’s age and we thought it would be a fun evening for all. Soon I realized that the training about sharing wasn’t going well in their home, and it certainly wasn’t going well in our living room. Even though they had more than one child, the concept of giving to one another, to share, to play with one another not against one another, hadn’t been taught well. Our small daughter just stood and watched in amazement. She was certainly learning a lot that night.

Kindness never goes out of style, neither does sharing and playing well with others. So, share your last cookie, even if there’s only one bite left.

Note: As I’m sure you’ve noticed,I generally write these posts using
pronouns in the feminine case. Please adjust what I’m saying for your sons.

Eileen

Part IV , is found  here.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 12, 2010 at 4:00 AM and is filed under Guests, Learning at Home with tags Homeschool, Just Friends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.