Staying on Task

Does anyone else have extremely artistic children like I do? This can be a wonderful thing! They can spend hours just sitting and drawing, in complete focus and concentration. They draw and paint lovely pictures, many of them frame worthy. It could come from my grandmother on my fathers side who is an artist, or me, their very right brained mother herself, or maybe just a talent that they have both just naturally picked up on since birth. I don't know for sure. But, along with this great ability to be totally engrossed with drawing from their imagination, comes much non-focus while attempting to accomplish other tasks such as their math work or vocabulary. I thought to myself many times, maybe it's because the worksheets are too tedious for their genius minds :) or maybe because I need to teach them math and spelling in a different way other than worksheet style. Yes, perhaps to really ingrain these problem solving lessons in math and vocabulary I need to come up with a different approach, but, at the same time, I want my children to be able to finish a task whether it is 'their style' or not.
My boys have memorized the little poem
"Stick to your task til it sticks to you,
beginners are many, but enders are few."
So, in conclusion,
I decided that yes, it is wonderful to have artistic children, But when it is math time it is math time. When it is reading time, it is reading time. When it is feed the dog time, it is feed the dog time. This is called responsibility. I want my boys to be able to begin and complete a task in a timely manner.
When my oldest now does his math worksheets, he is timed and if I see a 5 with a tail coming out of it or a 3 with eyeballs, he knows that that means he has to begin again from the beginning.
Simple as that.
No I do not do this all the time. If he wants to turn his 5 into a monster or add eyeballs to his 3's any other time during the day, that's fine with me. If he wants to add arms, legs and mustaches to the guy in the newspaper or the program at church, I'm cool with that. The point is, I want my boys to be able to begin and end a task in a timely manner.




Boston H. Henke

I am Divinely Qualified!

I have had many mothers tell me "I could never have the patience to teach my own kids, it would be a fight the whole time." or "I don't feel qualified to teach my own children." I would listen to their reasons and then ask myself the same questions after our visit was over. "Was I really qualified? Was I kidding myself thinking that I had enough 'experience' under my belt? Did I have more patience than other mothers?". I admit, it took me a little while to figure out the answer to these questions. At that time I was asking the Lord a different question on what to do with my oldest child who is incredible creative and gets side-tracked easily. I was struggling with helping him to concentrate and finish a job to the end. When I finally received my answer on what to do about it, I also received another answer at the same time to the question I asked myself above. I received my answer to the question about my son. Therefore I was Divinely led! I am Divinely qualified to teach my child! The Lord chose ME. Not anyone else. I am a co-creator of spiritual offspring. I do not need to have years and years of college credits or degrees. I do not need to have lesson plans and lectures comparable to the great orators of time. I am my child's greatest mentor and example. I had been called and set-apart the moment my child entered my womb to guide, direct, teach and inspire. The Lord chose ME! No one loves my child as I do. Who then could be a better teacher? I am Divinely Qualified. What other qualification could I need?
I repeat the plea of Bishop H. Burke Peterson, "Mothers, catch the vision of your call!"