Search Results for: blog eliminating illiteracy

Eliminating Illiteracy

In England, Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary stated families spend four hours a day watching TV. “If they read to their children for a tenth of that time, we could practically eliminate illiteracy,” he said. Twenty four minutes -it’s not a lot of time over the course of a day. Let’s go one step further. Imagine the results if you read to your children from the bible for that time or even half of it. What impact would it have not only on their lives but on your own? For years our family had a time of bible reading just … Continue reading →

The Most Vital thing You Can Do for Your Child’s Education

Today as promised, here is the most vital information about your child’s education and something any parent can do. The most important thing you can do for your child’s education is read to them, read to them from the time they are babies. Some experts believe even before they are born- while they are still in the womb. While we never went that far, we did read to our children from the time they were born. We read all sorts of books, starting with short, simple ones. As they got older we looked for those with good stories and use … Continue reading →

The Things That Matter

This wasn’t what I was planning to write. But after reading this article about Brogan Mackay I couldn’t help it. If you read through, you find this girl has Gucci handbags and designer clothes and expensive TV and computers etc but what about all that she doesn’t have? Yes, this 11 year old has all the things that money can buy, what I would question is whether she has any of the things that matter. Sadly, she appears to have parents who equate love only with buying things. Now, our children never had the material advantages this girl has, but … Continue reading →

A Basic Human Right

Are you depriving your children of a basic human right? Shelter, food and love are basic human rights and ones that all children deserve to experience. But UK author Michael Morpurgo, has added another to that list. His view is that parents who don’t read to their children are depriving them of a basic human right. I agree. You might say time is the problem. I heard someone on the radio the other day say ‘time is a luxury item these days.’ Maybe so. But we all have the same number of hours in a day. No matter how busy … Continue reading →

The Ultimate Life Coach

Today I was behind a learner driver on the way into town. This learner was belting down the highway at 100 kilometers an hour, which is the signposted speed. Except learners are not allowed to go over 80 kilometers per hour. If he’d read and taken notice of his rule book he would have known that rule. Maybe he did know and simply chose to ignore it, because when we got to roadwork where the speed limit was signposted as 80kph he dropped his speed to 90kph. When it dropped to 60kph he slowed to around 70kph. It made me … Continue reading →

Do You Want Better Social Skills?

If you want to improve at social skills read fiction. No, you did not read wrongly. If you want to improve at social skills read fiction. That’s the latest finding by cognitive scientists in Toronto. Over the years, I’ve met Christians who tell me with an element of pride they never read fiction – not just Christian fiction but ANY fiction. The implication is that their time is far too valuable to waste on fiction and stories that to their minds are made-up and therefore not true. I admit I’ve always found this is peculiar attitude and think they are … Continue reading →

Warts And All

Recently Valorie reviewed the movie, ‘Bridge to Terabithia.’ I haven’t seen the movie but it is a great book. It is one my son and I read and discussed along with several other Katherine Paterson novels, as he was growing up. One of the books I own is ‘The Invisible Child’ by Katherine Paterson. This is a collection of her essays and speeches delivered between 1975 and 2000. For a writer, it’s always interesting to read about other writers and their path to publication. Katherine Paterson mentions she had seven years of rejection slip before her novel, ‘The Sign of … Continue reading →

12 Suggestions For Raising Godly Children

So you want to bring your children up in God’s ways so that they will follow Him. Here are some suggestions for ways you can help achieve this. 1. Pray for and with your child. Let them see the reality of your faith as you turn to the Lord in prayer when problems or hard times come, or just for God’s help with decisions each day. Encourage them by your example to praise God for the blessings of life every day. 2. As you pray for your children, pray for those they will grow up to marry. From the time … Continue reading →

Amazon’s Bestselling Books – November 2007

Wondering what everyone in America is reading right now? I was a little curious myself and decided to take a look at Amazon’s bestseller list. I was pretty surprised to see how many nonfiction titles were listed amongst the top ten, but I do understand that twice as many nonfiction as fiction books are published per year, so maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Coming in at #1: “You: Staying Young: The Owner’s Manual for Extending Your Warranty” by by Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz. This book was written to help us understand how our bodies age … Continue reading →