A Stable Beginning: What Every Child Should Know Along the Way: Parenting Made Practical ~ a TOS review

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

What Every Child Should Know Along the Way: Parenting Made Practical ~ a TOS review

Being a parent takes work. If you put in the time and effort now while the children are young you will reap the benefits when they are older. But have you ever had a moment of panic when you thought to yourself “have I taught them everything they should know”? I have! Once when we were getting my oldest, Marie, ready to leave for University and now a second time as we prepare to send Madison to University next year. That’s why I was so glad to get a copy of the book What Every Child Should Know Along the Way from Parenting Made Practical.

Parenting Made Practical is a family owned company based out of Washington state. The author of the book, Gail Martin, and her husband, Jim, produce quality, Christian educational materials to equip and encourage moms and dads to raise respectful, obedient, and responsible children in today’s overcomplicated world. For this review we were blessed to receive a paperback copy of the book What Every Child Should Know Along the Way and a copy of the DVD Navigating the Rapids.

What Every Child Should Know Along the Way is a great little book jam-paced with information on how parents can learn what to except from their children at different ages and stages of life. Several different areas are focused on including manners, chores, and responsibilities. Through hands-on, practical advice, you the parent, will learn just how to teach the necessary practical life skills to your children as well as encourage them along the way in habits of godly christian living.

This paperback book is 151 pages in length and addresses biblical parenting tips. With seven chapters the book goes into many different facets of raising godly children. The chapters include topics on:

~ Dynamic Devotional Living

~ Cultivating Family Unity

~ Gifts and Talents

~ Biblical Character Traits

~ Manners

~ Practical Living Skills

~ Personal Safety

He tends His flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to his heart; He gently leads those that have young.

~ Isaiah 40:11

I really enjoyed reading the “Twelve rules for Raising Delinquent Children” in the introduction. It is eye opening. When reading it I couldn’t help but see where parents are going wrong in our society right now. It also gave me an opportunity to see that I am in fact aiming my children correctly according to this list.

‘if you fail to aim, you aim to fail’

{pg. 13}

I have found that this book came to us just in the nick of time. You see we are in a season of life right now where my husband is essentially deployed and working in another state. That means I have to be “everything” for our children. Realizing that I can’t do it all, this book has shown me the areas where I still need to instill the godly training my children. I have started focusing on raising “diligent kids” while using the included chart found within the book. When the children reach their achievement goals on the chart we can either participate in a fun activity or have a special treat.

The Practical Living Skills chart was extremely helpful for me to see just what exactly my children are capable of doing at each age. At first I was a bit hesitant to let my 8 year old vacuum, because it is bigger and heavier than her, but she was a willing participate and thought it was a fun task! I have since revamped our chore chart to include more age appropriate chores for each of my children because I was failing trying to do it all. In our house that means my 11 year old is learning to bake the muffins and biscuits the children eat each week. Yes, it is a learning process, but once she is proficient at it, it means I can use my time doing another task. My soon to be 4-year old son is learning how to empty the trash cans every other night. While it is not his favorite task, we make it fun. The list is divided by age group and builds upon the previous listing of chores. Overall, this is a go to book for me to make sure I am on track.

Also inside our package was a surprise DVD called Navigating the Rapids of Parenting. This video has some really great advice on how to steer your children from birth to college. The video is divided into two sessions, Session 1 is from Birth - Middle School, while Session 2 is from Middle School - College. Each session is filmed in a seminar type of setting like at a conference. The video quality is good and visuals and handouts are included too. Each session is approximately 40-45 minutes long as Joey and Carla Link detail the phases that a child goes through along with what to expect during certain phases of childhood. Examples of how to handle specific issues that arise are also given. Overall, these two items have been a helping hand in our home.

Some of my CrewMates reviewed different items including:

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)

Click on the banner below to read their reviews, you’ll be glad you did!