A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Highschool

The Electoral Process In Canada

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Today is an election day in Canada.   Two years ago the Liberal government won a minority government.  This means to pass any laws they need to find a way to get along with other parties.  It’s makes for a more difficult governing process but tends to represent the goals of Canadians a bit better.  When parties are forced to concede to each other, one would think that representation would be clearer.   Since I am working the election this year I thought it would be good to talk about The electoral process in Canada a bit. 

Canadians are NOT happy with this election.  It seems a bit pointless and then happening during a pandemic seems rather thoughtless.  It will be interesting to see the turnout. 

The Electoral Process in Canada

Who Can Vote in Canada?

If you are over the age of 18 you can vote!   Doesn’t matter if you are a prisoner or not.  Doesn’t matter your ethnicity, place of origin, or colour.  If you are a Canadian Citizen and 18 years old or older… you can vote!   

All you need to do is utitilize one of these four options:

1. Go to election headquarters for each electorial distriction and vote in the pre-advance election.

2. Vote at the advanced polls.  

3. On Election day attend the polls between 930 a.m. and 930 p.m (or 7-7 in BC). 

4. Use the mail-in vote option! 

We give all kinds of options so that if a person really wants to vote, they can do so. 

On Election day itself we render whatever aid is needed.  From having options in braille, large print, assistants, wheelchairs, and more.  The goal is to help Canadians participate in the vote. 

Electoral Districts

Canada is divided up into sections that are roughly the same size within a province.   The current electoral districts can be found at Elections Canada.  Within an electoral district there are a number of smaller polling districts.  This year I will be serving as an information officer in the ordinary election poll. 

Each poll has a number of people helping it run smoothly. 

  • Deputy returning officer 
  • Information officer 
  • Registration officer 
  • Central poll supervisor 
  • Returning officer.

Information officiers: Greet people, make sure they get the help they need to vote – so if they have their voter card and valid ID we send them off to the poll, if something is wrong when send them over to the Registration Officer, who will then help them and send them off to the right poll.  

Deputy returning officer is the person who actually helps you vote.  This person gives you your ballot and guides you to a secure, private area to vote. After you have voted they assist you in putting your ballot in the ballot box (if required). They have ALOT of paperwork to do!  🙂 

The Central Poll Supervisor also has tons of paperwork to do, she also manages staff breaks, handles anything that the IO’s can’t do, and basically helps the returning officer. 

The retuning officer is in charge of the whole shebang basically.  He keeps everything running smoothly, handles candidates, starts and ends the poll, communicates with head office and such like.  You can learn more about these positions at Elections Canada.

This at least is the process for the federal election, I know that provincial elections are mostly the same. 

The electoral Process in Canada

Want to Learn More?

It’s good to learn more about our civic responsibilities with elections and voting. 

You can find some online resources at Elections and Democracy. as well as at the Alberta Teacher’s Association.  British Columbia does something similar. 

Of course you can always participate in the election by being part of a Student Vote. Learn about the government and the electoral process.  Get out and research the candidates and learn what the issues of the day are.  Develop your debating skills as you have your own electoral debates. Help your students understand the electoral process in Canada!

Civix has resources for highschool students. This site provides a variety of activities on various civic areas. 

Highschool students can discuss government systems around the world and compare them to Canada’s system. 

Creation Based Apologetics

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So the other day I asked my lad if he would be interested in doing an apologetics course.  He surprised me by saying yes! As he’s reaching the stage of questioning everything it’s good to give them ideass to think through and answers to consider.  I thought about doing a creation based apologetics course with him and thought I’d share the results of my research with you. 

creation based apologetics

Why Creation Apologetics

Depending on your child, they simply might not have thought through the truths of scripture or given much thought to how non-creation science connects with the bible.  There is so much we don’t know.  Like for instance, I don’t believe in evolution but I can’t explain how speciation/natural selection makes a cat look different in one climate over another.  How some wild cats are large like jaguars and snow leopards and other wild cats are as small as a housecat but very feral.  How this happens makes zero sense to me so when people question it all… I understand that.  Having resources to help make sense of all it matters. 

Making a point of studying creation apologetics gives over dedicated time to your student so it gets done.  I don’t know about you but I have a busy teen.  Working, schooling, helping around the house, and spending time with friends takes up the bulk of his time.  Finding solid time to actually think through faith, science, and it’s interconnectivity isn’t the easiest thing for a teen to do.  Therefore adding it as part of his course load makes it much more doable. 

Types of Creation Apologetics

Now, I’ve long known that people have different ideas about evolution.  Some believers are creation scientists all the way through to the bone, others don’t quite get how there are dinosaurs and mammals…. and so called proofs of evolution.  Others again are like me and don’t buy into evolution, but natural selection and the sheer variety of animals and the interconnection of species is a bit mind-boggling. Yet other believe in intelligent design and there are a variety of takes on how that works.  Designer created and then left everything to evolve/naturally select, on it’s own. Or Designer created and then guided changes.   It’s actually quite interesting to see how people try to make it all fit together, and sometimes try to meld two worlds together. 

Biblical Creationism: follows the teaching in Genesis.  God created all life.  Tends toward a young earth philosophy. 

Intelligent Design Movement:  This movement wants to encourage discussion by not only teaching evolution, but to encourage the asking of questions considering alternatives to evolution.  This means looking critically at evolutionary ideology, considering the flaws in evolutionary theory, and keeping an open mind to alternative explanations.

Progressive creationism.  This thought process is that God created life over a period of millions of years. It takes an old-earth approach, and believes that new lifeforms emerged fully-formed not slowly through evolution at different times. 

What I found

Answers in Genesis takes a very biblical, creation as written in the bible approach.  They have a six courses in creation apologetics.  They used to do it as one Master Class.  Now each of those courses is done individually and each contains several lessons within. 

Creation Illustrated, the magazine.  Produces good articles, might answer questions, or spur some additional thinking.  Not a curriculum per say, but creation-biblically based.  Could make a creation based apologetics course out of several magazines I think.   If you are interested, I reviewed unit studies from them a while back. 

You could check out BioLogos. They do hold to an ancient view of the earth, and believe that evolutionary theory can be reconciled with the Bible’s teaching about Creation.  Francis Collins (the head of the human g-nome project) teaches the course on DNA technologies and ethics. Worth checking out.

Another resource to check out is Reasons to Believe. Even just introducing teens to their website would be a good thing. Their online learning resources look good, but their courses were geared more to college age. They do, however, have an Educator’s Help Desk page that has tonnes of resources to help you find a suitable curriculum, along with a list of recommended resources. Note: some of their recommendations are secular sources, and some are Christian. You may want to watch their video on using secular textbooks to hear their rationale. They makes some good arguments.

If you look on Christian Book Distributors you’ll find a whole whack of books from a creationist viewpoint.   With some time you could easily put together an apologetics course that is creation based. 

creation based apologetics

Have I missed anything?

So tell me, have you found any creation based apologetics courses?   If so, please tell me!   I’d love to check them out. 

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy) through Raincoast Books.  Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so.  🙂

I have been having interesting conversation with my 16 year old lately, so when I was at the Honda Dealership the other day I brought this book along .. Uncomfortable Conversations with a black boy .. with me. I was anticipating a story type book with some questions at the end of it. Questions that I could then take home and use as a conversation starter with my lad.  That’s not quite what I received.  No stories, just tons of questions posited in a conversational style.  Not quite what I expected.   So let’s take and moment and talk shall we?

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy

The author’s premise and details

The author’s premise, is that through conversation, deep, open conversation we can more or less FIX the problems of racism.  That is necessary to have these deep conversations in order to make the world a better place for everyone in it.    

I can understand where he’s coming from.   He wants to open the eyes of people who aren’t black to the world as he sees it.   And if you can understand where a person is coming from, or… walk a mile in his shoes… you can better appreciate their day to day struggles and successes. 

So over the course of 13 chapers, divided into three sections, he asks a lot of questions.  Such as .. when you took history.. did you learn about black history?  When you succeeded in life … did your parents help you along the way?  Did you go to a school where teachers cared if you succeeded or failed?  Can you lose your life if someone tells a lie about you?  Do you think reverse racism exists? 

Throughout this 320 page book, he couples these questions with his answers, providing insights that you might not have been aware of.  Available in Kindle and hardcover, it is geared to youth 10-14.  

Roaring Book Press published the hardcover copy that I received for my review for Raincoast Books.  This tome is a youth version of Uncomfortable Conversations with a black man, named after a series of talks hosted by Emmanuel Acho entitled “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man”.

Breaking it down

As I mentioned earlier, 13 chapters, three sections.

First section: Me and You.  The section has six chapters along with an introductory chapter.  These chapters include such questions as Black or African American? What do you see when you see me?  Is there such a thing as white privilege?  What about cultural appropriation?  and more. 

Second Section: Us and Them.   In this section of four chapters Acho brings up systemis racism, reverse racism, who’s govening the government and justice for some. 

Third section: We.  Three chapters about fixing racism, how we can fight for change, and to be an ally for folks. 

That’s not the end though, he closes off with a variety of short talks, references, websites and resources. 

Some Specifics about Uncomfortable Conversations with a black boy

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy contains a number of quotes, questions and shall I say it… conversation starters.   For instance: What do you do with a bunch of angry people?  Anger exists on both sides of this issue… is it always justified?  No.  But often times it is.  And either way, the anger still exists.  But this is the type of question asked in order to get us thinking and having conversations. 

uncomfortable conversations with a black boy

Thought-provoking quotes grace the start of each chapter.  Don’t you just love quotes that make you think?   🙂  

Need to figure out good discussion questions for your students?   Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy will help you come up with all sorts of discussion questions. 

Each new section opens with a page like the following.  Those conversation bubbles also tend to proceed question asked within the following pages. 

My Thoughts

I think that teachers will adore this book, or if not adore, find it a useful tool in learning how to think, or consider ideas or rather … perspectives they might not have considered before. It has great value in presenting questions, and giving the ideas behind those questions.  Promoting good class room conversation. 

As a book to read, I was less than enamoured.  I found Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy to be preachy, and at times wrong. Like saying the black people can’t be racist because they don’t hold systemic power?  ANYONE can be racist, in a position of power or not.  I also refuse to believe that circumstances completely keep people from changing their lives.  Part of my struggle with this read I explained on instagram. If you approach life from the paradigm of faith in God you can clearly see how just conversation is not the answer.  Can it help?  For sure.  But ultimately, it’s not how racism will be solved. We are, as a people, thoroughly broken by sin invading our lives.   The only answer truly… is God. 

Does Acho try?   Yes, he does.  He goes an excellent job of encouraging us to ask difficult questions and to dig deep within ourselves as we answer those questions.   No surfacey … just say something nice to make him go away stuff… but a demand that we do more.  Acho really wants us to think and to grapple with these questions… in community. 

A Highschooler’s Day in the Life

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Oh.. the crew challenge this week is posting about what a day looks like in our household.   Well honestly, it’s still summer here… but I can tell you what a highschooler’s day in the life looks like.  At least, what it should look like in our household.  Part of homeschooling highschool is the variety of life skills one teaches throughout the day as well.  From simply doing their book work, to organizing life around work and outside commitments, to simply helping their mother out with this.   This is a day/week in the life of a 16 year old, singleton child, living in Ontario this year. 

a highschooler's day in the life

Where Learning Happens

Last year my son could choose where he wanted to study, the hours he wanted to fill and such like.  This year we have modified that.  He no longer works alone upstairs in his room, but will be fighting with the cat for the comfy chair.  🙂  It will some days be a battle since that cat is 13 years old and getting to that “grumpy old man stage”.  He has back difficulties and has diabetes so some days are hard for an old cat.  There’s our dining room table behind this chair so we have options for the “I just won’t be moved” days. 

The lad’s day will start (once the official school year begins) at 830 a.m.   Sometimes those days will be at the local highschool taking a manufacturing course, or will start here at home.  It kinda depends on how covid affects life.  Covid has thrown a bit of a wrench into eveything it seems. Depending on what the lad is working on he’ll do his studies using his laptop, or if he needs graphics…better computing skills/speed… the desktop upstairs. 

The headphones will travel with him as the lad listens to classical music (mostly) when he does his schooling. 

Depending on what his course work entails, other rooms in the house might be involved. 

This year that will be english, math (CTCmath two courses, three if can squeeze it in), communications, Manufacturing (public high), physics (grade 12 public), and stuff that right now I can’t remember… 

So I expect I’ll see more experiments in the kitchen. 

a highschooler's day in the life studying diffusion

Time Usage in a highschooler’s day in the life

He’ll have a break from 120145 to have lunch and spend time with his dad.  Currently they are playing some computer games together.  This is one of the reasons we are doing highschool at home.   His dad works a hard job doing the afternoon shift.  This way he gets to see his dad!  This is important to us. 

After lunch we normally read together.  Right now we are reading… Stranger on the Road to Emmaus and Torpedoed.  

You can read my review for Torpedoed.  My son did a year long study of WW2 and remains fascinated so we are still reading books about that time period. 

Stranger on the Road to Emmaus is an excellent book that walks the reader throughout history explaining the redemption work and promises of God fulfilled in Jesus.  It promotes some good discussion twixt a lad and his mother.  Highly recommend. 

At this time we might decide to watch a movie that correlates with a book he’s reading, or an apologetics idea as well.  Something that presents information differently to help a deep thinker think more clearly, or with questions to answer in his own mind. 

highschooler's day in the life tv

The lad will get back to his schooling and work until 5 ish, with a break for snacks as needed.  I don’t worry much on his snacking as we have ground rules (has to have one fruit/veggie) as part of his snacking, I don’t buy cookies so if he wants that he has to make it.  Occasionally I’ll call him aside to help with a project. One that he has this week is to make a top for our mealworm container that will hopefully keep flour moths out of it. 

Assignments and Checking-In

Some assignments he’ll submit to me in workbooks, others will be sent to me via email.  Today he sent me a punnett square for a biology class he’s tidying up work for. Pay no nevermind to the way too many tabs I have open!  Yes, it continues to be a work in progress. 

This leaves our evenings free for work at McD’s, finishing chores up (he has specific areas of responsibility), playtime with friends (online computer games mostly, sometimes physical army based games, or long walks on the trails), Army Cadets (Mondays), Youth group (Sunday nights), game/walk/something night with mom (hopefully Thursdays), and Karate (Saturday mornings). 

My son is mostly self-sufficient with his schooling but we’re running into a couple time management issues so we’ve instituted some changes to make it easier for him.  We’ll add a daily check in (a log of activities accomplished so he knows where he left off the day before) and a weekly “show me what you’ve done” check in. 

How do you organize your homeschoolers day?

We’ve had to talk a lot about how to organize his day, helping him to see areas of struggle, and planning out just what he needs to take yet, and how to get to where he wants to be.   Changes needed to be made, and I’d rather make them here at home where he can learn necessary skills than to have to learn the hard way later on. 

A highschooler’s day in the life is more than just book work isn’t it?   How do you help your highschool students?  Have you needed to make changes as they learn important skills? Where do they learn best?  How have you best figured out how to help them?  Let me know eh?  Together we can learn how to help our teens gain good skills. 

BEFORE I FORGET! 

The crew is doing a giveaway, this week for a mentor mom call!  Come back on Friday to enter eh? 

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Planning with Highschool Students

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You know how you plan out your year?  You have an idea for how the year should go, what needs to be done, you’ve worked out how many chapters need to be completed per week to be done, you are all set.  BUT THEN you realize that a subject was missed last year, or the catch up work that needed to happen wasn’t completed over the summer, or…. well, I’m sure you can fill in the blank.  How then do you complete your planning with highschool students?   These very same students who will have their own ideas about how they want to complete their workload. 

Planning with your highschool students needs to take into account how your students learn best and needs to provide them with tools for success in the future.  How can we help our students manage their workload and complete everything in an efficient manner? 

The work that we provide our students can come from all over the place, sometimes from a single place like SchoolhouseTeachers.com which has loads of courses for highschool and later in this post we’ll be doing a giveaway for them.  My link to my most recent review.  Other times we’ll pick up courses from places like Apologia, Tree of Life, CTCMath, and such like. 

planning with highschool students

Figuring out what you’re doing

Figuring out what you are doing with your highschool students depends on a few different factors.

  • What your students want to do once past highschool. 
  • What the requirements are in your province or state.
  • Needs or requirements for courses down the road.  Whether that’s for courses in highschool, or needed on a transcript for higher learning. 
  • Available electives: make your own if can’t find what you’re looking for, so many options
  • What your students are interested in… could a hobby become a job?
man in white dress shirt holding clear drinking glass
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

Planning with Highschool Students

You need to actually sit down with your highschool students and talk with them.  Sometimes those conversations will be easy, and other times they will be hard.  Sometimes our teenagers have no clue what they want to do and other times they are hyper focused and can’t see beyond their goals.  But just talk, and listen, and try to guide. 

  • Talk about study habits.
  • Working through a course load
  • Future plans
  • Electives
  • Perhaps doing a college and careers class
  • Fall back positions if what you want to do doesn’t pan out
  • Options for scholarships
  • Needs for transcripts
  • See if you can combine two things into one… for instance, can they turn a hobby into a workable credit?  

For example, my son’s Karate classes and his physical fitness requirements for Army Cadets, plus some smaller health units gives him a physical fitness credit. 

When things go awry

Sometimes…. things go awry.  Covid might hit messing up how you planned courses to go (outside courses).  Sometimes health needs will intervene causes a workload to slow down. Occasionally poor work habits will get in the way and require a great deal of work to catch up. All these things will be part of the conversation about how you manage a school year, and how you get back on track. Maybe, you’ll need to do highschool in five years instead of four!  The thing you always need to remember is this….. what’s your long-term goal? 

To push through learning as fast as possible in order to start one’s career?  Or to fostering a love of learning and developing good work habits? To create faithful servants of the Lord?  Maybe, we have to remember it’s not a race.  It can sometimes feel a race, when you see all these kids heading off to college and perhaps your child isn’t quite ready for that, or has a different long-term goal, or whatever.  We have to keep in mind the needs of the particular student in front of us.  If they know how to learn and how to work… NOTHING will stop them if they have the drive to reach for it. 

neon signage
Photo by Ivan Bertolazzi on Pexels.com

What about you?

Can you tell me what your biggest tip is when it comes to planning with highschool students?  What do you do when things go awry? When you forget your long-term goals… or even when a students long-term goals change mid-way through?  How do you do with the WHAT NOW???  questions that will arise.   

I don’t have all the answers… sometimes it very tough sorting it all out. 

DO KNOW THIS.

You are allowed to take your time.  Seriouly, you are.  It’s not a race and demand or life-threatening need.  You can take your time to talk with your students and figure it out.  Sometimes it will mean long-hours for your student playing catch-up.  Sometimes it will mean changing curriculum (and the expense that brings).  You might even find yourself creating something specific just for your child.  But it will turn out okay in the long-run.  Trust your instincts, look for help when you need it, just do the best you can with where you are at. 

On to the giveaway!

The crew is giving away one membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com.   Fantastic resource, with a variety of options for all ages through to highschool (and for mom and dad too). 

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Part of the blog hop

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The Homescholar LLC – Total Transcript Solution

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DISCLAIMER. I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Did you know that I have an finishing grade 10 student, soon to start grade 11?  He really has no idea what he’d like to do yet as a working adult so we are continuing to offer a varied highschool education for him.  But in the meantime keeping track of grades is vitally important. So imagine how pleased I have been to review Total Transcript Solution by The HomeScholar LLC.   You will love this program with the sheer variety of transcript options. The solid training behind it all will delight you.  🙂 

Total Transcript Solution

The Basics about Total Transcript Solution

The HomeScholar LLC is the designer of several products meant to help homeschool parents pull together details to help their children pursue higher education.  Lee Binz’s speciality is in helping parents homeschooling highschool students. The goal: success both now and in future endeavors.   The product that I am specifically looking at today is Total Transcript Solution.  I have received 6 months access in exchange for my review.   This is more than enough time since you get downloaded transcripts that you can use forever, or use as a template to create your own templates.   

About Lee Binz

After homeschooling her children through highschool, and seeing them into their future endeavors, Ms. Binz decided to expand her consulting business by creating product to share. You can learn about her core beliefs and learn about her low-key method of providing help to others.   Her husband Matt works alongside her, and her employees are also active homeschoolers. 

Total Transcript Solution

What do you receive?

Upon opening Total Transcript Solution I was immediately able to see all the modules available in this course.  

Total transcript solution modules

Not only that, I had access (via the sidebar) of all the available resources.   And boy oh boy you will like these bonuses.  From sample diplomas, to sample grading criteria, there is just so much here!   You should be able to easily be done within a month, and if you need longer (cause face it, life happens) … join the silver training club.  🙂   

You will be able to listen to Lee Binz, either by watching a video or downloading the audio, conduct various workshops.  She has a simple, easy to listen style that immediately makes you feel at ease.   She takes away the angst of making a transcript, while letting you know how important it is.   Every course will come with a handout (varying in size from 2-109 pages), some with slides, and always with audio. 

Did you know that courses can be labeled using a course code, a name that delineates exactly what you taught, or given a generic title?   Higher learning institutions tend to prefer courses be as specific as possible.  So not doing English 1, English 2, but rather something like Writing and Grammar grade 9. It’s the same thing, but the language is clearer (and therefore more desired) by the reader (the college acceptance people). 

With the bonuses, some of them open into a webinar, others into a webpage.  All these helps she provides in order to make our lives easier, and to enable us to complete all the steps that we need to.  Isn’t it fantastic how Ms. Binz has created a homeschool transcript help site that is so complete? 

What do I think?

Oh, I like and appreciate this course. I thought the logical layout and the diversity of material presentation.   For instance….. I would much rather read a book then listen to audio as I can get it done so much faster.  BUT I like listening to audio if I want to fine-tune my learning. The manner in which the material was presented was kind, at times funny, and with heart. 

I was simply delighted by this particular bonus.   Being able to see what I should be looking at for grade 11! Yes, it’s very USA centric, but that doesn’t mean I can’t extrapolate for Canadian needs/goals. 

I adored how Ms. Binz thought about the different needs of families, providing her resources in a variety of formats.   This makes it so easy to just edit materials right on your screen without having to print everything out (unless of course you like printing everything out).   Everyone’s needs are different right? 

The options for the different types of transcripts were great!   I initially started out with one transcript but found it didn’t work well for me, so I switched to a different format which made more sense to me.  I loved the ability to describe or state what product I used, or where the marks came from.   I’ve been considering next year (in the spring) to sign my lad up for courses in London, so then I could use that course description as well as who taught it in the description area. 

Total Transcript Solution

When should you get total transcript solution?  Anytime after elementary school.  You’ll find helps for middle school all the way through to the end of highschool. 

The Homeschooler LLC

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Making an Adult

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The crew gave a challenge that I’ve been pondering for most of a month now… writing lists.   It got me thinking along different lines but nothing really resonated with me.  I finally came up with a pre-adulting list, or perhaps a better way of saying that is Making an Adult.  Skills that I want my son to know before he leaves the house as an adult.   Skills he should be practicing now before he gets out on his own.

Ideas that I tested out and rejected?

Organization by writing out lists.  I’ve been doing that a bit lately what with my part-time job.  It’s helping me to not forget items that need doing. 

Schedules?  I thought about doing this for quite a while. We don’t really follow a schedule in our household but we do have routines, and I’ve tried a number of schedules over the years.  In August I’m going to be doing a day in the life post and I’ll talk about our routines then.   No need to have it twice in two months right? 

Then I considered how to help a lad keep organized and remembering tasks that he has to complete. Does this require lists to keep or something else?   I’d tell you but that would ruin the surprise later in August.  🙂 

Making an Adult

Four Specific Skill Areas

I’ve written the past about specific skills that dads teach teens, but the skills I am wanting to address are skills that predominately I see myself as teaching as a mom.  They are skills that any parent or grandparent can teach as well.  I suppose you could say, these skills are closer to my heart and my mental outlook. 

How to manage a budget.   

I came into a marriage with a hubby who really didn’t know the ins and outs of managing a budget or planning for the future.  Granted, I was NOT taught these skills as I was maturing, so I’ve had to work to develop the skills I have, and I’ve taught my hubby a few of them along the way.  I’ve made some BAD financial decisions myself and felt the fall out for too long.  I’d rather reduce some of the potential pitfalls for my lad if I can.  

How to clean the house. 

I AM NOT a great housekeeper but I know what needs doing and how to do it. (thanks mom!)  I tend to find ANYTHING other to do than clean the house.  It’s good that I have a lad I can pass along some of these duties too eh?  🙂 Seriously though, we share the workload.  I’ll clean stuff off the stairs.. he’ll wipe the stairs down.  Next month we reverse it.  We do this for most cleaning tasks.  That way neither one of us is completely stuck with a job we’d rather not be doing, and it’s shared labour.  He, like hubby, would rather vacuum floors than sweep them, so I’ve taught him the joy of a small sweep brush and dustpan for areas vacuums don’t reach well.  Seeing and doing is the best teacher don’t you think? 

How to cook a meal and how to plan ahead for what you are making!

My son’s job?  Sundays are MY day off cooking.  If I ever HAVE to cook I’m selfish and plan meals around what I like.  Sometimes this means the guys get to experience new tastes and be surprised.   The lad though is supposed to cook on Sundays, and he can’t just do easy meals.  He occasionally gets a Sunday off if we are out and about, or he breaks an arm or life just kinda happens.  We aren’t rigid by no means.   Currently, he makes easy meals two out of four Sundays. The rest of the time he’s learning skills such as substitution (when he fails to plan ahead), how recipes are often suggestions and guidelines rather than fixed rules, and various cooking terms.  Sometimes it would be easier for me to do the cooking but it’s great for him to develop skills. 

Doing a job well even if it’s not perfect. 

I am a perfectionist.  It took me a LONG time to realize this and it stopped me from doing a lot of things if whatever I was doing didn’t turn out the way I’d envisioned.  It mentally stopped me in my tracks… “if I can’t do it right what’s the point?  I guess I’m just a failure all round”.  Guess who else is a perfectionist?  YUP!  That lad of mine.  As soon as I stop it stopping him in his tracks I taught him what took me too long to learn.  Is what you did a good job?  Did you give it a good effort?  Will it pass muster for most folks?  Be happy with what you’ve done.  Have your goal in mind, push for it, but if you don’t make it.. be happy with your accomplishment.  Being perfect is HARD, be very good… that’s better and easier. The pressure eased. A smiling lad again is a very good thing. 🙂   

Making an adult

Applying Worldview to Life in Making an Adult

I raised my lad with a Christian Worldview.  We apply faith to how we live our lives.  Faith is why I volunteer, faith is why I care for others, faith impacts how I view others.  My faith filter comes through the bible. 

My son admittedly is struggling with that right now.  His very scientific mindset has him not quite seeing how God could fit into the picture.  He’s willing to engage in discussion though, so struggles can happen right?  So right now, as I present my Christian Worldview, I am learning to ask him questions so he can see how his worldview impacts his thinking processes.  And how, as he applies that thinking process how it affects how he acts and interacts with the world around him. 

All of this is important in helping him become the adult he is meant to be.  My prayer is that he’ll come out on the other side truly seeing who God is and why God matters to his life, learning and way to live. 

The whole goal of course, along with the myriad of other skills he needs to develop, is making an adult that anyone would be glad to know and work with. This adult will have a consistent worldview with how he lives.

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June 2021 Social Media Challenge Graphic