Children - The Challenge Of Creative Teaching Series

Part 3 Children - The Challenge of Creative Teaching

On the 24th of September 2009, the west Australian ran an article about modern families in Australia based on the Australian Bureau of statistics.

In 80 per cent of the families, at least one parent said they always felt pressed for time "trying to achieve a work-life balance".

Working mums were more likely than dads to be pressed.

The data has not surprised Families Australia, which said many families were under increasing pressure to balance work and family life.

"There is a concerning trend towards working unfriendly family hours," chief executive Brian Babington said.

This is putting growing pressure on other family members, such as grandparents, to offer care.

So it is important to discuss raising Christian families in the 21st century.

Even those of us without children recognise the need to support the families in our church.

1. It takes time and effort

2. It takes creative encouragement

3. CREATIVE CORRECTION

4. Training Our children

5. Honour is the expression of respect or esteem.

“THIS IS IMPORTANT”

1. It takes time and effort

The pressures of being a parent are equal to any pressure on earth. To be a conscious parent, and really look to that little being’s mental and physical health, is a responsibility which most of us, including me, avoid most of the time because it’s too hard.

John Lennon

1940-1980, British Rock Musician

When some of us think of instruction, we see a teacher standing in front of a classroom giving lectures on how to multiply, divide, or do fractions. But good teaching is never limited to lectures. We are not simply pouring information into the heads of our children; we are relating to peolple who have feelings, thoughts, and choices to make. Thus, the most effective way of teaching involves conversation between parents and children. Sometimes the parent is taking the initiative: “I want to tell you something my mother told me.” Other times, the child is taking the lead: “Why does the bear sleep all winter?” Both are valid approaches to teaching. Our challenge is to raise our children creatively.

Deuteronomy 6:1-10

Graham Blame, chief psychiatrist at Harvard University, states that the most serious problem with television was not its poor programming but that it destroyed the average family’s conversation at the evening meal. When people are anxious to see a favourite program, they hurry through the meal. What happened during the day, the little things and the bigger matters, are never discussed. I remember growing up in my family, meal times were the place where children talked to their parents and vice versa.

Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 6:7

Walking along the road: When Moses first suggested this method for the Hebrew parents of his day, the primary mode of transportation was walking. Mankind has always been “on the move.” Whether one’s livelihood is made by hunting, fishing, and berry picking or going to Sydney to close a business deal, people travels. Only the mode of travel has changed. It is in the car that families move from home to school or church or the shopping mall or the foot ball game. Car travel is an excellent time for conversation between parents and children. It is on these trips that children often raise questions with which they are grappling. It does not have to be in the car, for some parents they talk to their children before bed time. But any time that parents and children are together is a good time.

Sometimes they ask for information, but often they ask the “why” questions. This gives parents an excellent opportunity for discussing their values with the child. Parents who have not found satisfactory values for their own lives often become frustrated with their children’s why questions and end up avoiding those questions as often as possible. On the other hand, parents who hold, firm values and hold them very deeply are sometimes inclined to be dogmatic and domineering in trying to instil their values in their children. Values, however, are best passed on to the next generation not by dogmatism but by modelling and dialogue. Let your children observe your life, and they will see what is important to you. Let them ask questions and give them honest answers, and they will have the best opportunity of internalizing your values. Ultimately, the growing child may reject or accept parental values, but the healthy process is dialogue. Such dialogue most often occurs in the informal settings of life while we are on the way to do other things.

“THIS IS IMPORTANT”

2. It takes creative encouragement

If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do well matters very much.