Q & A

These Q & As were taken from our monthly Intentional Parents posts. Visit our Intentional Parents blog for more helpful ideas.

Intentional Parents

  1. How can I set an atmosphere of love and peace in my home? Answer.
  2. How can I get my child to sing in church? She sings at home all the time, but won’t open her mouth at church. Answer.
  3. Margin sounds wonderful, but I can’t squeeze more time between my kids’ events. Answer.
  4. What about all the church activities I’m asked to help with? I feel guilty if I say no. Answer.
  5. What are some ways you seek to live inter-generationally? Answer.
  6. By keeping your children by your side, aren’t you sheltering them from the real world? Answer.
  7. With three preschoolers, I’m struggling to find time for personal Bible reading and prayer. And when I do have time, I’m so tired that I can’t comprehend more than a couple of verses. I feel like a spiritual failure. Did you ever feel like this? Answer.
  8. Why do you always have your girls with you? Answer.
  9. My oldest daughter is getting pretty bossy with her siblings and friends when they play. How do I handle her telling everybody what to do? Answer.
  10. My child was potty-trained but has started soiling his underwear again. What do we do? Answer.
  11. How can I adapt your “Just Between Us Girls” ideas for my sons? Answer.
  12. How long do you continue the girls’ nights? Answer.

The Bible

  1. I take my children to Sunday School and church; we even have family devotions. Isn’t that enough? Answer.
  2. What can I do with my 18-month-old in church? How can I teach her to be quiet and not cause a disturbance? Answer.
  3. What are the age guidelines for your three levels of Bible teaching? Answer.
  4. It’s a struggle to get my toddler to sit through a chapter of the Bible. Do you have any suggestions? Answer.
  5. I don’t have a Bible degree; how can I teach my children to study the Bible? Answer.
  6. At what age should I move my child from the Great Stories Level to the Guided Studies Level? Answer.
  7. I don’t know Hebrew and Greek; how can I teach it to my children? Answer.
  8. Shouldn’t I give my young children only short phrases to memorize? Answer.
  9. What verses or passages should we memorize? Answer.
  10. Have you found any church activities that will equip and encourage you as you disciple your children? Answer.
  11. How did children learn the Bible before Sunday School? Answer.

Enjoyable Pastimes

  1. I’m not the artsy-craftsy type. Are you saying I have to teach my children to knit? Answer.
  2. How can I teach my children to share? Answer.
  3. How much TV do your children watch? Answer.
  4. We turned off the television and now our children wander around saying that they’re bored. How should we handle that? Answer.
  5. What if I don’t know how to sew, build, (fill in the blank)? Answer.
  6. How can I contain the mess that comes with handcrafts? Answer.
  7. What about “masterpieces” that feature nudity? Answer.
  8. Large art books are expensive; where can I find less-expensive pictures that are still large enough for all of us to see the details? Answer.
  9. Which composer should I start with? Answer.
  10. Should I focus on only classical composers? Answer.
  11. At what age should my child start music lessons? Answer.

Academics

  1. Why do you homeschool? Answer.
  2. Where can I find real books? Answer.
  3. Can I assume that all real books are good for my child? Answer.
  4. How do I find interesting people? Answer.
  5. Should I allow non-Christians to teach my children? Answer.
  6. Don’t teenagers have to learn to be independent sometime? Answer.
  7. If my son doesn’t go to college, where will he find his future wife? Answer.
  8. How can I do nature study in inclement weather? Answer.
  9. I’m not that great at math; how can I make it a natural part of everyday life? Answer.

Character

  1. How do I deal with a strong-willed child? Answer.
  2. How should I discipline my special needs child? Answer.
  3. I’ve never heard of training my child; can you give me an example of how it works? Answer.
  4. How can I use all three parts of discipline with my older children? Answer.
  5. I caught my child playing with the remote, which he knows he’s not allowed to touch. We both knew he was going to get a spanking, but when I told him to “come here,” he threw it across the room and ran away. Now what do I do? Answer.
  6. How do I handle obedience accompanied with fussing or scowling? Answer.
  7. I told my two-year-old to pick up a toy in the middle of the room, and he’s been screaming for the last five or ten minutes. What do I do? He is capable of obeying; he’s done the task before. Answer.
  8. We struggle with our two-year-old son obeying us in public settings. For example, this morning at the post office, he began pushing the baby’s stroller. I told him to stop and to come here; he totally ignored me. I said it to him two or three times and then finally had to get his hands and pull him to me. (He came without a struggle.) What is going on and how do we correct it? Answer.
  9. What should I do about tattling? Answer.

Home Skills

  1. Shouldn’t we be teaching our children how to serve in the church? What do home skills have to do with ministry? Answer.
  2. Which home skills would you recommend starting with? Answer.
  3. How do I know at what age to introduce which chores? Answer.
  4. Do you have a practical way to keep chores organized with several children? Answer.
  5. Do you give allowances based on completed chores? Answer.
  6. How much money should an allowance be and at what ages? Answer.
  7. What should I do if my daughter doesn’t have enough money to buy a gift for someone? Answer.
  8. How do you have the right amount of cash for each child’s allowance each week? Answer.
  9. How can I teach my child to cook if I don’t know how? Answer.
  10. At what age should a child be able to follow a recipe? Answer.