Mom's School : Life Lessons I'm Teaching My Boys This Summer.
It's been awhile since I've written. I can't tell you how many post-it notes are gracing my office right now with ideas for blog posts and topics I want to share with you. It seems everything else so easily gets in the way - work, life, kids, sports, cleaning, working out (trying to :-) and the list goes on. Writing brings me joy and I feel called to share with you. I've had this idea to share with you topics I plan to chat with my boys about this summer. Blake is nine, Chase is six and Bodey is 3 1/2. They may be young, but I want to impart into their hearts ideas that have taken me so long to learn, in hopes they will use them in their lives. I look forward to sharing with you! Thanks for following along.
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The sumner has a way of clipping along. I usually give myself June to get into a summer rhythm. We are all sick of the school routine, the early wake ups, the million papers that we have to go through and plain just running around like crazy people.
And before I know it, June is gone and July is here. I find my mind shifting to ideas like: “we need to get reading more”, “what about those workbooks I bought at the beginning of the summer?”. I don’t know about your kids, but my boys aren’t crazy about reading books when they could be outside, playing with friends or on their iPads. The struggle is REAL!
My thinking has shifted lately from what should they be learning this summer to what do I want to teach them this summer? I have this time with them, these extra hours when their minds are more open and available, not filled with spelling vocabulary, math problems and rushing to the next activity.
So here are six topics I’m going to chat with my boys about over the next six weeks, and I thought I’d share them with you. Feel free to do the same, add in your own ideas or make up some of your own. We have such few years to have our kids tucked inside our homes. I don’t know about you, but I want to share with them what’s on my heart.
Here’s the topics I plan to chat with them about:
Listening to yourself: What is your intuition and why should you listen to it?
Attitude is Everything.
Being a student and a teacher
Hard work pays off: Going to practice so you can play the game.
The gifts we get when life doesn’t go the way we want.
How can we hear from God? What is the point of prayer?
I’m planning to have a little “Mom’s School” session with my boys each week. I imagine these will last 20 minutes max. Enough time to plant seeds and spur conversations. If you decide to join in, let me know. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Week One.
Listening To Yourself - What is your intuition and why should you listen to it?
The other day my nine year old son Blake said to me, “ Mom, you know when you meet someone and you just don’t get a good feeling about them?”
I said “Yes, of course. Do you know what that is?”
Blake replied, “No”.
I went on to tell him "that's your intuition. Your intuition is a knowing that we all have have, an instinct, without thinking or analyzing. When you had that feeling about the person you met, that was your intuition speaking. You need to listen to that.”
We teach our kids so many things they should and should not do, but do we teach them to listen to themselves? Do we teach them to listen to God within them? To cultivate their True North?
Do we teach them that they can trust themselves when something feels off or not quite right? Conversely, do we teach them that when they feel lead to try a new activity or create something, that too is their intuition?
For me, cultivating my intuition has been kin to getting to know myself better and to trusting the compass that God has put within me. It’s the guidance of the Holy Spirit directing me. It’s connecting with my soul, the deepest part of myself. The part of me that rests in God’s perfect peace. It’s a place where I need to spend time. In this space I can say “it is well”, even when the storms of life blow.
So I want my kids to live here too. I want to teach them, much earlier than I learned, that they have this compass within them. There’s so much noise in our daily life. If your kids are like mine, they love their iPads. I just read an article yesterday about how video games, social media and screen time creates noise in our minds and makes us more anxious overall. I couldn't agree more.
While we can’t escape these parts of our world, we can help ourselves and our kids to have more peaceful minds and hearts by cultivating our intuition.
Here’s some questions/thoughts can be used to guide the conversation with your kids.
Do you know what your intuition is?
Have you ever been in a situation where you had a feeling about a person or situation?
Have you ever been doing something (a sport, activity, or studying a subject) and you just know it’s something you are supposed to do?
Have you ever had an idea pop in your head at just the right time and you wonder where it came from?
When we are still and quiet we can listen to ourselves, we can get clearer about what we think about a topic, need to do next or about how to handle a situation. What can you do in your day to have some quiet time?
Your body is your compass. When you are in a situation at school, home or play, notice how your body feels. If you feel uneasy or anxious, you need to listen to that, if you feel energized, listen to that as well. Get used to recognizing the messages your body sends you and let’s talk about them.
The best way to help your kids cultivate their intuition is to cultivate yours. Walking in nature, prayer, meditation, exercise and yoga are all valuable things for you to do too.
Here’s some articles about helping your kids cultivate their intuition:
10 Ways to Cultivate Your Child’s Intuition
How to Nurture Your Child’s Intuition: Their Inner Compass
Next Week: How Your Attitude Affects Yourself and Others
