A is for Apropos

Because we write better when we write about what we know I jumped right on what my good friend, Becky, suggested would be an excellent idea for this month "kid products that I like", I'm taking it a step further and writing about my life with a toddler, yes...toddlers and preschoolers and crafts and books and products and marriage.  Now, if you'd told me 10 years ago that I'd have 26 things to say about this subject and its sub-topics I would have said "Phooey", but here we are.

Hopefully, I don't bore myself or others!

Because, it's Sunday I thought I'd talk about toddlers in church and growing in faith.

I'll premise this with a blog post about going to church (found here) and one about trusting God with our kids (found here). These, of course, you don't have to read to go on...just thought you might like to see were I'm coming from and would like to know that we have struggles and have definite faith without the frills, so to speak.

I love that Lila Jane goes to a preschool that is Bible based, it's cool that she knows her ABCs and "Jesus Loves Me" and it's wonderful that out of nowhere she says things like "God loves me just the way that I am and he loves you too".

There are little, but powerful, things that we do at home to keep our tiny person focused on good Christian living and, in turn, those things have made us better parents and better people. Could we be better? Sure. One of those areas is going to church and I can tell you, we find it hard to get all of us ready to go to church and to go to Sunday School. But, here's were we've started...

1. We keep the cussing to a minimum. This is harder for one of us than the other, but we are getting better about it.
2. We don't watch inappropriate (for her age level) movies or shows, play video games or listen to inappropriate music while she is at home with us. This usually means that we watch those things while she's asleep or not at home, I mean we grown-ups-ish. It also means we do those things minimally, as she is usually with us. What has happened is that Christopher really has curbed all of his game playing, we've gotten to know EVERY episode of Dora the Explorer and we watch way less TV, as a whole family, that doesn't have some sort of moral lesson or isn't made for the family. Trust me, that's a good thing.
3. We do things as a family. At least once a month we go somewhere as a family or we do something at home as a family, just the three of us.
4. We read The Bible. OK, we don't actually read The Bible, that bores most adults, most teenagers and I'm sure most 2 year olds, we actually read Bible stories, not every night, but we like to read Bible stories to Lila Jane. My favorite story to read to her is the story of Ruth.

We're not perfect, but we're working on it together as a family.

Great Places to Look for Inspirational Activities with your toddler
Bible Lessons for Kids
How to Teach Your Child About the Greatness of God
Sunday School Crafts
The Here and Now (a lovely post about the joy the tiny people bring)

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