Kids & Finance

Okay, I mentioned kids learning how to save and tithe in a previous post so I thought that it was an appropriate topic to blog about today 🙂

I found a really cool website to help your child learn how to save and spend wisely. It’s called Planet Orange. It’s a website for your kids full of interactive games and they can earn and spend “planetary money” that they accumulate. They’ll love it!

And if you’ve never really explained the idea of a “tithe” to your child, or even if you have, check out this video for an idea of an easy way for them to practice managing their money.

(I couldn’t embed the  video, so you’ll have to go to the website to watch it.)

http://hollyfurtick.typepad.com/the_preachers_wife/2009/11/elijahs-finacial-advice.html

 

God-Time & Refrigerator Door Cards

2.21.10GTcards

2.21.10RDcard

Remember, when you do these with your children sign the back and send them back next Sunday. Their small group gets points for every GT card they turn in which goes towards GAME DAY!

Family Ministry At Our Core

I hope you were all with us on Sunday because the message Mike preached was so great! If you weren’t there make sure you check it out by going here. I am not a parent and obviously not a father, but it was still so good! I kept thinking about our children’s ministry and how parents discipling their children is our goal.

Here is either an alarming or encouraging truth that I heard at a conference a year ago. “There are 8760 hours in a year. The average PARENT has 3000 hours in a given year to influence a life. The average CHURCH only has 40 hours in a given year to influence a life.”

This is encouraging if you’ve made it a priority to spend a lot of quality time with your child and if you go even further by discipling your child. It’s alarming if you expect us to. We just don’t have the opportunity that you do. When I have children it will be my responsibility to disciple them. Until then it’s my job to help you disciple your child, but you get to do the dirty work 🙂 Fortunately I can’t think of anything more rewarding. Truth be told, you’re the children’s ministers at our church. Not me, I won’t be a true children’s minister until I have a child. I’m just your family’s ministry helper 🙂

::Practical ways to disciple your kids:: Read through the New Testament, one chapter a night after dinner or before bed. God-Time Cards & Refrigerator Door Cards. Give your child an allowance just to begin teaching them how to tithe and save. Verse Memorization. Verse Memorization . Verse Memorization. Use teachable moments, Splink offers excellent conversation starters and teachable moments in a weekly email.

Here’s a [fast fact] “Three out of four kids said they get to spend enough time with their family, but about 25% would like more time. Slightly more children ages 9 to 12 want more time with their parents than kids ages 5 to 8.” Highlights Magazine

::Snow Day Giveaway::

I LOVE when it snows! Post pictures of your family playing in the snow this past weekend for a chance to win a $25 gift card to Medieval Times Restaurant. PS- I know these are not pictures of our family. I had a cold and stayed inside while Ryan took these. Your pictures don’t HAVE TO include your family but it will be more fun if they do 🙂

::Instructions to post your pictures::

1. Log In- Username is ccwcfamilyministry and Pword is our church’s mission 🙂 Email me at autumn@crossroadswalton.org or message me on FB if you don’t know it. I’ll give you a hint, we’re called to __ and ______ disciples for Christ.

2. Go to the “New Post” tab along the top of the page. Click that.

3. Give us a short description of your photo along with your name.

4. Upload your picture. Where it says “Upload/Insert” click on the icon to the right of that. If you hover over it “Add an Image” should pop up. When you click that you can browse your computer for the photo you want to share and then click “upload”. After that scroll down in the window that pops up and click “Insert into post”. And you’re done 🙂

5. Well you’re ALMOST done. Don’t forget to click “Publish” on the right hand side of the page. Okay, now you’re done.

PLEASE post your pictures! I’ve never done a contest or giveaway so I’m nervous that no one will participate. Don’t let me down 🙂

We’ll randomly select a winner from everyone who participates next Monday.

God-Time & Refridgerator Door Cards

Hope you guys had fun in the snow this past weekend! And I hope you took your son or daughter out on a date, or at least have made plans to!  Happy late Valentine’s Day by the way 🙂

Yesterday was a good day at Club 252! We talked about Jonathan & David and how they were best friends but very different. Jonathan was the son of the king and David was a shepherd boy, but Jonathan loved David and honored him above himself. Cool stuff! Remind your kids to honor others above themselves because God is pleased when we treat others the way we want to be treated! Here are the GT & RD cards for the week.

Feb. 14, 2010 GTcards

Feb. 14, 2010 RDcard

A Guest Post: Mother/Son Dates

by:  Christy McCart

Autumn asked me if I would share a little about moms dating their sons since she had heard me talking about it before.  The reason I started going on dates with my son years ago was really not anything spiritual or purposeful–although I really wish it had been :).    I just began to notice that Rodney spent alot of time with Ras doing guys things…hunting, fishing, playing ball.  Because I am girl, there just were not any “interest” things that overlapped.  So, I decided that if I was going to have a relationship with him, that I had to purposeful about it.    We have done alot of things over the years.  It started off as just going to chick-fil-a to eat, getting an ice cream or going to the park.  As he got older, I would just tell him that we would go anywhere he wanted…that ususally meant we ended up at a music store–sometimes for hours :).  For me, I don’t know anything about music, but I have learned alot about his world and what he loves by going with him.  Better than that, he is 16 now and we have a great relationship that is not strained or difficult as so often happens with parents and teenagers.  You know, as they get older, you can’t “plan” those deep meaningful conversations…they tend to come up at the oddest times.  However, if you don’t spend some intentional time with them building that relationship over the years, it will be much more difficult to have those conversations when your boys do get older and often you will not be the person that they choose to talk to.

If  you have younger boys,  I encourage you carve out some intentional time for just you and him.  If you have older, start now…it is never too late.    I think it is time for me to take a trip to the music store :).

Ideas for mother son dates:

Ages 3-8—McDonalds, the park, feed the ducks, the petting zoo, a museum, ice cream, climb stone mountain, get him up early and go to breakfast

Ages 8-12–Boys tend to be very interest/hobby motiviated, so as they get older, i encourage you to get involved with whatever it is they love.  For me it was music stores, for you it might baseball card shops, football games, science musuems.  Remember, the goal is to spend time with him and get to know him…let him take the lead(valuable skill as he grows into young manhood), be flexible, learn something new…

Most of all, spend time with your boys and have FUN with them…………..the time goes by so quickly!!

God-Time & Refridgerator Door Cards

Here they are, you know what to do 🙂

Feb. 07, 2010 GTcards

Feb. 07, 2010 RDcard

Father/Daughter Date

Father-Daughter Dates
by Dionna Sanchez

I have a neighbor girl who goes on dates with her dad. When I first heard this I thought, “What a wonderful idea!” She shared with me how special these times with her dad were. He would call her up from work and ask her if she had any plans for the evening. Sometimes they would go to a movie or out to dinner. Sometimes they’d just grab dessert somewhere.

This is such a special idea. What this dad is doing is creating a special bond with his daughter and maintaining it through the turbulent teen years. He is providing an outlet in which she can share things with him. Most importantly he is teaching her what it’s like to go on dates and how to be treated by a man. What perfect opportunities to demonstrate opening a door for a lady, pushing her seat in at a table, walking her to her front door, etc. She will know how it feels to be treated with respect and expect nothing less. Don’t you want that for your daughter?

My neighbor girl recommended that dads start this with their daughters while they are younger – like elementary school so that they start doing father-daughter dates when they think it’s really cool to be with their dad. But if your daughter is older, you can still give it a whirl. It’s never too late to try an idea that could impact a life. It may just be a matter of who your son-in-law will turn out to be!

 

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner here are a few fun and age appropriate father/daughter date ideas.

Ages 3-8: Swimming at an indoor pool & pizza afterwards, a picnic at the park followed by a walk or a few pushes on the swings, toss her bike in the back of the car and go practice riding without training wheels in the parking lot of a park somewhere.

Ages 9-13: Take her to the mall to buy a new outfit, go bowling together, plan a mystery date in which you give her hints about what to wear but make the destination a surprise, get tickets to a concert (Miley Cyrus would probably be a big win 🙂

Later in the week I will post a few Mother/Son date ideas.

God-Time & Refridgerator Door Cards

Hey families,

I hope you’re staying warm this week! Yesterday we wrapped up our series on Discipline. In case you didn’t know we spend all month in CLUB 252 learning about a specific virtue. January’s virtue was Discipline. We learned that we need to discipline ourselves to 1. Read God’s Word 2. Memorize God’s Word 3. Talk to God 4. Talk about God with your friends and 5. Make God more important than anything. It was a good month!

Please take the time to do these GT cards with your kids each night and use the RD cards as conversation starters at dinner time or in the car. We want your children to grow spiritually and YOU are the best person to disciple your child!

01.31.10GTcard

1.31.10RDcard

Splink

This is last week’s Splink. I thought it was worthy of sharing with you!

If you don’t know about Splink, read about it here.

The Difference Between Saying Sorry and Being Sorry                              

Read or tell the following story to your kids:

 

Ethan waited until his little sister, Anna, was almost past the bathroom door, then he jumped out and scared her. Anna ran crying to her mom who then yelled, “Ethan, come here now!”

 

Ethan walked into the den where his mom and Anna were. “Why do you keep scaring your little sister?” his mom asked. “I’ve had enough of this! You stop this immediately,” she ordered. Ethan felt bad, just a little, that he had made his sister cry, but mostly he felt sorry that he got yelled at by his mom.

 

Days went by until Ethan saw his sister playing outside by the garage. That was when he had the idea. He grabbed his fake spider (that looked real) and quietly sneaked up behind her and tossed the spider into her lap. Anna screamed at the top of her lungs and ran inside. It was only seconds until Ethan heard, “Ethan Andrew, get in here right now.”

 

Ask:
Do you think Ethan was really sorry for what he did?

 

There is a difference between being sorry that you got caught and sorry that you did wrong. Being repentant means you are sorry you did wrong and you are willing to change. If you are really repentant, you won’t keep doing the sin over and over.