Have you ever wondered what you should be teaching your child at this stage of life? Here is my product review of these parenting materials, this opinion is coming from a homeschooling mom of seven, with one child graduated. Is your child nearing adulthood and you are thinking, is there anything I forgot to teach him before he moves on? Now you don't have to wonder anymore! It's all in this book, What Every Child Should Know Along The Way by Gail Martin. You can get this book from Parenting Made Practical, which has many other useful parenting materials, including a DVD called Taming the Lecture Bug (video).

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[ctt template=”4″ link=”I23J8″ via=”yes” ]Here is my product review of these parenting materials: What Every Child Should Know Along The Way book by Gail Martin and Taming The Lecture Bug DVD by Joey and Carla Link. This review is coming from a homeschooling mom of seven, with one child graduated.[/ctt]

Parenting Made Practical

Parenting Made Practical is a family owned company that provides quality, Christian educational materials to parents to encourage and equip them to practically raise obedient, respectful, and responsible children in today's world.

What Every Child Should Know Along The Way

I seriously can't believe this book for parents of children ages 2 to college is only 151 pages including the “Resources” section because there are so many useful parenting tips jam-packed into this thin book! The table of contents is very useful to help you find what topic you are looking for at the moment.

In homeschooling, I had thought that our homeschooling materials had or would cover everything our children would need to know about safety, but in reading the safety section, I realized there is more I need to be teaching them. The safety section alone covers topics like: swimming, hiking, bikes, motor vehicles, electricity, animals, strangers and more. For example: in the “animals” section, it says, “Never, ever attempt to physically break up a dog or cat fight. You will be the loser!” Just this week, my 12-year-old son learned this the hard way when his outdoor boy cat was fighting with his brother (they are normally both very friendly, but they are age 2 and it is mating season). Thankfully, he just received small scratches on the hands and nothing worse. But you know, my homeschool books have not taught that!

It talks about teaching your children their gifts and to use them with humility and to guard their hearts against a proud and haughty spirit. Let them see their talent as a tool given by God for serving Him. It gives a list of character traits, along with a description and Bible references.

I like the section about family devotions. This is something we do every night as a family. I like that she mentions considering the ages of your children when choosing material although that is a challenge for our family with our listeners being 16, 15, 12, 7, 5 and 1! She mentions ideas you can do during this time and we do several of these, but a new one for us to try might be a family prayer journal (I just have my own personal one presently that I do not use at the family time) and singing praise.

A drawback of this book is the typos and errors. A few for example are: on pages 26 and 27 the same tip sentence was accidentally given twice, and on the back of the book in the first sentence, the word “ever” should have been “every”. That could be a turn-off for someone to make their decision on whether to read the book right away. Which is too bad, because it is a very good book, with lots of great information that I will use for years to come. I feel bad for saying this because I myself have errors and typos that I catch later in my writing and don't feel like I can judge, but I feel I should warn you.

My favorite part of the book that I have marked with a tabbie and will use at least once a week the rest of my life is the Practical Living Skills section. Why did I not have this raising up my very first child? This is amazing! It has chart with the child's age and what they should be doing at each stage. For example: at age 16 and up, they should be able to take clothes in for dry cleaning and pick up when finished. I have never even thought of teaching that before, but yet it is such a useful thing to teach your child! My husband works in advertising sales and frequently does this himself, but it is true that a child should be learning this. Another example for a younger child is: at age 5, they should learn to leave the bathroom clean and tidy after use. I was thinking, “he is too young, I have to clean the mess on and around the toilet”. Guess what I will be teaching this week! I will be so happy to have someone else do that until my next son (presently 17 months) starts using the potty! Sorry if I am getting a little graphic, but if you are a mom of boys, you will learn soon enough!

I very much recommend this book for all the useful content in it.

Taming The Lecture Bug

My husband and I watched this video for parent of children ages 8 to college together. We do tend to lecture and explain to our children in part of our “raising them up”. I didn't realize that in doing this, that we are doing all the thinking for them. This video taught us to ask the right kinds of questions to get our children to think for themselves so they can make the right choices next time. I really enjoyed the example that Joey and his daughter demonstrated with her being on Facebook when she was told not to be. I thought, “how many times have I lectured like he did”. I think it was good for me to see that and to see how ineffective that method is and to apply his method instead. It would probably be even better for me to tape myself in those situations and play it back later! After watching this video, we were more careful to ask questions and that strategy seems to work better.

The only drawback is that the video quality does not come out well on my newer DVD player and TV. It may be fine on older versions though. The sound came out fine and the information is good.