Gems in the Web 5/24/13

“There is a parenting skill of which I was completely unaware when my children were young that would have made my effectiveness as a parent dramatically greater. I have never seen this skill discussed in any parenting book or heard it presented in any parenting seminar. Some parents naturally are better at this skill than others, but I have yet to talk to a parent who self-consciously is exercising it. It is a skill that forms the foundation of all successful parenting practices, and one we can deliberately cultivate. What is it?”

Read the rest of A Crucial, Little Known Parenting Skill by Robert Andrews.

“I’ve been thinking again about the importance of reading and writing. There are several reasons I write. One of the most personally compelling is that I read. I mean, my main spiritual sustenance comes by the Holy Spirit from reading. Therefore reading is more important to me than eating. If I went blind, I would pay to have someone read to me. I would try to learn Braille. I would buy “books on tape.” I would rather go without food than go without books. Therefore, writing feels very life giving to me, since I get so much of my own life from reading.”

Read the rest of The Ripple Effect of the Word by John Piper.

“…one of the problems of our bourgeois, post-feminist world is the lingering sense that you can, according to the absurd cliché, “have it all”—that you should be able to have children, even if you push off that time until your late 30s or early 40s, and that the world should not be withholding an experience like motherhood from you because you have dedicated yourself to your career and adventures in your 20s and 30s. We tend to view basic biology as a practicality to be surmounted, something trivial and irritating that shouldn’t get in the way of the promise of a full life. It’s almost as if we are shocked that nature itself has not read The Second Sex and The Feminine Mystique.”

Read the rest of Older Parents: Are Fertility Treatments a Good Idea?

And finally, here are a couple of educational websites of interest:

My grade school kids like doing math drills using this FREE online Math Trainer thingy.
If you have a student doing chemistry, they will find the Periodic Table of Videos entertaining and informative.

Have a groovy week end!