Ted Tripp’s Worship Principle
The basic premise of Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Ted Tripp is this: “Behavior is heart-driven, therefore, correction, discipline, and training—all parenting—must be addressed to the heart. The fundamental task of parenting is shepherding the hearts of your children.” And that, he goes on to say in Chapter 3, is essentially an issue of worship.That…
Read MoreBooks-to-Movies: Training “Reel Thinkers”
Back-to-school time means hitting the books and living more structured days. All the more reason to look forward to a good, family movie at the end of the week! We’ve been living in The Secret Garden at my house for sometime, an experience which includes an abridged version of the book, an audiobook we’ve just…
Read MoreThat Hideous Strength 4: Denouement
For earlier posts, start with the Introduction. Denouement is not a common word in everyday conversation, so for a long time I didn’t know how to pronounce it. It’s day-noo-MAHN (go easy on the final n). It’s the resolution, or (according to my dictionary), “the events following the climax of a drama or novel in…
Read MoreThe Abolition of Man, Part Three
Part One. Part Two. In the second essay of The Abolition of Man, “The Way,” Lewis showed that humanity seemed to have only one code of ethics, one set of standards for determining what’s good. Though it goes by many names, western tradition calls it Natural Law. Lewis tagged it the Tao, as a way of…
Read MoreHelp For Struggling Readers: Dyslexia and Beyond
For several years before I became a parent, I worked part-time in The Literacy Council of Sumner County (LCSC). Like most non-profit organizations, it was cash-strapped, barely-staffed, and run by folks who were absolutely devoted to the cause of helping their neighbor. When I first showed up as a volunteer, I made my way to…
Read MoreNational Poem in My Pocket Day
Yesterday as I was emptying the contents of my husbands’ pockets and my own, preparing our clothes for the Great Machinated Flume Ride that is our washing machine, I found some unusual pocketry. I’m used to finding hairbands and pennies and small toys, but yesterday’s find caused me to pause and reflect. And no, I…
Read MoreThat Hideous Strength 3: Climax
Previous posts: Introduction, Part One: Setup, Part Two: Development. Climax? Isn’t it a little early for that? Most of us have the idea that the climax is a high point of the story (as the word would seem to suggest), after which nothing is left but tying up loose ends. But there’s another way to…
Read MoreBack-to-School Backpack
I’ll admit it. Janie and I like abstract thinking–cultural analysis and big picture type stuff. But occasionally we try to offer practical help for parents and educators. Here are a few of those posts I thought might helpful for kids, parents, and teachers headed back-to-school. RESOURCES 10 Audiobooks for the Whole Family: Originally for…
Read MoreThe Abolition of Man, Part Two
This week, widespread rioting in Britain has blanketed the news, along with commentators asking the eternal question, “Why?” Shaking my head over the pictures of well-dressed kids smashing store windows, I turn from the computer screen and pick up my copy of The Abolition of Man to read this, the first sentence in the second…
Read MoreChrist in Literature: Symbolism (pt. 4)
In my last post of this series, I looked at two ways that the Lord wrote Christ in the Old Testament: historically and symbolically. As for finding Christ historically in literature, it’s fairly simple. It’s Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ or any other historical fiction that treats Christ’s personal works in history. Today,…
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