3MN: 11 things to read twice if you are a parent.
Happy 3-Minute Thursday!
You are busy, so let's make this quick. No fluff, no filler, no spamming. This newsletter will help you think in the best way and be a Christian on purpose.
💬 In the next three minutes:
☝️ Studies show the stolen years are beginning to affect our kids.
✌️Why our kids need to walk in shadows.
👌 11 things to read twice if you are a parent.
Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here!
🍎 Minute 1 - The results are showing from the stolen years.
Even though the government spent billions of dollars to help make up for the learning loss caused by the pandemic, elementary and middle school students' progress in reading and math stopped over the last school year, according to a new national study that came out on Tuesday.
The hope was that by now, students would be learning faster, but that didn't happen in the last school year, according to NWEA, a research group that looked at the results of tests that about 3.5 million 3rd-8th grade public school students took this spring.
In fact, compared to kids before the pandemic, students in most grades made less progress than average in math and reading. That means that the gaps in learning that were caused by the pandemic are not closing. In fact, the gaps may be getting bigger. Some are blaming COVID. Others are blaming "praise over intelligence".
Who should we blame?
🌦️ Minute 2 - teaching a kid through lights and shadows.
I'm beginning to understand for myself just how troublesome parenting can be. I want to protect my kids from learning gaps, global pandemics, scraped knees, and the bully in their class.
But, while I am responsible to protect, I am not responsible to shield. Here is a reminder from Walt Disney, father of two sons and two daughters, today.
“Children are people, and they should have to reach to learn about things, to understand things, just as adults have to reach if they want to grow in mental stature. Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows. Most things are good, and they are the strongest things; but there are evil things too, and you are not doing a child a favor by trying to shield him or her from reality. The important thing is to teach a child that good can always triumph over evil.”
👨👩👧👦 Minute 3 - 11 things to read twice if you are a parent.
I am a novice parent, but I am learning a lot watching good parents around me. Changing any societal problem begins in my home.
Here are a couple things I am testing and applying.
👉 11 Things I Need To Read Twice
- Trust yourself. You know more than you realize.
- Parenting is unquestionably one of the hardest things you will do in life.
- Everything involving your children will be painful in some way: the emotions are deep, whether they are happiness, heartache, love or pride.
- Every parent is surprised by something.
- Parenthood chooses you daily.
- Parenthood can seem thankless until you realize and accept that you are choosing to love your children more than anybody else. When you realize your children can't grasp your love, you realize your parents' tragic and wonderful, unrequited, unconditional love for you.
- Parenting is a lifestyle, not a biological relationship: spend time with your kids today that they will remember tomorrow.
- Teach your kids how to think, not what to think.
- Parents can only lead by example and set their children on the right path, but they alone shape their character and life story.
- All details aside, if you have never been “hated” by your kid for a short time, you have never truly been a parent.
- No matter how great of a job you do parenting — especially if you truly do it right — your children won’t stay with you.
VERSE OF THE WEEK 🔥
L U N B W I D G, F A T P T W W R A H I W D N G U.
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. — Galatians 6:9
Until next week,
Payton Minzenmayer