3 ways spring can teach your kids about Christ

April 11, 2014 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of infants, Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged Children, lessons from Easter, parallels, snow, spiritual lessons from spring, spring, spring brings hope, spring brings joy, spring brings life, winter

My 6-year-old son enjoys snow, but even he couldn’t handle what we saw outside our window recently.

We had endured a winter that saw 50 inches of snow, when, finally, spring arrived, melting everything in sight. We played on the grass. We rode bikes down the road. We even started the lawnmower. The temperature was approaching 60 degrees.

Then it happened. We awoke one morning, looked out the window, and just stared in disbelief. The landscape was again covered with snow – about half an inch by my estimation.

During winter, we’re
like the resourceful farm kids
who play ball with a pig bladder.
There’s just got to be
something better, right?

I was amused, knowing the midday sun would take care of it. He, though, was distraught. He ran to his room, jumped in his bed, buried his head under his cover, and started crying. This is the same child who, three months earlier, was telling me how much he loved the snow – how living in a colder climate was “so much fun” because he could sled every day. But even he couldn’t take any more of it.

God gave us the seasons for a reason, and my son was learning that the hard way, even if he didn’t understand fully the theological ramification.

It’s no accident that God raised His Son during the time when much of the world is thawing out. Winter and spring serve as a sort of living illustration of our faith, in several ways. For instance:
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6 ways moving with children can be a breeze

April 2, 2014 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged advice for moving with children, house hunt, moving, moving truck, moving with children, relocating, tips for moving with children

Moving to a new home is rarely fun, but moving with children can be extra-challenging – so much so that you begin to question your decision to move in the first place.

My family and I recently moved from a city of 600,000 to a town of 900, and we’ve done it without our 6-year-old son – the oldest – ever complaining. From the moment he learned he was moving to today, he seems to have enjoyed every step.

I’m sure it’s far more difficult to move with teenagers, but I also know that my son lost all his old friends and made a whole bunch of new ones – and that’s not easy to do for any age.

So what was our “secret”?

Here are a few steps we took that helped us and could help you, too, if you’re moving or relocating:

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15 people with Down syndrome address future mom in powerful must-watch video

March 19, 2014 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of infants, Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged 15 people with down syndrome, dear future mom, down syndrome, down syndrome video, gods image, powerful, pregnant mom, video, viral video, YouTube

Can a 150-second video change our society’s perspective on life – specifically, the life of people with Down syndrome?

If so, we now have that video.

Called “Dear Future Mom,” the now viral video shows 15 people of various languages with Down syndrome speaking into the camera, addressing a pregnant mom who is carrying a Down syndrome baby. The mom, we are told at the beginning, is scared and wondering, “What kind of life will my child have?”

So these 15 unique individuals – each created in God’s image – tell her.

“He’ll be able to speak and tell you he loves you,” one smiling girl tells the camera.

“He’ll be able to go to school, like everybody,” another one says. Continue reading →

7 tricks to get your children loving books

March 13, 2014 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of infants, Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged books, Children, getting children to read, God, kids, Parents, reading, reading books, reading to children

What’s your favorite picture of you as a child? Is it the black-and-white picture of you in 1970s plaid pants, or the ’80s snapshot with you and a big head of hair? (I’m guilty of both.)

I’m not entirely sure what picture of my own children is my favorite, but the leading contender likely is one I snapped several months back, with all three of them—ages 5, 2 and 2—on the couch, each of them looking at a different book.

As a parent, those moments when you see the fruit of your labor are precious, aren’t they? You spend hours and hours teaching them something and think it’s never going to sink in, and then all of a sudden, God gives you a gift that makes it all worthwhile. It’s as if He was telling me, “Keep giving books to your kids.”

Reading, though, isn’t as popular in the U.S. as it once was. The latest data from 2013 shows American teens rank 17^th in the world in reading—a tragic stat because reading forms the core of nearly every other type of learning. Perhaps that failure begins at home: Only one in three parents of children 8 and under read to their kids each night, according to a 2013 survey by Reading is Fundamental and Macy’s.

Looking back on the past few years, I can see what my wife and I did right in raising children who like books—and what we could have done better. Of course, children learn to read at different paces, but even kids who can’t read can enjoy books. Here are seven tips to raising kids who like books: Continue reading →

4 great winter science experiments for awesome family fun (with videos)

March 9, 2014 | Michael Foust | Posted in Parents of toddlers, Parents of young children | Tagged boiling water, Children, family fun, freezes, glory of god, God, Mississippi river, Parents, science experiments, winter, winter science experiments

Scripture tells us that all of creation declares the glory of God, but many of us scratch our head and wonder, “Does that mean, winter, too?”

Of course it does. God was wise to give us variety in creation because it helps in our worship of Him.

For instance, we all enjoy scenic pictures of mountains and beaches, but what if the entire world was one big beach or one huge mountain range? As much as we think we’d enjoy it, we really wouldn’t. We’d soon grow bored and our sinful nature would lead us to say, “Is this all there really is in the world – one monotonous stretch of white sand?”

Consider the 24-hour day cycle. What if that wondrous starry night never ended or that beautiful sunny day went on and on? We’d rebel and start pouting, “God, I can’t sleep with all that sunshine!”

It would be the same with a week’s worth of steak suppers or lobster meals, and it’s the same with the seasons. Variety in creation is good for us. We see God’s glory on display in different ways, and about the time we grow tired of beautiful buttercups or red maple tree leaves or a stellar snowy landscape, God changes the scene and gives us a different reminder of His greatness. Winter makes us long for spring, and summer makes us long for fall, and on and on. Continue reading →