We live a life of faith-filled adventure! We are a family with eight energetic, loving, crazy, happy, and very noisy children. Ray and I thought our family was complete when we had four children. Now, when people ask us if we will have any more children, we simply answer, "We don't know." We have learned that God sometimes has surprises in store for us, as He did when He brought home our two girls from Ethiopia!
Sending our children to camp is a wonderful, but expensive summer activity. It is about $300 per child, and so we have not sent them each year. Cassidy has been a couple times, Austin went twice when we were in Ethiopia, and Dane has been once. Going this year was out of the question because we just didn't (don't) have the money. I have even had to cancel three road trip excursions that I was going to make.
Then something happened. Two of my children were dealing with a sin issue. This was something that really needed to be addressed. We had been addressing it, but it was not going away. Then I had the idea to give them a passage from the Bible to memorize. Now you have to know my children and memory work to appreciate this story. I have tried, tried, tried to get them to memorize a verse at a time.
Last fall, the children worked on verses as a group. No good. No one really learned. I did have Austin work with the kids and get them to learn a couple, but that was it. I figured there must have been something wrong with my children. Others learn, why can't mine!
But in desperation I gave the passage Exodus 20: 1-20 to two children - a big and a small one. In no time at all they had both learned it.
I realized then that I had something. These two children had shown me they could memorize passages. Perhaps the key was that they were on their own working on it. So I decided to give it to the other two. I now had Cassidy, Austin, Cooper and Raine memorizing this passage.
What I did was buy them each a notebook from the dollar store. Each different. Each attractive to that child. I then gave them a version of the Bible that I felt was good for them: International Children's Version. It is very readable and simple to memorize, yet true to the original meaning.
They each sat down and wrote out the passage. Some wrote the whole thing out. Others wrote out what they were going to memorize that day. The ones that were more proficient would memorize 3 verses a day and the ones that struggled memorized 2 verses. It proved to be quite painless for them all! They would spend about 15 minutes writing out the verse and about 30-60 minutes practicing.
It became a routine. During quiet time, while doing dishes, mowing the lawn, having a shower, walking through *stores*, I would hear children quoting their verses. It was absolutely wonderful! One day, I drove to the town near me and on the way there it was remarkable. All the children had their verse books and they were all on different parts of their passages. I had Cassidy's verse book in the front and he and I were both using it. I could just imagine God looking down from heaven and seeing this car where five voices were simultaneously practicing the Word of God quietly to themselves. I have to say it was the best moment in all our memorization for me!
I then had an older child do something that was upsetting. I was reading my Bible one night looking for a word of comfort/direction/guidance. I came to Psalm 119. In this verse it says: What can a young man do to cleanse his ways...
This was perfect. I continued reading and loved what I was reading. It was relevant to all of us. So I added this to our list. We had already conquered The Ten Commandments. Why not this one?
During the course of memorizing this passage I remembered that a Bible Camp in the Interior of our province had a deal where the child could memorize himself to camp. For every 20 verses a child could have a day at camp for free.
I decided to call up the camp and see if the ones our children had already done would be accepted, since they were not on the camp list. They were thrilled to hear the children were memorizing and said, Certainly!
I printed out the required verses and put them in plastic page protectors. The children then copied them out verse by verse into their notebooks. Each day they were required to memorize 2-3 verses before their play began. I had no battles, no complaining, simply because it became something we did every day. Even Briton and Savannah began memorizing verses. Because they both have language problems, it is much harder for them, so they were not at the calibre of the older kids, but they did well!
By the time, Cassidy was ready for camp two months later, he had memorized 108 verses. He headed to camp and the Director picked up the verse book, chose a verse, and Cassidy spoke it out. He was very impressed with Cassidy. Cassidy's cost for camp? $67 (His memorization saved him nearly $250!) Not only that, but 108 verses are now hidden in his heart!
When it came time for Cooper to go to camp he was also ready. Before he went his dad said, "It'll be good if he can remember them." It was the funniest thing. I turned to Cooper and said, "Cooper, Exodus 20: 1-2"
Ray bust out laughing when Cooper proceeded to race through the passage. I then showed off a little more and kept on giving him passages, and passage after passage, Cooper did not fail. He was able to recite 106 verses.
At the end of it, Ray said, "They should start giving memory verses instead of spelling bees!"
I agree. I like spelling bees, but memory verses change the heart!
On the last days before camp, as Cooper was practicing his last verses, he would grin and say, "I'm so proud of myself." He wasn't being bigheaded; he was simply so amazed at himself, and he sure deserved to be. He is 7 years old and blew the socks off the Director at camp! His camp cost us $27!!
Reciting His Verses
Cooper's First Sleep Away Camp
Filthy Upon Pick Up Day!
Cooper's Book
Fat Little Book Full of God's Word A Real Precious Keepsake
Austin was the third child to get to camp. He had extra weeks to do the work and so was able to keep on memorizing past where the other boys got to. He did the full 140 verses, and somehow ended up with 2 extra. He recited his verse for the Director and earned his admiration, FREE CAMP, plus $13 tuck money for all of his hard work.
The Director told me each time I dropped off the children how our family had blessed him and inspired him by the fact that they had earned their way to camp. Truly, we were blessed. Those children could have taken a Campership, but I really don't feel that we could. That just wasn't an option. We are building a house. We have made that a priority financially. But there is no reason the children couldn't *earn* their way to camp. And truly, they spent a good hour or two a day working on their verses, and so they really did earn their way to camp. And I really think that is the *best* way to get to camp! They get camp and hide God's Word in their hearts.
Tom said the verses would be up on the website by November. I asked him if he could please put them up sooner, so we could get on with memorizing in September, rather than cramming in May - July. By the time I dropped off Austin at camp (August) he had already printed out the sheet. Let the memorizing begin! .
The day began with the parents meeting. Following this our children ages 2-7 had a drumming workshop with a wonderful West African man named Fana Soro. They spent 45 minutes learning some wonderful drumming, singing, and rhythm. It was amazing how they listened and learned and were able to follow his music and then repeat it after him.
Being Taught to Be HAPPY While Drumming
After this was done we headed to the gum for a West African Dance Workshop with the Miyanda girls. These girls are amazing! Their group was birthed from a class about seven years ago. Fana, the drum teacher, is also the leader of the Miyanda girls. Two of his daughters are in this class. Apparently, they did so well that this group has now made many appearances. They are heading to Scotland for a tour sometime this year. All our children, except for Cassidy participated in this class.
Our days are incredibly full and I am run off my feet. I could choose to do nothing, but that is not for me! I have an opportunity here for my children to break into different age brackets and have the chance to learn African dancing, drumming, and music. Why would I not jump for that?
Each day there are two attachment therapy sessions. Since I have kids in both age groups I end up in therapy for three hours a day! But oh, it is so worth it!!! I have parented for many years, but this is parenting that I have never heard before. And I can see it is just what makes the best sense.
I had heard that there was a lot of problems with biological kids not being properly attached to their parents, and it was due to the fact that society is not supportive of attachment: daycare, working parents, extra curricular activities, Nintendo, cell phones, chat rooms, MSN – all things that detract from an attachment with their parents and siblings.
When I attended this seminar it really showed exactly how it works and how it affects our own family, even though we do not do: daycare, working parent (s), too many extra curricular activities, very, very minor Nintendo, no cell phones, no chat rooms, and no MSA. And yet, there are many things that we do do that do not foster attachment. And we are just your typical family! Talk about enlightening!
While I have those sessions going on the Austi had his Marimba workshop. This is where they learn to play on these monster sized xylophones. They make beautiful music! The instructors would go around and teach each boy or girl their part and they would then be practicing as the teachers taught the next student.
As soon as this was over, Cassidy entered the classroom for his Marimba workshop. The classes are divided for 2-7 year olds, and then 8-12 year olds, and finally 13-18 years old. There is even a Parents only Marimba and I heard them play after one practice – un.be.liev.able! I should have taken the class and next year I think I will – when I have a husband here to see that my children get to each of their classes! It is pretty busy when you are the only one here and have children running in different directions all day, plus you are trying to get in three hours of therapy for yourself! Lol
Right after the Marimba classes Austin went on to a hip hop class. The neat thing is at the end of the week all of this work will pay off when they do a production.
In the middle of the day we were told there was an emergency parents meeting. I wondered if it was something bad, but was told it was something exciting. We all came wondering what on earth it could be. Then they told us the teens needed to be there, so we got our teenagers to join us.
And then they sprang the surprise on us. One of the coordinators had heard that Rihanna (sp) was going to be performing in Penticton, while we were at Harambee. People spoke to people and a few people made some big efforts, and they put out the request to Rihanna's people about the possibility of her donating tickets for our kids to be able to see her in concert.
At 11:00 am there was information that there might be a possibility. And then surprise of surprise, at about 12:00 noon that day there was a call from Rihanna’s people: they had 224 tickets for the Harambee group! Not only did they have tickets, they were floor tickets – tickets worth $168 plus tax each! Very generous!
One of Rihanna's People
For those that don’t know, Rihanna is a singer. My family do not know her because we don’t listen to much mainstream music. When I had heard that they might get tickets I knew I would have a decision to make. Do we go or not?
Well, when the meeting came together and the announcement was made and one of Rihanna’s ‘people’ showed up with the tickets, it was pretty exciting. And it was easy to get caught up in the hype.
We made the decision to go.
And then, a friend said, “You might like to check out the Utube videos of her concert and listen to what she sings." So I did. I had Cassidy and Austin watch and they made the decision on their own not to go.
Now, people may think they were coerced. But no. They have been raised to treat girls with respect and to view modesty as important. What they saw in her dress and the way she behaved on the stage did not make them comfortable.
And yes! It was a bit hard for my 11 year old to know that his friends were going, but then blessing of blessings, it turned out that both Cassidy and Austin’s friends weren’t allowed to go. We were not the only family that turned down the tickets (For us: about $1400 worth of seats). Other people who were not comfortable with their children going also stayed home.
But they ones that went said they had a marvelous time, and many said it opened up good discussions with their children. I am sure it did. As an ex-teenager myself (grin), it wasn’t easy to toss up the idea of the show that the concert turned out to be. But I knew that if I opened that door to that kind of music, I was opening the door to bringing it into the house.
Also, really every family is different, and everyone has to make their own choice. If my children were in the mainstream schools, my decision might well have been to go to the concert and use it as a teaching tool.
Each day is so full that I barely have time to sit down. Now I could make this a holiday of rest and relaxation with books, beach and deck chair, but really, why? I can do that anytime. This is the time to fill up with all these remarkable classes and experiences! And I am not doing that much really. It is just that I have children in all the age brackets and I do not want them to miss out on their opportunities! .
