A Parent's Alphabet...

I found this little gem in a stack of papers from my mother's teaching days back in the '70s....it's worth repeating.

A Parent's Alphabet (Carol Hurst)

• A is for Arms...arms that hold, and arms that support, and arms that push when they have to.
• B is for Books...which should abound in every home, and for Boredom, which can't stay long if books are there.
• C is for the Children...and the Caring and the Crying, which sometimes comes.
• D is for Doors...which you sometimes have to help them open, and through which they have to go someday never to return unchanged; and for Discipline and Dignity, which you owe every child.
• E is for Everything...you hope for them, for the Easier you hope it will be for them, and for the Education, which takes place at least as much at home as in school.
• F is for Foolish...mistakes you make with your kids, and for the Freedom they must have to make their own.
• G is for Grandparents...who can add tradition and wisdom to children's lives, and for Growth, which parents and kids can experience together.
• H is for Home...which is only sometimes a house where a child feels wanted and loved.
• I is for Ignorance...which darkens the world and is sometimes mistake for Innocence.
• J is for Jealousy...which creeps into so many relationship, and for Joy which can push it out.
• K is for Kickball...and tag and hide-and-seek and all those other adult-less games kids need to play, and for Kissing and hugging, which nobody does enough of.
• L is for Love...of course.
• M is for the memory...all parents have of what childhood was like for them, and for money, which can never subtsitute for love no matter how lavishly given, and for Manners, which make living easier.
• N is for Nurturing...the giving of love and care.
• O is for Occupation...which takes so much of your time, and for the Openness which really exists when kids and parents really work at it.
• P is for Presents...which are easy to give, and Presence, which is harder; and for Parenthood, which is only partly a biological function, and for the Patience it takes to see you through it.
• Q is for Questions...which are so easy to turn off and so hard to turn back on.
• R is for Rest...which is seems never comes while the kids are young, and for Reward, which you get when you look in their faces or hold their hands.
• S is for Summer...which seems endless, and for School, where you ought to feel welcome, for the Stories you know but seldom tell, and for Shoulders sometimes drenched with tears.
• T is for Time...which there never seems to be enough of, and for Teachers who try to understand.
• U is for the Upper Hand...which you try so hard to keep, and for the Understanding that you try so hard to have.
• V is for the Virtue...of overcoming all those roadblocks life seems to throw just when everything's going well.
• W is for the Whys...which can drive you up the wall and the Wisdom it takes to answer them.
• X is for the X-Ray...of the broken bone you both cried over, and for the Xtra love it takes to be a parent.
• Y is for Yelling...which helps only temporarily, and for being Young which is only partly a matter of years.
• Z is for the end...the end of the alphabet, the end of childhood, but never the end of love!

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Covers ten topics to get your homeschool running smoothly!

 

Getting Started

· A Parent’s Alphabet

· Choosing the Right Curriculum for Your Family

· Motivating Your Teens

· Seven Steps to Teaching Work Ethic

 

Special Needs

· Occupational Therapy in Homeschool

· Speech Therapy in Homeschool

· Teaching the Distracted Child

 

Making it Fun

· Game-Schooling – Learning through Play

· How to Snag Free E-Books

· Holiday Foreign Language Fun

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