First Time Obedience

I first ran into the idea of "first time obedience" in the Bluedorn's book, Teaching the Trivium. It's an intriguing idea, one that I spent quite a bit of time thinking about when I first ran across it. But, like so many things, it's sort of taken a backseat to living life, and I hadn't pondered that for a while. Nor had I really kept up with teaching it to my Monkey.

I ran across this idea again this afternoon. Kendra, over at Preschoolers and Peace (which I discovered when browsing the Homeschool Blog Awards. It's voting time!) Has some interesting things to say about this topic. One of them is that it's a line upon line, precept upon precept sort of thing. What a lovely thought. I think it's a thought that applies to parents as well as children. Learn a bit, apply the bit, the Lord teaches us another bit, which we are then able to teach to our children.

Another thing that she had was a game where she specifically teaches her children, as babies, to come to her. I've been feeling the need to do this with Monkey. I want him to be in the habit of coming to me at home, on a regular basis, when he's called, so that when we're out in public if I for some reason need him NOW all I need to do is ask him. There are so many situations where that would make him safer, particularly in public. And her game looks like fun. I think I'll be playing it with him over the next little while.

Kendra also links to a site that looks interesting: Raising Godly Tomatoes.