It's elementary!

Yes, we finally figured out that we should REMOVE OUR SHOES before entering our house.

For some reason, it never dawned on us to impose such a requirement, as we don't really have the kind of house that one would associate with the need for removing your shoes. E.g. we don't have white carpeting.

However, when you have 14 walking family members, live in a sandy flood plain, have a constant stream of garden/landscape/car repair projects, and have no paved walkway...to most people it would be pretty obvious.

So, we gave it a try; it took all of 3 hours before we realized the new no shoe rule was the solution.

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A few weeks ago, Rebekah (10) was doing her Bible copy, and was in Exodus 6. She had just been copying verses 16-20:

And these are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations; Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari: and the years of the life of Levi were an hundred thirty and seven years.
The sons of Gershon; Libni, and Shimi, according to their families.
And the sons of Kohath; Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron and Uzziel: and the years of the life of Kohath were an hundred thirty and three years.
And the sons of Merari; Mahali and Mushi: these are the families of Levi according to their generations.
And Amram took him Jochebed his father's sister to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were an hundred and thirty and seven years.

Bekah looked up thoughtfully and remarked, "Levi was Moses' and Aaron's great grandfather."

When asked her how she knew that, she said, "I was copying the geneologies, and Levi had Kohath, Kohath had Amram, and Amram married Jochabed and had Moses."

Wow! Wouldn't most of us assume that going through geneologies would be so tedious and boring? Yet they are there for a good reason, and we are thankful our children have the opportunity to realize it!

There seems to be such a big market for "Bible" curricula. What did families do before Bible story books and children's Bibles? It once seemed so intimidating to us, but the Bible IS curricula! It is so sad that we parents can be unknowingly limiting our children's instruction in the Bible, through our well-meaning dependence on dumbed-down "children's" lessons.

We are learning that little ones, taught by their parents (or siblings) can sit through normal Bible reading sessions (stopping for elaboration and definitions), with no flannelgraphs or talking vegetables, and grasp much of what they are hearing.

When our fellowship began a study of Galatians, and Abraham's name came up, our three year old instantly tuned in attentively. Actually, it took some work to keep him listening, as he knew a thing or two about Abraham, and wanted to make sure we were informed!

[I wanted to link here to a neat article we have on our site inkleinations.com, but I just noticed all the PDF's are gone. We'll get those back working ASAP, Lord willing. ]