Latest / The Family Teams Podcast / Ep. 252 | Tips to Reduce the Chaos in this Season

Transcript

Ep. 252 | Tips to Reduce the Chaos in this Season · The Family Teams Podcast

• 0:04
  What's up, guys? Welcome to another 5-Minute Fatherhood. So I know a lot of people, just about every one of you guys who has kids, you, your spouse, you're experiencing what it's like to school them in the home. I know a lot of you guys probably already do that, you're homeschoolers. And so one of the things I've been enjoying is just what are the tips, the really low-hanging fruit, things that you might not think about, but when you have your kids home a lot more than normal, even for homeschooling families, we're not going out a lot,
• 0:29
  What are things that you really need to do that might help you get through this in a way to reduce the chaos and really take advantage of this time? So a friend of mine, Chandler Smith, she wrote an awesome article on this and she gave 13 different ways. But there was three of them that stood out to me that I was like, oh, those are really easy.
• 0:48
  And I think we're really clear. They're not all easy, but I think that could really help families as we make this transition. So one of them is go outside no matter the weather. So figuring out all kinds of ways to get out energy, really think through that, like be outside a lot. Obviously, the weather in a lot of places in America
• 1:08
  is changing now and it's getting warmer. And so I think being thoughtful about that, but even during rainy weather, I think it's really important to help, especially younger kids burn off that energy. Read, listen to classic children's literature. So this is a great time to really hit like a little bit longer books, you know, stretch your kids literacy. And so they might be a situation where they're, you know, you guys are just reading kind of board books, those kind of shorter picture books, but they might be ready for something a
• 1:36
  And the third one is wake up before your kids. I thought that was a good idea. Sometimes you have to do some planning. It's really important to actually be prepared. And so you want to go into the day with energy, optimism, and have a plan. And so those are just her three suggestions.
• 1:50
  Yeah, this episode we could do an hour on because I'm very passionate about it. But a couple things. I think first, just connect with your kids. That's the whole point and premise. They're at home, so connect with them. Talk about their heart. Ask them questions. Do a project with them. Do dishes with them. To me, teaching them how to do dishes while you're having a conversation about fruits of the spirit is more educational than like, hey, here's seven problems of math. Boom, right? Or something like that. It's just like I...
• 2:18
  like your child is not a receptacle to dump information in, right? The only reason, one of the worst mistakes you can make is the only reason we do schooling in such an industrialized way is because of the scale. Like the only way you can possibly teach 1400 people in one school is if you say, sit your butt down so I can talk to you for eight hours and open up the brain receptacle and I'm going to dump information. That is completely unnecessary when there's one person.
• 2:44
  Like it's like it's a crowd control issue. It's a scale issue. It's an efficiency issue. So that's why we do it that way. But when there's only one person in the home, why on earth would you do it that way? Right? That's like ridiculous. So don't put yourself in this mold of like, oh my goodness, this is what they're doing at school. So I have to do it here. It's the exact opposite. Like you literally are like freedom. Like I just feel like the sense of freedom when it's like, oh, I don't have to do any of that because there's just one kid here or five kids here or two kids here. So like you're free to do whatever you absolutely want. Um...
• 3:13
  And another thing too is just like, I just feel like you have to look at life. Like your kids are not a receptacle for information. I don't know what another, what the positive of that would be. It would be like, they're more like, I don't know, an electron bouncing around with energy. That's inquisitive to like connect with things. Or I don't even know like science. I don't even know if electrons do that, but you know what I mean? Just like, they're like, like the,
• 3:32
  They're energy balls that are inquisitive to learn and figure and tinker, right? Not just like, oh, dump information into me. One's passive, one's active. So think about this. Whatever you're doing at home is more active of like, let's just walk around the house and ask questions, right? Let's go dig up in the backyard. Let's go...
• 3:50
  break stuff. Let's go build stuff. Let's go figure out things that don't make sense. But I bet we can maybe make sense. You can just go on and on and on. And to me, it's like just if you center it on that. And another thing I would say is, I think especially if you have kids in the younger years, I think it's less about giving them information and more about character building. And what I mean by that is...
• 4:10
  concentrate less on subjects and concentrate more on who you're building the kid to be in regards to character, because that is the most important thing. And that's the thing that gives you the ROI later in life. If you have a person who's full of faith, full of love, inquisitive, ask questions, is critical in thinking, is analytical, logical, well, then those would be the tools that allow them to endlessly learn for the rest of their life. So who cares if they learn that when they're seven? And so give them the tools, not the information. And I think that's a big difference.
• 4:37
  Yeah. So this is, it reminds me a lot of Deuteronomy six, like whatever you're doing, do with your kids, talk about them, talk about the Lord. Um, it's really a, it's really more of an apprenticeship that Jeff's describing as opposed to, um, just a classroom. And so actually enrolling your kids into an apprenticeship where you're getting stuff done. Um, but they're, they're available, they're helping, they're asking questions, um, and you're figuring out how to do that dance. That's really what you can really focus on during this time.
• 5:06
  Now that's challenging. There's a lot of ways to do that. So we have created a five day challenge as you guys are going through the transition. It's called five days to use this crisis to transform your family into a team. So Jeff, tell them a little bit about how to, how they can get involved.
• 5:21
  Yeah, so check out your email. You'll see it on social, but this is a huge, huge thing. We'll be inviting you into it. And basically what you're going to do is you're going to get five days worth of tools, resources, and equipping. And if you want to just spread that out, concentrate on one of those days per week, per month, go ahead. There's no pressure. It's on your own time, on your own schedule. But we are going to come alongside and equip and resource you with the systems, the tools, the resources, and the teaching that I think really...
• 5:47
  can use this moment to actually be a family trajectory change that'll change your next five, 10 years. And so I hope it's really, really helpful.