Butter and Honey

Training Daughter: Time Together

Training a daughter.  What an awesome responsibility.  My daughter is 10 and growing fast.  Soon we will need to have the talk about a girl becoming a woman .  .  .  .  but until then I've really been thinking and conciously deciding to spend real time with her, reading, cooking, learning, playing, or just talking -- even more so because she and I are the only girls in a house full of boys.  I want to make sure that foundation of fellowship and trust between us is solidly in place.  I want to make sure she knows what she will need to know for whatever the LORD has planned for her.

Practically, what I've done is carve out time for her.

I was really looking at this and that curriculum last week, trying to think of something extra daughter could do.  What about this history with a textbook?  Or how about that one with some workbooks?  Maybe she'd like this one with lots of books?  Or should we do this one with lots of projects?

Gently, the LORD spoke to my heart and turned my eyes to the abundance of resources right before me on my very own bookshelves.  I have, and we've done a little bit in, Training Our Daughters to be Keepers At Home, in addition to So Much More, Raising Maidens of Virtue, Beautiful Girlhood, The King's Daughter, and more.  

So I stopped looking for something extra to do and instead added a little box to her assignment sheet that says ~*~*~*Mom & Daughter Time~*~*~*  And you know if it's on the assignment sheet, you HAVE to do it.  ;-)  So she comes to me daily and says, "It's time, Mom.  Let's go read!"  So we go outside and sit at the table beside the pond where we won't be interrupted by brothers and we read.  We're starting with Beautiful Girlhood.   I don't know how much of it she understands, but we stop and explain and talk, and we're together.  After we read a chapter of that, we've been reading about how to take care of long hair, an article I found on-line and printed to put into her a Godly Maiden binder that I've started for her.  I have been working on my own Homemaking Binder and thought why shouldn't she have a binder of her own as well.  It has the current lessons that we are working on in TODtbKAH, plus some extras like an article for young girls on living a meaningful life, a lesson on cross-stitching, and the article on caring for long hair.  I will add more to it as we go along.

Another Wonderful!! thing we've done is to join a needlework group for young girls.  A homeschooling mother put it together and arranged for some older ladies who are members of a local stitching guild to come and teach the girls.  Our first meeting was last Friday, the 12th, and it couldn't have been any nicer.  I'll save the details of it for a later post -

Thank you, Father, for this tender, eager heart.  Thank you for the way she looks to me for direction and the reminder that it is for me to make sure that I am looking to you for my direction. Thank you for the smiles, the giggles, and for her small, soft hand in mine.  You give blessings beyond measure and you alone are worthy of Praise!

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10:16, Thursday, September 18, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

What a beautiful post! I have a 6 year old daughter who loves loves LOVES spending time with me. Just today she brought her book into the kitchen to sit at the table where I was. I asked her if she would be comfortable enough in here and why she would choose a hard kitchen chair over a cozy couch. She simply said, "I like to be close to you. I don't mind the hard chair." HOW SWEET IS THAT?!
I think it's a wonderful idea to add a slot to the schedule for mommy/daughter time. :) Thank you for stopping by my blog!
www.homeschoolblogger.com/christin

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03:20, Thursday, September 18, 2008 .. Posted by Deborah

What a wonderful post! One day you will look back on this mother daughter time, and be thankful that you took the time to spend with her
~~~Deborah