You asked two very interesting questions:
1. How did you complete training by 15 months?
2. How did you teach your son to read?

Let me begin to answer by stressing the Lord’s involvement. He was faithful to provide wisdom to me whenever I sought it. I was faithful only in the implementation of that information. And I must stress, I am not a perfect mother. I occasionally yell at my kids, and get upset at little things that should not upset me. I am not 100% consistent, and my son is not 100% obedient. I strive to be consistent more and more, so that my son will learn to submit his will to my authority, so that when the time comes he can more easily submit his will to the authority of Christ, whom he cannot see.

I must also point out that all children are different. My son is particularly gifted mentally. He is also very rules orientated and neat. He dislikes messes, and disorder. He is also very stubborn. He is so willful that at six months he was looking over his shoulder at me and grinning while he touched a “no no”. He knew EXACTLY what he was doing. I say all this to point out that all children are different, and that I would not train another boy in exactly the same way as I trained my first son. (My daughter for the record is totally different, calm, submissive, and of average intelligence it would seem so far.)

When I started my son using the potty, the very first thing I did was toss out the window the assumption that he “has to be ready” before I start teaching the potty. I have learned over the course of experience not to trust in the wisdom of men, and pediatricians are generally of the “wisdom of men” variety. So I put the idea that what I was doing was impossible at worst and improbable at best far behind me, and pressed forward with commitment.

First, I had already familiarized him with what happens in the bathroom. I took him with me there. I pointed out what I was doing. I praised myself for going potty. I just made this a normal part of the daily routine. It wasn’t something big and special, just life as normal.

Then, I put my son in cloth diapers during the daytime. I pointed out to him when the diaper was wet. If I didn’t catch the pee, I pointed it out anyway. I had him touch the wetness, and I told him it was pee. I said all this in a happy tone like peeing was just a wonderful thing!

Then, I started getting more proactive. I took off the diapers in the day time, and pointed out to him that he was peeing. He would look down and grin. I did not get angry when he went on the floor, but DID tell him that “pee pee goes in the potty not on the floor”.

After a couple weeks, I started making him clean up his messes, and frowning when his pee went on the floor, and using a disappointed tone to say “no no pee pee in the potty!”. I applauded and cheered (a bit) when he went in the potty. He wanted to please me. This was also just a part of everyday life, just a normal part of growing up. It wasn’t left to his “readiness” or his decision. Since when do toddlers know what is good for them? You wouldn’t let him decide when it was time to walk across the street! I just acted like the mother God intended us to be. Authoritative, in control, the leader of his life. As a toddler they get to make very few choices on their own. Why? Because they don’t have enough experience or restraint to make the right choice.

When he was going in the potty on a regular basis (every time without an accident, but by my clock not his decision) I started to require him to make the decision. I would wait longer and longer to ask. If he asked before I did, that was great and we went. He asked alot. One day however, I had to travel to NY from NC by plane, and I had him in a pull up “just in case”. He went FOUR HOURS without peeing. I thought surely I would have missed it, but he held it for four hours without my reminder. After that I knew that he could hold it, and it became a requirement.

If he asked to use the potty and I couldn’t find one right away he was required to hold it. (He never got spanked for this if the time got to be long, but I also don’t remember having any accidents this way either.) If I asked him if he needed to go potty and he said “no” that was fine, but if five minutes later he wet himself, I did administer a small swat on the thigh. There was no shame in this, it was not a punishment, but a slight deterrent. If I KNEW he had to go, and I TOLD him to go potty, but he refused, I considered this outright disobedience just like any other command which was disobeyed, and he was given the rod on his behind.

I do not believe that training a baby/child without negative consequences to use the potty will be effective, unless you want to wait until they finally decide that they WANT to use the potty. But a child without any direction at all will wait a LONG time to choose the potty. Furthermore, what you teach them is that you require their obedience in all areas but this one. And that means they will test their authority in this as much as possible, thereby prolonging the training.

Well that about sums it up for how I trained my son. The way you do it will invariable be somewhat different!

Regarding teaching him to read, I first started by teaching him his letters. I taught him to recognize letters by writing them first in order, about four or five at a time on a magna doodle and saying what they were. Then asking him to point to the “m” or whatnot. When he could point to all the letters, even when they were out of order, I taught him the ABC song. Then I bought the book “Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons” . For the record, teaching a child book work, and such still requires you to be the boss, and the disciplinarian. My son has an awful penchant for rebellion when it comes to learning. For example, I know without a doubt that he knows his ABC’s, but when asked to recited them he may say he doesn’t know them, or he may purposely say them out of order. I discipline for this. If you do not require obedience across the board of life, you will find that what ever you allow him to have his way in, he will take his way in frequently, it will become worse and worse, and will likely flow into other areas. I require his obedience at nap time, at eating time, at learning time, at playing time and at cleaning time (he could clean his entire 12×12 playroom by himself by 3). Consistently across the board.

He used to go on “food strikes”, where he would not eat what I offered him, usually something he was known to enjoy eating, after the first one which lasted a day because I couldnt figure out what was going on, he never had one last through a whole meal. He ate every meal I offered. This has had positive results in his pre-school “picky eater” years, he isn’t picky. There is only one food that he is not required to eat, Shrimp, he hates them, he gags, and they are expensive, so he is allowed that ONE exception.otherwise he eats whatever I serve, which makes for one healthy eater, and one who is not picky at all! and the “experts” think this is impossible! Worldly wisdom is not wise at all, but foolishness. Trust in the truth of the Lord.

We will also be delving more deeply and consistently into the math curriculum that I have embarked on. It is for five year olds, but so far he seems to find it both interesting and easy. I am excited to continue with it. This next week we will be learning about more than and less than. We will be doing all kinds of fun things to help us understand value. We will be finger counting. Counting circles, and comparing sizes. We will get out the colored chalk and write on the black board (Peter just loves this!)

In our Hertiage Study we will be learning about Christopher Columbus, as I mentioned. Then it is on to Science, where we will begin looking at the Fall season, and how it is different from other seasons.

Peter tends to be ahead in both math and english/reading, but he is still right on for amount of knowledge about the world. He is doing a four year old curriculum for Heritage Studies and Science, and some odds and ends, like Nursery Rhymes, and short poems. The four year old curiculum also covers some basic music, like recognizing sounds going up and down a scale, and recognizing what music looks like. I may go further with this one, we will see. I desperately want a piano to teach him on. A free one!!

I can’t wait for the art projects. We are going to make finger painted leaves, and then a leaf mobile. It will be great!

Of course we always supplement with the Word, learning about one verse by memory every week. We read more verses and discuss them daily. (Well, I say daily, but actually that is the ideal, and I have not been super disciplined in the consistency of school to be honest. I try to do it everyday, minus the weekends, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out.)And this year there will be Hymn singing! I found a Hymnal at a yard sale for twenty cents!! WOOHOO.

Im still thinking about what to do for exercise for Peter. I need to get more dilligent about his exercise too! We have a huge back yard, but can you believe it? when I let him go outside he doesn’t want to run around!! He runs in circles in the house hopping, jumping etc, but outside!? never! I suppose I ought to just order him to run laps or something! He can count them as he goes if he likes, I bet he would love running if I ran too. (course fo rme that would be a long legged walk!)

Well this morning I put together all the curriculums into one place and mapped out the next week. I might do the next two weeks this afternoon, but I fid that if I am too soon to pencil things in, I just end up having to revise it later, because we missed a day or something.

Oh! on a side note! Last night I discovered (abotu forty minutes before we were supposed to be at our small group) that the stove is no longer working! I had the food on, and it was taking so long! I was like “is it me? or is the stove not working?” welp, turns out it was the stove. I had to microwave our chicken last night! Tonight I have no idea what to make. ANyone got any ideas?? I have small George Foreman grill, and a microwave, the oven might work too I’m not sure.

SIgning Off,

Mrs Meg Logan

Regarding Homeschool… This is why I think people ought to homeschool, especially Christian parents.

1. It is the Parents Responsibility to raise up their children: and 2. Christian’s kids are to learn Christian ideals, and a Christian worldview, that they might love and serve the Lord all the days of their lives. This is extremely important. When you decide to school your child, publically especially (but even in a private Christian school), you are no longer in control of what your child learns, when s/he learns it, or how it is explained. This is in direct conflict with the Deuteronomy account regarding who is responsible for teaching children, when they are to teach them, and what they are to teach! Here are the scriptures I am referring to:

And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

Deuteronomy 6:7-9 (emphasis mine)

And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.

Deuteronomy 11:19-21 (emphasis mine again of course!)

What we are to teach is the fear of the Lord, and His commandments (not just the Ten). (There are myriad places to reference this… just before the verses mentioned above you will find it, and scattered throughout the whole Bible, primarily in Proverbs.

If that is not reason enough, there are other secular reasons.

3. Safety
I mean, when you are at home, teaching your child under your watchful eye, with your direct supervision, there is FAR less chance for something devastating to happen to them. (Im not saying it is impossible!) For example, if there were to be a natural disaster, you would be with them, able to help them, to calm them, to provide for them. If they are in school there is the risk of shootings, knifings, drugs and sexual immorality. Not to mention, child molestation, and the warping of your child’s mind by perverted individuals who do not try to keep your children innocent and pure but to expose them to the nastiness of life, in the name of “growing up”. If you don’t believe that kids are exposed to crazy things at school read this post at MInTheGap.

4. Family Bonding:
When a child is home all day, the family ties grow stronger. They grow closer to their parents, and to their siblings. Their friends have far less influence on their young minds.

5. Convenience:
No ties to the regular school year. You don’t have to run your whole life around the times when the child must be in school. School goes with you!

6. A Better Education:
In most situations, I think a child could recieve a better education at home, from loving and dedicated parents,than at a public school where they are lost in the shuffle, made to work at the pace of the majority, allowed to learn only the things prescribed in the curriculum (there is no time for anything else) and are either held back by their peers, or pushed on by their teachers, who are afraid to hold any kids back a grade these days. One dedicated mom, or mom and dad team, could teach all of their children, better than a single teacher reaching 25 to 35 kids at a time.

7. Teaching Individual Thought:
You can teach your child how to think for themselves. There doesn’t have to be rote answers, the mom doesn’t have to look for a particular answer, she has the time to help the child think through multiple answers, and questions. This is even true for Christian kids, who I meantioned above ought to be raised from a Christian worldview. They can still be taught to think for themselves. Christian parents can still present opposing worldviews (unlike public school which must avoid Christian views at all costs), and a child can (and indeed must) determine for him or herself, if they will be a Christian.

I know there are many people who worry about things like “socialization”… to me that is just a big scary fake! The socialization that happens at school, never again occurs in natural life. Never again will we all be separated by age (only one year), never again will we all sit in a small room or walk from room to room to learn. We will have to work with people of varying ages, we will have to learn through our own research. We must become our own teachers.

The kind of “socialization” that happens at public schools (and even private schools) is violent, and sexual. Violent, because even from the daycare age, kids are hitting each other, biting each other, pushing, screaming at each other, getting into fights and being left to “duke it out”. It makes kids tough alright, but that isn’t what is glorifying to God! God wants us to have tender hearts, not ones of stone! I can personally attest to the violence in schools, when I was in the 7th grade I was assaulted by a local gang member. She beat me quite badly, and I resolved that I would never again be gentle and soft enough to let that sort of thing hurt me. I deliberately hardened my heart, and became violent myself. I agree that this is only one example, but I think if you ask nearly anyone out there you will find that they have some similiar story. If it didn’t happen to them they sure witnessed it. I don’t want my kid to be a part of that. I think they shoudl learn to be strong in the care of tender parents, not at the end of a fist.

Sexually, is also a nasty one. THe sexual instruction of children begins in kindergarten these days. Where homosexuality is taught and tolerance is taught. What five year old needs to think about such adult issues? Not to mention when they get older and the sexualized society we live in begins to influence their thinking, and behaviors. And I’m not even going to get into the issue with teachers getting involved with teens and preteens.

There will come a day when your children need to know about these things, but I say their youth isn’t that time. Let them come to know of it when they are nearly grown. Then you can have careful discussions with them about sexuality, and homosexuality, and perversions and violence, etc.

Teach your children dilligently, at home. Then release them with a blessing into the nasty world. They will thank you for that sheltered upbringing. They will be glad that they never got beat up, or molested or raped in school. They will even come out with better grades and a greater ability to serve in our economy. Statistically I have heard that homeschooled kids are among the brightest and most academically adept in our country. I’m sure you could look up those statistics.

Well, thats my rant. Hope you enjoyed your reading.

Mrs Meg Logan

*Update: Here is another link to a story regarding why we ought to keep kids out of public school!*

But today I was going through a Kindergarten curriculum with my three year old (yes I know he’s only three but he gets it). Any way, I was going through lesson 9, (keep in mind that this is FIRST YEAR MATH lesson 9!!) And we were doing greater than > and less than < and equal to =. We are going over what it means to be more than, or less or equal. Ok, no biggie, he gets that. Then, they introduce NOT more than NOT less than which look sorta like teh greater than and less than signs with an underscore. (I cant draw them here for some reason.) Anyway… Here’s why Im stupid.

WHICH ONE is WHICH? I always remembered the greater than and less than signs because it “ate” the bigger one… No problem. But the not less than not greater than are confusing. They are supposed to point the opposite way? grumble… I guess Im going to have to admit to my husband that I couldn’t figure it out from the directions and ask him to make it plain! ROFL… I mean sheesh I went to college you would think I would know this one!

And really why are they teaching that in KINDERGARTEN? I mean I didnt learn those signs till third grade or later. But if I want to continue with this otherwise excellent curriculum, then I better teach these, because math always builds on precepts.

Well thats my rant.

Mrs. Meg Logan