God wants us to be intelligent…

The next page in our “God Wants Me To Be” book taken from our Christian Characteristic Traits list is: Intelligent – Someone who is eager to learn!

Proverbs 1:5a says, “Let wise people listen and add to what they have learned.” I love that in God’s eyes it is not our IQ that makes us intelligent!  It is our desire to continue to learn new things… to add to what we have learned.

Many of you know that I plan on homeschooling the boys, and I’ve been using the internet/my brain to help me plan preschool-type activities for the boys for the past couple of years.  In fact, many of the things we’ve done have wound up here, on Impress Your Kids!  But sometimes, my brain doesn’t work the way I want it to, even when I’m looking at ideas on the internet.  I wind up struggling with things to do during the week of repeating things we’ve done before.

So I did it.  I bought a curriculum.  I can’t believe it… it feels like such a huge step to me – this is really happening!  And I didn’t even get a preschool curriculum – Elias already knows what the preschool set would be teaching him.  I went straight for the kindergarten curriculum!  Wow….

This is what we got… All of this is a complete year’s worth of lessons!

• Alphabet Flashcards
• Easy-to-use Teacher’s Manual {BONUS!}
• Student Materials (includes student worksheets, teaching charts, game cards, monthly calendars, short vowel song cards, and a 100 chart for math!)
• Cuisenaire Rods Alphabet Book
• Cuisenaire Rods Small Group Pack
• What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs?
• Introduction to Classical Music
• Insect Lore Ant Hill {seriously, how cool is this?}

Can you tell I’m excited about this?  I’m excited about the structure, the constancy, the content, the… everything (This will not take the place of the things I am already working on with the boys – this is in addition to all the stuff I post here!)!

Now, I share this not because I want to say how intelligent my kids are – not at all.  Remember this?  Elias still does not believe what I tell his as truth or fact for most things.  This reluctance to learn from me is also combined with his desire to go to a real elementary school – because that’s where learning happens, or so he tells me.  Therefore, he does not want to learn at home or from me.  Period.

However, I am praying hard.  We are participating in a weekly homeschooling co-op with some friends who have older boys, and that helps a bit (he sees the older boys are learning from their moms and from me, so it makes it OK).  We also have some dear friends who will also be using the My Father’s World curriculum for their pre-school kids, and we will be doing some activities with them as we go through the study.  I hope that surrounding Elias with prayer and learning will instill in him the desire to learn – the eagerness to learn that God wants for us!

That’s what I’m praying for – that the boys will always want to “…listen and add to what they have learned (Proverbs 1:5a).” Being wise and intelligent on God’s terms is so much better than being wise or intelligent in the world’s eyes!

How do you try to instill the love of learning in your kids?

Disclaimer: I am not in anyway affiliated with My Father’s World – I bought the products myself and am sharing my excitement/opinion with you.  We are, however, a part of Amazon.com‘s affiliate program, so if you purchase items from Amazon.comthrough the links in this post, we will receive a small affiliate payment at no additional cost to you.

This post is linked up with Homeschool Creations’ Preschool Corner!