Classical Conversations  

1 Smart Mama

12/31/2008 5:56 PM UTC

How timely? I have a copy of the Harris Brothers' "Do Hard Things" right in front of me. I haven't read it yet, but of course love the message. My most annoying saying to my kids is "Knock out that T, whenever they say can't." My Robert tells us that the person who says "I can" and the person who says "I can't" are both right even though opposites being true are a logical fallacy. As sinners, we will always fall short. That's why we have families to support us. My husband keeps things on track that I find difficult. I keep us motivated in other areas. Now that my children are grown (we see David as very capable at 10), they each seem to have an interest that makes the rest of us do hard things we don't enjoy, like keeping the cars clean, reading the Bible daily, eating better. One of my sons is my reminder that the rest of the world doesn't think like us, so we need to persevere in community service. We want the tasks and life to end...they just don't...so we have to keep up the race while holding up one another's arms.

Lauren Jourdan

12/31/2008 5:04 PM UTC

Hi Leigh, How do we encourage and train our culture to "Do hard things?" (I haven't read the book but understand the premise.) I meet so many parents who feel their kids CAN'T memorize, can't diagram sentences, can't read difficult books, and so on...As a program director I help give parents the tools to make their homeschools successful, but how (if at all) can we encourage them to ACCEPT the tasks at hand? They DO have the tools- what now? By the way- I struggle with limiting myself and my children, so I am also asking for myself- how do we break the pattern? Thanks so much Leigh, Lauren