Resource Queen With Youth & Family Jewels

Greetings of peace, love, Joy and solidarity!

I am thankful. While I have my struggles with these shelter at home orders, I realize I am thankful for the opportunity to spend time with, good to know, and get to teach and encourage my 12-year-old son. I am grateful for the opportunity to spend so much time with my husband. I am thankful for the spirit of resilience and for my health. Remember that the best way to deal with these stressful situations is to control what you can and contribute where you were able to the welfare of yourself and others. Here, I am taking my own advice because Isee myself as a resource queen!

My son on his laptop

And, I am grateful for the opportunity to share with you some of my favorite resources for Aeducating and motivating children be at my own son or children and youth served by the churches I have ministered with. I hope these are of service to you or those you know and love.

K-12+ Resources

Youth and children resources are abundant, and if you have some, I welcome you to share. This is what we use a lot. They are apps and websites. #KeepYourHeadUp #Resources

– Duolingo
https://www.duolingo.com

This one is why I put K-12+. My I love using this app probably more than my son does even. You can learn French, Spanish, Portuguese in almost any other language I can think of. my son mostly works on French, and I’ve worked on Spanish, French and Italian. Mostly, I’ve been building my skills for years in Spanish with this app.

– Prodigy
https://prodigygame.com/play

This is a great math games with levels to attain and characters they can purchase. I think my son has gotten about as high as the game currently allows, so we’re still waiting for some new developments. It’s a great site for learning math and having fun.

– Smithsonian Tween Tribune
https://www.tweentribune.com/category/teen/

Here you can create an account and create classrooms if you have one child or tons of children. You can assign the articles and the questions that go along with them. The articles are on all sorts of subjects and are geared toward age groups that you select. Have fun! Let’s teach our children about science, developments in the medical field, space travel and so much more. I love this.

– Newsela – https://newsela.com/

Current events including the current coronavirus latest news are here. The stories are customized based on age level. My son uses this in school and we’ve continued using it at home. Just this week, we’ve learned about penguins in the aquarium in Chicago which was forced to close, and Jean therapy, which could help those who have genetic blindness receive their vision.

– Typing
http://www.typing.com

Pretty self-explanatory, but if you and your children wish to increase typing accuracy and speed, where else would you go beside a place called typing.com?

– Lumosity
https://www.lumosity.com/en/

This app has games designed to help sharpen focus and increase brain function. If you have a preteen or a team, I know you are invested in helping them increase their focus! LOL! If I hear I didn’t know where I didn’t remember one more time…

– Khan Academy
https://www.khanacademy.org/

Another one the teachers use and encourage us to use at home to supplement our children’s education. Science, math, language arts, social studies, it’s all here!

– Los Angeles Public Library
https://lapl.beanstack.org/users/sign_in

Sending Virtual Hugs

We all have Library-‘s in our counties, of course! My son still loves physical books although we have Audible and Kindle and all the other digital formats. It’s interesting and will continue to be interesting to see how the library’s answer this current challenge. I pray for our library’s in librarians as keeping brick and mortar library is open was probably already a challenge.

It’s Me!

My prayer is that each parent and guardian take this opportunity to learn with and learn from their student. Children are blessings from God and even when they are at their most challenging, they encourage us to be at our best. I hope these resources help you enjoy your time just a little bit more. I’d love to hear any of your stories in the comments. enjoy the journey. You are not ever alone.

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I Think I Can Think I Can

Love, Peace, Joy, Justice and Hope be yours! First Sunday in the Season of Lent is coming to a close! Our culture puts so much emphasis on New Year’s and New Year’s resolutions, but I honestly feel that the greater chance for purifying our hearts and cleansing our spirits happens during this season. Many of us sacrifice, but we sacrifice nothing compared to the One who sacrificed all for us. In that sacrifice, I gain clarity, hope, restoration of relationship and an ever increasing appreciation for life. I am grateful. I hope as we walk through these 40 days and Sabbath days up to Easter you feel renewed hope, joy, peace, love and commitment to serve the needs of others. Justice and mercy are needed in our World, and when we are nourished, we are better equipped to care for our world.

Be blessed and make sure you leave any comments if you need prayers.

I got you!

Onto today’s topic! As I continued reading Max Lucado’s Be Anxious for Nothing, I was compelled to contemplate and write on this concept of

Thought Management (Ch. 9). I put recurring reminders in my phone reminding me that “I am enough.” Reminding me that “Jesus loves me and so do I.” Positive affirmations and feeding ourselves positive reinforcement may sound cliche and soft, but it is necessary. So, the idea of controlling our thoughts in order to control our destinies and lives is not a new one, but it’s definitely one I haven’t mastered. Max gives wonderful insights for how to make this a practical Goal for those of us who tend to suffer from anxious thoughts and anxiety. I want to use one of his tools, which is breaking down Philippians 4:8 Dash nine. There are others in the chapter and I’m sure I will explore them throughout these days of Lent, but my heart is on these verses, especially verse 8, tonight.

True

The truth is I am blessed. I have an amazing husband. We have been together since August 11, 1998, married June 30, 2007, and we are still in love. We have a wonderful son and share deep love of God. We pray and play together. Thanks be to God. What is true about you life and blessing?

Noble

my job as Minister Of Children, Youth & Young Families is noble. Thanks be to God.

Right

I have the heart, fortitude and ability to fight for what is Right and Just. We need those who fight for what is right our children, immigrants, trafficked populations, ethnic minorities and other marginalized people. Thanks be to God we’re all on the battlefield! Myself included.

Pure

My sweet boy asleep.

Lovely

The smile on my little niece, Kaylee and Savanna’s faces. To only have a girl!! Thank you, God, for these girls. Thank you for all our children. Protect them. Keep them!

Admirable

My mom, sister’s, brother and many friends have experienced so much pain and suffering. Still, our resilient, fighting spirits are admirable. Thank you, Jesus! May we never give up our give t u!

Excelente

hard one! I think of the Hymn though “Jesus, Excellent”.

Praise-Worthy

My God! God is creator, Redeemer, savior and judge. God is just, all love, always present. The LORD is my all and all! Thank you for this faith and assurance, O God!

… And the journey continues. Let us walk on.

Journeying With My Son

Thursday, March 7! Today was a productive and blessed day. I mostly worked on preparations for Sunday school. My students are mostly middle school! I created a bingo game for the students for the sermon. I hand these out to students of all ages and their generated bingo cards have words that I expect to be in the sermon so the students can listen out for those and try to get bingo! So, of course, we Collett Bible bingo! They seem to enjoy it so I hope they enjoy it this week. I also created a play based on the sermon text, which will be Numbers 10:29–36. My class will enact this play during the Sunday school hour. I think this is a fun way for them to engage the scripture and work off some of that energy that middle schoolers always have! Help us!

When I get home, the last thing I wanted to do is deal with middle school or’s! Imagine, a gym full of middle school students and their parents and teachers. Well, today was my sons spring recital so of course I went, and of course I’m glad I went. As working mothers and fathers, ministers and teachers, lawyers and doctors, we often forget that we are called to parenthood. Adolescents are really good at communicating that they don’t need us, but nothing could be further from the truth. I know in my heart he will remember perhaps not the specific times I was there, but he will remember that I was there. More wrenchingly, he’d remember if I were not there. So, as we journey to the cross with our children and families, let us be present.

LENTEN REPENTANCE

1. Failure to be be present.
2. Being impatient.
3. Criticizing too much.

ENJOY THE JOURNEY!

Because Jesus bought our freedom on the cross, every day, by grace, I have a new opportunities to be a better mom, better wife, better sister and daughter, better minister and teacher. Today, repenting of the above listed shortcomings, I was able to do better. We’re now, that is good enough. I am enough. Good night and God bless!